Traffic moved slowly on Earhart Boulevard Thursday morning (Jan. 16) as the Louisiana State Police and the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development cleaned up what was once a state-sanctioned encampment for people who are unhoused near the Superdome. DOTD workers used construction equipment to push the remains of tents and belongings left behind by unhoused people into large piles that were then loaded into dump trucks.
The encampment officially shut down on Wednesday (Jan.15) and residents were sent to a new facility located in a Gentilly warehouse as part of an effort by the state to clear busy tourist areas ahead of the Super Bowl. But on Thursday, former residents of the encampment were still coming back to the site to look for their belongings and other people who lived there. Verite News was there to observe the last moments of the formerly state-sanctioned encampment.
One woman, who did not want to speak with the press, refused transportation to the new facility, gathered her belongings and left the site behind. Louisiana state troopers spoke to an unhoused man for several minutes before he eventually cooperated with them and entered a squad car with his belongings. And a charter bus carrying multiple people pulled away from the site, trailing another state police car.
Ashley Cassidy walked in between destroyed temporary shelters. She searched through the piles looking for items she left behind.
“I wanted to go get some of my stuff and I wanted to make sure that everybody was okay,” Cassidy said.
Cassidy was staying at the Earhart encampment for two weeks but was at a friend’s house at the time of the sweep.
PHOTOS: State officials continue to clear unhoused encampments ahead of the Super Bowl
Gary Patrick walked through the encampment looking for a state official to help transport him to the new facility that the state said provides climate control, access to bathrooms and onsite medical services. He never lived at the Earhart encampment, but came this morning once he heard people were being bused to the Transitional Center.
“I want somewhere where I’m safe and out the weather,” Patrick said. “I don’t want to be out in the cold.”
Housing advocates and people who have been monitoring the encampment sweeps told Verite that state troopers threatened people with arrests, destroyed items that were left behind by unhoused people and prevented some from retrieving their items.
State Police public information officer Katharine Stegall denied the claims and told Verite that individuals at the encampment were given large boxes for their belongings, with no restrictions on what they were allowed to bring.
“The overall response to the operation was positive, with many individuals expressing appreciation for the process, the assistance provided by Troopers, and the resources offered at the transition facility,” Stegall wrote in an email.
Angela Owczarek, a member of New Orleans Homeless and Houseless Advocacy, Research, and Rights Monitoring (NOHHARRM), said she received reports of state police blocking people from retrieving their items and destroying people’s belongings from people who are unhoused, people observing the sweeps and mutual aid groups. They said that NOHHARRM is concerned about the precedent this could set for the treatment of the unhoused in New Orleans.
“One of the major things we’re paying attention to is what is the new norm for personal liberty, autonomy and property rights, for unhoused people who don’t live in the warehouse,” Owczarek said. “Are people allowed to sit down in Duncan Plaza? Are people allowed to hang out in Jackson Square? Or do we enter a new era of class, race and ability-based profiling in New Orleans?”
The sweeps are set to continue on Friday (Jan. 17), according to notifications posted by state officials.