The New Orleans warehouse for homeless people, out of sight of Super Bowl visitors [View all]

[WhiskeyGrinder]

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6120652/2025/02/08/super-bowl-new-orleans-homeless/

free link: https://archive.ph/zxwRr

Away in a northeasterly direction towards Lake Pontchartrain sits a charmless, gated perimeter, secured by a fence topped with barbed wire. Positioned off a highway, this is no place for pedestrians. The closest fast-food outlets are a half-hour away on foot, though the road immediately outside has no sidewalk. The warehouse has no eye-level windows. There have been plumbing issues, so portable toilets remain in view. At the entrance, two security guards adjudicate who comes in and who leaves. A police car is also visible.

Welcome to the “transitional center,” a new temporary “home” for New Orleans’ homeless population. Unveiled by Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry in mid-January, it represents an attempt to relocate up to 200 unhoused people who were camping in areas close to the Superdome, and also New Orleans’ touristy French Quarter.

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Jay Cicero, president/CEO of the New Orleans Super Bowl host committee, said people “have been given much better accommodations than they had.”

Not everyone in the city shares this view. Within 48 hours of the relocation notices appearing, members of the Louisiana State Police moved in at 5 a.m. on Jan. 15, breaking up the encampments in darkness and providing a simple option: Go to the transitional center, or go elsewhere.