Long time...

Hey everyone,

Thanks for reading the blog. Sorry that I haven't been updating. Medical school has been busy.. I had exams, then a two week course in Taiwan, now I'm catching up with school...

Anyways... let's get up to date with the homeless:

The Panel Discussion:

The discussion that we organized in December went well. Many homeless also from Tent City came out to the panel, which was held at Tulane Medical School. There was a lot of dialog between the homeless and the panel speakers (who represented Unity for the Homeless, the City of New Orleans, Homeless Pride, Tulane School of Social Work, and the Harry Thompson Center). It was great to see these speakers also talk amongst each other, as this was the first time that some of these organizations had been in the same room. I was a little disappointed that there wasn't more solution-seeking. The discussion ended up becoming a list of complaints between the organizations, City Hall, and the homeless. Despite all of this, I (as well as my colleagues) were happy to see ANY civilized discussion come out of this meeting, at all.

The Eviction:

Despite the efforts of many activists in the city and our discussion panel involving City Hall, the homeless were evicted from Duncan Plaza on December 21. Alison (a medical student) and I managed to make our way out to Tent City right after our exam that day, in order to chat with the folks who were moving out. There was a whole mess of reporters, abandoned belongings, shredded tents, and homeless carting and backpacking their stuff away. I approached several people and asked them where they were going. Everyone replied that they were heading for the I-10 bridge on Claibourne Ave. and Canal St. In the preceding week however, many were lucky to receive housing through an effort by Unity for the Homeless to house as many people as they could before the eviction (I do not have a number, yet... but I'll find one).

The Present:

Today, I went out to the I-10 bridge. This has got to be the worst weather New Orleans has had in a long time. Not only is it cold and rainy, we also have gale-force winds in some areas of the city, and the bridge which normally is very windy, is one of those spots. The population has skyrocketed (again, no numbers, yet). So many people are under the bridge that others have had to stake out tents under the lanes that feed from Claiborne on the ground to I-10 above. They however, are the lucky ones because there is soil under those feeder lanes in which they can use stakes for their tents. The folks that are directly under the bridge are on top of concrete so their tents are essentially unattached to the ground and are at risk of blowing away even on normal days. I don't know who, but someone was nice enough to donate some port-a-potties and maintains them, too... just as long as the homeless keep them in reasonable condition. Of course there are some who abuse them but there are also others who go out of their way to keep things nice.
One such individual, who I will call Dan in order to protect his identity, lives under one of the feeder lanes next to a parking lot which faces a bar called Handsome Willy's, which is popular with medical students. He tries to keep the area clean by picking up garbage when he is provided with trash bags. Dan is aware that Handsome Willy's rents out the parking lot and is losing money due to people's distaste with parking so close to a homeless camp. He asked me for more garbage bags and cleaning products so that he and another lady could keep the latrines cleaned, as well.
Next to Dan's tent was a massive pile of burnt belongings. He explained that the two inhabitants got into a fight and somehow, their tent caught on fire during the altercation. Luckily, no one was hurt... and according to Dan, the couple is back together.
We walked together to the median under the bridge where Homeless Pride set up another sign (they had one displayed at Tent City). Unfortunately, the president and CEO were not present, and I could not chat with them. Everyone who WAS there was definitely in a bad mood or curled up in a tent due to the weather. There were some familiar faces from Tent City, as well as some new ones. I was chatting with one Duncan Plaza refugee and asked about Unity's housing program. His complaint was that individuals without ID's could not be eligible (many homeless do NOT have ID's), and that people from out of state were getting housing (at the loss of local New Orleanians who were still waiting for housing).
With all of these observations, there is no doubt that the City Government's action has NOT improved the situation for the homeless at all. It did however, clean up the mess in front of City Hall just in time for Mardi Gras. I just don't know what the tourists will think of New Orleans when they start rolling in from all over the nation and come right off of the interstate to see several hundred homeless living like animals. Good Job New Orleans.

MORE NEWS COMING SOON!!