Homeless Removed from Duncan Plaza
by Darwin BondGraham Saturday, Dec. 22, 2007 at 1:16 AM
darwin@riseup.net (email address validated)

Workers spent all day clearing the park and building a barbed wire topped fence around the Plaza. Some of the homeless have moved into temporary shelters, many simply moved to other homeless camps nearby.

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Today was the last day for the homeless of Duncan Plaza to pack up their belongings and leave. Crews working for the City Department of Sanitation dragged unclaimed tents, sleeping bags and other belongings out of the plaza, and threw them in two trash compactor trucks. At least a hundred tents and campsites were cleared from the area. A police escort of several officers walked up and down the park occasionally giving directions to the work crews. The City demanded all homeless campers out of the park saying it was necessary during the demolition of a large office building adjacent to the plaza.

The camp began during the summer of 2007 when dozens of men and women moved into the giant pagoda in the center of the plaza with mattresses and furniture. In weeks they had formed an organization, calling themselves Homeless Pride, and began working with other local groups calling for measures to increase the stock of affordable housing.

Although the city and several homeless advocacy organizations say that the evicted have been given housing, many men in the plaza late in the day said it is more complex. “UNITY, Catholic Charities, they put people in Salvation Army, the Mission, and it’s good what they’re doing, but you want something permanent. You don’t want to keep on moving from one place to another place,” explained one man. He said he rejected offers of housing for the moment, choosing instead to move up to the encampment under the I-10 which is closer to his workplace.

Another man explained that the housing offered to him was too far outside of the city center. Without a car and with the poor bus system he wouldn’t be able to get to work. Many of the Duncan Plaza homeless hold down jobs in and around the French Quarter and Central Business District, but minimum wage is far too little to pay rent post-Katrina.

Already the homeless camps under the I-10 freeway appear to be growing. There are more than 12,000 homeless in the city. The patchwork of non-profits addressing homelessness appears inadequate given the scale of the problem. It is four days until Christmas. This is New Orleans.

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Abandoned tents, soon to be trashed
by Darwin BondGraham Saturday, Dec. 22, 2007 at 1:16 AM
darwin@riseup.net

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Tents
by Darwin BondGraham Saturday, Dec. 22, 2007 at 1:16 AM
darwin@riseup.net

dunctentdrag.jpg, image/jpeg, 500x375

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I am worthy
by Darwin BondGraham Saturday, Dec. 22, 2007 at 1:16 AM
darwin@riseup.net

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Solutions?
by Darwin BondGraham Saturday, Dec. 22, 2007 at 1:16 AM
darwin@riseup.net

QuickTime movie at 27.5 mebibytes

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Solutions?
by Darwin BondGraham Saturday, Dec. 22, 2007 at 1:16 AM
darwin@riseup.net

QuickTime movie at 18.7 mebibytes

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