If you drive along Calliope Street near the Crescent City Connection, you'll notice homeless camps under the bridge.
In fact, you've probably noticed homeless people elsewhere in the city of New Orleans and in the metro area. That's because the number of homeless people in the New Orleans area is on the rise.
According to new studies, homelessness across the United States is on the rise in the wake of the COVID pandemic.
"The numbers have been going up since January, and that's because we lack the resources to house people right now," Martha Kegel, the executive director of Unity of Greater New Orleans, told WWL's Tommy Tucker.
She attributes the latest increase in homelessness to the skyrocketing costs of rent. According to Kegel, studies show the lack of affordable housing in New Orleans and across the nation has been the primary driver of homelessness for the last 25 years.
"More than a quarter of the people of New Orleans live below the poverty line, and the rents and cost of living have skyrocketed during the pandemic and as a result of Hurricane Ida," Kegel said.
Kegel notes that homelessness is not conducive to good economic development of New Orleans. She also notes that nobody wants to see their fellow man suffer.
So, how do we fix the homelessness problem?
"In the long term, the solution is for the city to create more apartments that are affordable to the poor," Kegel said. "So we really need to ask the state and the local government to do more to invest local money in creating affordable housing."
Kegel says local officials can do something now to help ease the crisis.
"In the short term, the most important thing our community can do right now is to seize an opportunity that the federal government has made available," Kegel said. "They have announced a competition for grants and it could bring $15 million to New Orleans and Jefferson Parish for rent assistance and case management services that can take 400 people off the street. That's how many we have right now approximately.
"What this grant money is going to do is place these people on the street into permanent housing--apartments--with very intensive services that are designed to keep people stably housed, and that has been proven to be the gold-standard solution to ending people's homelessness. Even people with serious mental illness and substance abuse disorders can be stably housed in 95 percent of the cases with this technique."
Unity of Greater New Orleans is accepting donations to raise matching funds for any grants it receives. To donate call 504-821-4496 ext. 1009.
"It's in everyone's self interest to effectively address this issue," Kegel said.