Criticizing a city’s handling of its homeless population can be an unpopular venture. There’s a vocal group that likes to chastise people who are pragmatic about remediation—they can be very quick to grab their bullhorns and accuse those proposing solutions of lacking empathy.
The simple fact is that homelessness in New Orleans, and more broadly in the United States, is rising. Right now, we’re at the highest homeless rate in the last 5 years. The population hovers at just under 1,500, with around 900 in shelters.
When you take an honest look at what needs to be done, I don’t see genuine attempts that seek to reduce homelessness and improve the city as calloused or Scrooge-like. You can hand out water and supply free meals—none of which I’m opposed to—but allowing encampments to remain free-for-all zones does nothing if you actually care about solving it.
Governor Landry recently came in the crosshairs of activists and certain city officials because he issued an order yesterday to remove the homeless encampments and send them to temporary housing—a transitional facility in Gentilly.
He’s also gone about it in a way that sidestepped dealing with the city.
Can we blame him? I, for one, think he did the right thing.
New Orleans is a tourism-driven city. I don’t care how you feel about tourists, they play a vital role in driving our economy, which creates jobs, provides for families, and allows us to preserve a culture unlike that of any other city on the planet.
We’re a city that hosts. And with the Super Bowl and Mardi standing on our doorstep, we need to prepare our city to host. That means it needs to be as safe and as clean as possible. And let’s also not dismiss the fact that Landry's action makes it a cleaner, safer city for everyone—not just those visiting.
Right now, New Orleans is in disrepair. Quite frankly, it looks like shit under the interstate. And I'd love to hear from anybody who disagrees with that and wants to boast about people going to the bathroom in front of you while you're at a red light. That's happened to me multiple times.
However you feel about it, we need people to come here, enjoy their stay, and spread the message that New Orleans is a functioning, safe city.
I don't hear people coming back from trips expressing how pleased they were with the culture of a city that allows homeless people to panhandle at every corner, sleep on sidewalks, set up tents wherever, and park all kinds of junk around town, places where law-abiding citizens would ultimately be arrested for dumping their garbage.
That’s why I think Governor Landry deserves a tip-of-the-cap for how he’s handled this unpopular but necessary step. In his mind, I’d have to imagine he’s saying, “Why should I add layers to this and have to deal with activist types in city government?”
Landry grasps that it's in his right to exercise his authority as governor and that something must be done before the massive events we have coming to town and taking action. That’s the kind of leadership we need right now.
As always, you’ve got nay-sayers, those who claim he’s conducting some kind of human rights violation. You can choose to look at it whichever way you want.
However, as I see it, moving these folks to a transitional facility a few miles away is no worse—arguably better—conditions than those under which they currently live. So if you’re part of an organization whose goal is to help homeless people, I find it to be somewhat backward to stand against what’s happening. The program even offers them transportation to family members who’ll house them.
They're going to be inside of a warehouse. And while it won’t be the Waldorf Astoria, I’d bet any money that it’s safer, more secure, and cleaner than where they were before. And they will have a number of services being provided to those individuals while there.
It's silly to think that this in any way impedes any organization whose mission is to find long-term housing for this city’s homeless population.
I'm not trying to take anything away from what they're doing and I'm not criticizing what they've done. In 15 months, these organizations placed 822 people in permanent housing. They're averaging about 55 per month—which is a good number.
In 2025, they set a very aggressive goal for themselves: 1500 to be placed in permanent housing this year. I hope they accomplish it. But by the same token, I don't think that the actions of the governor stand in the way of what they're doing. If they are true to their mission, they’d jump at the chance to work with these individuals.
So, to those who are so quick to blow their moral trumpets, I say swallow your pride. Be open and receptive to other folks getting involved. Why don't you figure out a way to work hand-in-hand with the state as they deal with this problem?
Ask yourselves: Are these folks better served by that wait-and-see attitude?
