'We're looking at a lot of new homeless people': Service providers report growing number of people

[TexasTowelie]

‘We’re looking at a lot of new homeless people’: Service providers report growing number of people on street as pandemic drags on


Since the coronavirus-related economic downturn began in the spring, tens of thousands of New Orleans residents have faced a sudden loss of income. And since spring, housing advocates, labor leaders and homeless services providers have warned that if the government didn’t drastically increase assistance, the inevitable result would be an increase in homelessness.

According to homeless service providers who spoke to The Lens, that’s exactly what the city is now facing. Partly as a result of a temporary hotel-placement program, the number of unsheltered homeless people is lower than at the beginning of the year, but it appears to be growing fast.

“We would have expected the numbers on the street to rise over the past three months – just not nearly this much,” Martha Kegel, Director of Unity of Greater New Orleans, the region’s leading homeless service provider, told The Lens in an email late last month.

All along Calliope Street under the Pontchartrain Expressway, homeless encampments are growing denser and more numerous. At the corner of Calliope Street and Annunciation Street in late August, three homeless people were collecting their clothing, getting ready to walk over to a laundromat. They asked to remain anonymous, citing employment opportunities.

Read more: https://thelensnola.org/2020/09/02/were-looking-at-a-lot-of-new-homeless-people-service-providers-report-growing-number-of-people-on-street-as-pandemic-drags-on/