NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The homeless of New Orleans have left the city's shelters and gutted buildings to set up camp on the mayor's doorstep.
About 250 homeless people have erected pup-tents — the only affordable housing they say they could find since Hurricane Katrina — and created a colony of despair in a grassy plaza outside City Hall.
Mayor Ray Nagin's second-floor office faces the camp, and its residents rally almost daily with the chant: "Hey, Ray! How about a house today!"More >
People rallied on Tuesday, November 13, at the federal building in downtown NO to save public housing.
It was a little past 4 on Tuesday, November 13, and Sharon Jasper was leading the crowd in a chant in front of the federal building on Poydras in downtown NO. The call and response was simple, loud, and clear:
"What do we want?" Housing!" "When do we want it?" "Now!"
A section of heavy chain lay across Jasper's shoulder, while she held a noose in one hand. A resident of the St. Bernard public housing complex, her accessories dramatized...More >
A 39-year-old resident of the homeless encampment at Duncan Plaza across the street from City Hall died in his tent Thursday morning from injuries suffered in a beating inflicted elsewhere the night before, the coroner's office said.
Daniel Baham was pronounced dead in the encampment at 1300 Perdido Street at 8:42 a.m. Thursday, said John Gagliano, chief investigator for the Orleans Parish coroner's office.More >
The homeless man in a stocking cap stood up, setting his plate of chicken on the concrete steps of the gazebo at Duncan Plaza, across the street from City Hall.
A stranger was approaching.
"Can I see your ID, please?" Jesse Arbuthnot said, identifying himself as a leader of a group called Homeless Pride, a name spray-painted on the sidewalk next to him.
"This is a movement," said Arbuthnot, 45.
This burgeoning rights movement has staked a claim on a growing encampment that sits in the shadow of City Hall. Before the watchful eyes of city officials...More >