On her morning route along North Boulevard, Lisa Longmire got used to seeing a dozen or so homeless people residing under the overpass, offering them red beans and other snacks before dropping her daughters off at school.
Since May 1, however—when private developers constructed a tall fence under the bridge to store construction equipment for the Electric Depot project—that scene has changed.
The good news: Because of the city-parish’s Homelessness to Housing initiative most of those people are now living in Leo’s Trailer Park and other residential units, with some earning hourly wages and receiving treatments for mental health or substance abuse.
The bad news: Some are still pitching tents and laying out blankets under the Trevor J. Sims Memorial Bridge—or, whatever patch of concrete they can find that isn’t blocked off by the new fence.
“If people weren’t there, you might think it’s a trash pile,” Longmire says. “Why rush to fence it before those people are housed?”
There are 37 adults and eight children living in residences offered through the housing initiative, says Rowdy Gaudet, assistant chief administrative officer. After the first group moved in, the city-parish transitioned to an entry process through which five other people are waiting to be housed.
How long it takes for the five to get housing depends on available space and if landlords are willing to forgo some protocols like background checks and deposit fees. If one of the program’s participants is able to gain self-sufficiency early, the funding that would have been used on them is used to help house others.
Participants in the program have cashed some paychecks through UpLIFTD, a nonprofit putting crews of eight to work cleaning streets once a week for $10 an hour.
UpLIFTD executive director Nicole Walker says her organization has been able to get people who want to work more hours some extra odd jobs, adding the nonprofit’s mission is to employ people who might not otherwise be employed because of mental disabilities or substance abuse issues.
In addition to mental health treatments, Addie Duval, regional director of the Start Corporation, says her group has been able to get the formerly homeless benefits like food stamps and disability checks.
“It helped galvanize us as a community to help work to house people who were living under there,” says Nicole Swayze, who works at Mid City Gardens Apartments, directly across the street from the overpass. “That’s good for business.”
