Mayor Sharon Weston Broome’s administration has formed a coalition to address the needs of a growing homeless population that’s concentrated primarily under the North Boulevard overpass downtown, where an estimated 50 individuals have been living for months.
The coalition, which comprises the city-parish, Downtown Development District and several agencies and organizations that serve the homeless, has been meeting since early December and is working to find permanent supportive housing for the homeless, a plan that, if successful, could become a permanent solution—not only for downtown but for pockets of homelessness elsewhere in the parish.
So far, the coalition has placed five individuals in mobile homes in a trailer park on Blount Road. Rental assistance will be provided through the Louisiana Housing Corporation, which has agreed to provide the city-parish with enough funds to cover the rent for the overpass population for two years. The coalition hopes those five will be the first of many.
“We’re treating this as a pilot,” says Assistant Chief Administrative Officer Rowdy Gaudet. “If we can transition these folks into housing and make it successful than this is a model we can use in other parts of the city.”
The work of the coalition is in its infancy. The group met for the first time Dec. 6, after an item was introduced at a Metro Council meeting to allow construction crews that will be working on the Electric Depot mixed-use project to fence off the area under the North Boulevard overpass to store equipment.
Broome recognized the fencing would displace the homeless, Gaudet says, so she convened a group of stakeholders and service providers to begin looking at the scope of the problem and come up with possible solutions.
The idea of using permanent supportive housing, as opposed to placing the individuals in shelters, was attractive because when successfully implemented it can be more effective in helping homeless individuals reintegrate into society.
While the effort sounds like the proverbial win-win, there are still several hurdles to overcome. Chief among them is identifying available housing.
“The biggest barrier to moving forward is finding available units and landlords who are willing to rent to this population,” Gaudet says.
Other challenges include dealing with the mental health issues that plague many homeless and, in some cases, prevent them from wanting to relocate to permanent housing. The coalition has divided up into several committees that will tackle such things as available housing, mental health needs and ways to provide transitional assistance with groceries, utilities and workforce training for those who have been relocated to rent-assisted housing.
The coalition will formally roll out its plan to the Metro Council on Jan. 10, which is when the council is scheduled to vote on fencing off the overpass area.
“We feel really good about the progress we’ve made so far,” says DDD Executive Director Davis Rhorer. “It’s hands-on, grassroots level work, and it’s a real collaborative effort.”
—Stephanie Riegel
