What we resist persists. WILL THEY SWEEP AGAIN?

New Orleans Homeless Camps update:  Last week 160 homeless people were swept away from under an elevated highway  on the edge of New Orleans Central Business District. The homeless camps were visible to local traffic. The displaced residents set up camps in new locations close to were they were evicted last week. One of those sites is visible to the public and has about 20 tents. The campers requested that I not photograph it yet.

Last night on the news the city promised to do another sweep to finish the job they started and cleanse the city of  the homeless problem. Today I went out to visit the new camps.  None of the faces of the homeless residents were familiar to me.  These new people didn’t know what to think of me either. I’m used to this process.

One camp leader agreed to speak with me. He is planning a meeting tonight with the other campers to discuss their issues including whether or not I would be able to document their story. It is hard for them to trust the media. These people are vulnerable. I get it. I understand and appreciate their apprehension.

As I stood there and chatted with him he was articulate, polite and clean. In the middle of our chat a passing car threw trash out the window and he was disgusted and worried that his camp would be blamed. No doubt he will take responsibility for the motorist and clean it up. The camp was clean and organized and had no smell of human waste.  Many of the residents were away at work.

On the news the neighbors in the warehouse district were interviewed about the homeless issue and the message was that the homeless problems should be cleaned up. I found it odd that in four different camps I visited all of them were out of the line of sight from the apartments and condos. You couldn’t see several of the camps unless you went looking for them. The only house that had a view of the tent city was on Camp Street and they were not on the news complaining about it.

This is a continual dance around human and civil rights inside the world of chronic poverty. There are ways to confront, address and heal these homeless issues on a local scale without constantly fight against it. The universal law is that what we resist persists and what we accept we move beyond. Chances are most local governments will choose to fight homelessness since they have the upper hand and that is the easiest path. And the campers will continue their battle because they have no other choice.  I expect the tent city on Camp street will get a sweep very soon but the issue will persist and the story of homelessness in New Orleans will continue.