‘We’re barely making it.’ Why more New Orleans families are without stable housing

NEW ORLEANS — Nathaniel Fields spends a lot of time these days in the growing homeless encampments that fill the space below the city’s overpasses.

Whenever he talks with people at these encampments, he finds himself back in a familiar moment of his life. At age 14, after the loss of his grand aunt, he was kicked out of the home because he couldn’t establish residency. He lived with a foster parent for a month but would go on to spend nearly a year with his toddler daughter without a safe place to stay.

He was a single father, and he was scared.

“After the loss of that matriarch in my family, it was really tough for me to recover,” Fields said. “I bounced around a lot. I was just like, ‘This is not happening to me right now.’ It made it really hard for me to put the pieces of my life back together when everything was falling apart.”

Fields, now 42, leads New Orleans’ newly formed Office of Homeless Services and Strategy. Coming from his home city of Baltimore, Fields took the job in February. It is the first time someone with lived experience has been tapped to work on the city’s homelessness services. These days, Fields doesn’t have to carry his belongings from place to place, but he brings an empathetic soul as he tracks the city’s homeless population.

Fields remembers the many questions he faced daily while he and his daughter were homeless. How do we eat? How do we sleep? Do we have proper shelter and clothing? And on top of that: Is somebody trying to take or harm my child?

“I had all these emotions 24 hours a day consistently on alert, never getting rest,” Fields said. “It’s a hard life to live, and it’s why we are trying to use every resource to make sure that no one ever has to experience it.”

READ MORE: Almost half of New Orleans residents are renters. Advocates worry an eviction crisis looms

It’s a big job. The most recent Point-in-Time count shows the New Orleans area is losing ground quickly. On Jan. 23, the number of those experiencing homelessness rose to a total of 1,390 people who were counted as living on the street or in a shelter, up from 1,042 in 2021. This amounts to a 15 percent spike in homelessness since last year, and the highest level since 2016.

“It’s hard to hear as you’re trying to put the pieces in place that more pieces are falling off,” Fields said. “The bigger piece is creating new affordable housing because how can I move people through the system and I have no place for them to go to?”

The annual count, conducted by the nonprofit UNITY of Greater New Orleans, is a snapshot of the number of people experiencing homelessness on a single night. While the federally mandated survey is most likely an undercount of how many people are experiencing homelessness, it helps advocates see trends year to year.

Family homelessness also increased by 62 percent compared to last year, according to data collected during the 2023 count.

“We knew that the numbers were gonna be up from 2022, but still — we didn’t expect that the impact was going to be as horrible as it was,” said Martha Kegel, UNITY’s executive director. “I can’t lie. It was very dispiriting to have put in so much effort during the pandemic to end the homelessness of so many people and see all that progress that we had made vanish.”

Homelessness in the New Orleans metro area is up 15 percent from a year ago, erasing the progress made during the pandemic. The city hopes an infusion of nearly $30 million will slow the increase. Photo by Roby Chavez/PBS NewsHour

In the first two years of the pandemic, street homelessness fell by 34 percent; only 30 people remained unhoused. During that time, Kegel said the city provided hotel rooms to 1,000 people, and 80 percent of those were eventually placed into permanent housing, where they remain.

Kegel said once the pandemic grants from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development disappeared, so did the progress.

“It is very disheartening that we continue to find ourselves in this place,” said Cashauna Hill, executive director of Louisiana Fair Housing Action Center. “Anyone who was paying even the slightest bit of attention to the rising cost of rent, as well as the economic impact of the global pandemic, could have absolutely predicted that we would end up here.”

The undertow of poverty is a constant threat in New Orleans, where nearly a quarter of the city’s population live below the poverty line. More than half the population are renters. A majority of renter households — 62 percent — are also “cost-burdened,” spending more than 30 percent of their household income on housing.

Fifty-seven percent of New Orleans households do not make enough to cover all basic needs, according to a 2023 study by United Way.

UNITY, which is a collaborative organization of nonprofit and governmental agencies providing housing and services to people experiencing homelessness, estimates there are another 30,000 households “extremely vulnerable” to becoming homeless.

Hurricane Ida compounded the problem by destroying thousands of homes, leaving apartment complexes uninhabitable, and a statewide insurance crisis in its wake.

For the unhoused, the main pathways to permanent housing are shelters or rental assistance. Neither goes far enough to cover everyone who needs it. Housing advocates like Hill say along with an affordable housing crisis, evictions, and low wages, the deck is stacked against families because local elected officials fail to make decisions that prioritize the needs of the unhoused.

“We are going to continue to see increases in the amount of our friends and neighbors and residents who don’t have access to housing until we get serious about implementing policies that can reverse this tide,” she said. “Unfortunately, we just have not yet seen the kinds of comprehensive planning and policy decisions that are going to reverse this very troubling trend.”

New Orleans got a failing grade last year for its affordable housing efforts, for the third year in a row. The HousingNOLA 2022 Annual Report Card cited local agencies’ inability to convert the city’s many underused properties into safe and affordable housing.

While many families qualify for vouchers for rental assistance, the money is not there to provide rent support, Kegel said, adding that the crisis is likely to get worse.

Particularly for children, homelessness can stunt intellectual growth, she said, and “the trauma is lifelong from that experience.”

“We can’t keep up with the inflow of people newly becoming homeless every week because of the shortage of affordable housing and because they cannot afford these rents,” she said. “The longer people are out there on the street, the more likely their mental health is going to deteriorate, the more likely they will self-medicate, and the more likely their physical health deteriorates.” Their likelihood of dying sooner increases dramatically after just six months on the street, Kegel added.

Families in peril

On a hot and humid July Fourth, when the temperature reached nearly 100 degrees, Claire Trahan and her 7- and 14-year-old daughters sit on milk crates at a stoplight under Interstate 10 with a sign that reads, “ANYTHING HELPS.” The girls’ mom fixes their hair during a lull in car traffic. Trahan is panhandling because it’s the time of the month when the cupboards are bare. Trahan receives Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, but the food she’s able to buy is gone long before the month is up.

“I’ll run out of all my meat and all my eggs. I run out of just about 80 percent of what I need. We’re barely making it.”

Claire Trahan and her two young daughters spend July Fourth asking motorists for spare change. The formerly homeless family spends three to four days a week sitting in nearly 100-degree temperatures as food stamp benefits run low. Photo by Roby Chavez/PBS NewsHour

Since 2019, Trahan and her daughters have gone from being homeless to a shelter to supportive housing.

“It sucks. If it wasn’t for my housing assistance, I don’t know how I’d survive; I don’t know how I’d feed my kids,” said Trahan, who can’t work for health reasons.

It’s why she’s out with her kids three or four days a week. It takes a toll, especially when motorists threaten to call child services and make snap judgments.

“I’m out here trying to make it to the next day. Don’t look at me like I’m a bad parent,” Trahan said, adding that she’s trying to make the best choices she can in these circumstances. “I want to get on my feet, but at the same time, I don’t want everything snatched away from me. The minute I get a job, they will make me pay on my rent. They gonna snatch my food stamps. Then, I’m stuck. I’m back at the bottom again.”

The number of families experiencing homelessness has grown from 102 to 165 in one year; which means 63 new families are either sheltered or on the street. Kegel said UNITY outreach workers routinely find families living in cars.

For Fields, part of the challenge is making it easier for people to use the shelters the city provides.

The number of people the city was able to place in hotel rooms during the pandemic shows that people will take housing if it’s available to them, he said. “What I’ve been hearing is it’s too hard to get in.”

WATCH: D.C. phases out its COVID-era hotel housing program for homeless people

He and Kegel point to barriers big and small: Each shelter has its own rules, and some of them — not allowing men, or not allowing teen boys to stay with their children’s mothers — make it harder for families to stay together. They struggle with staffing. Calls to see if there’s space on any given day can go unanswered. Some require an ID, or strict rules about space available and for how much time.

“When you have a large group of individuals who would rather stay in 114 degrees heat than connect to a shelter, then something is not right,” he said.

The New Orleans Women & Children’s Shelter (NOWCS) has been full since it first opened 15 years ago and currently houses 17 families. It can hold up to 60 people. It is one of the only shelters to allow families with men. Many of the residents are homeless for the first time.

New Orleans has seen a 62 percent rise in family homelessness. The New Orleans Women and Children’s Shelter is one of the only facilities in the area that allows intact families, including men. The shelter offers a play area, a reading center, school supplies for kids and wrap around and transition services for adults. Photos courtesy of New Orleans Women and Children’s Shelter

From the moment families arrive, the shelter provides all adults with extensive case management and wrap-around services, including employment assistance, financial literacy, laundry facilities and cooking classes. For kids, there is a play area, a reading center, a place to watch TV, and educational materials available to them.

“That’s the point of having all the wrap-around services because just a bed is not going to get you what you need. To me, just a bed has ‘temporary’ written all over it,” executive director Dawn Bradley-Fletcher said. “We have to teach people how to not fall back into homelessness with the same habits they had before.”

The shelter also offers a transition assistance program that provides a support net if families can’t make it once they leave.

Even with all the help, the transition out of a shelter can be daunting. Bradley-Fletcher said most families can’t transition without help, so NOWCS negotiates with landlords or sometimes has to cover deposits.

To get a small two-bedroom home, families have to have a minimum of $3,500, which includes a $2,000 deposit and the first month’s rent of $1,500. It’s virtually impossible, she said, because most families are paid a minimum wage of $7.25 and only bring in about $1,500 or less a month.

New housing wage figures compiled by the Greater New Orleans Housing Alliance show New Orleanians must earn nearly $23 dollars an hour to afford a modest two-bedroom home, more than three times the minimum wage.

Republicans in Louisiana, which has the second-highest poverty rate in the country, rejected a bill in May that would have gradually increased the minimum wage to $10 per hour and later to $14 an hour. It would have been the first increase since 2009.

“We follow them, and we make sure we basically catch them before they fall into homelessness again. It’s the little things that cause families to fall behind,” Bradley-Fletcher said. “We’re helping mom learn how to cook so she doesn’t have to spend money on fast food. We check in constantly, and we make sure they don’t have to worry about past due light bills or any type of barriers that will prevent them from sustaining independent living.”

The struggle for families to stay housed and the financial weight they experience doesn’t go away, even for those who get off the street. For formerly homeless people like Gioia Barconey, there is a constant fear that she and her three children, ages 10, 9, and 6 years old, will not make ends meet. The 29-year old works in retail and said the “summer slump” has her worried as her hours dwindle.

“I got the housing assistance, and they helped out, so I was able to get on my feet on my own and maintain my bills so far,” said Barconey, who has also twice stayed in shelters with her children. The anxiety has yet to recede.

“It’s a constant sinking feeling like a drowning feeling like, ‘Ok, I know you’re saying I can do it, but when I get out of here, am I really gonna maintain a house for me and my kids? Am I really gonna maintain the stability?’ because I can’t afford to come back here to a shelter,” she said. “I can’t because there aren’t enough shelters dedicated to women and children, and the ones that they have are overpopulated right now.”

Barconey has learned to save, but she still had to pawn her TV and has also taken out short-term loans.

“I’m just constantly in the cycle of paying it back, getting it back, paying it back, getting it back,” she said. “I make sure that my kids understand we have to humble ourselves through every situation and don’t take for granted the fact that you have milk today because you may not have milk tomorrow.”

How is New Orleans addressing its homelessness and housing crisis?

Advocates for New Orleans’ homeless population say there will be nearly $30 million earmarked to combat street homelessness by fall of this year.

Nearly $15 million is coming from a federal grant awarded by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The city was one of 62 across the country to receive the aid.

Health care providers are also committing $14 million for medical care and mental health services for newly housed individuals. The city hopes the additional funding will help those who have a dual diagnosis — experiencing mental illness and a substance use disorder at the same time — that might be barriers to housing and employment.

Kegel said the grant and accompanying rental assistance vouchers could help develop the resources that are needed to permanently house 420 highly vulnerable people over the next three years. Still, most advocates, like Kegel, agree it will not solve the housing affordability crisis.

Fields, who’s been New Orleans’ homeless services chief for about five months, said the city can’t afford to repeat the mistakes of the pandemic and “continue putting a Band-Aid on a bullet wound because before the problem starts to ease up, it’s actually gonna get worse.”

Fields has already started putting together a strategic plan he said will be a “map of how we win.” For now, he’s been working with stakeholders, providers, nonprofits, businesses and city departments to create better shelter systems that remove barriers that keep people from seeking services.

“I’ve been passing out waters, seeing people on the street who have been struggling, and I ask them, ‘Hey, why aren’t you going to the shelter?’ And what I’ve been hearing is, ‘It’s too hard to get in.’”

Fields expects each new affordable housing construction project could take two to three years. For now, he’s focused on fixing the systems already in place and holding all groups accountable.

“We have to start going back into the system and saying how are people failing in the system and how do we stop that? We also have to think about equitable employment, fair housing, and have a serious talk about increasing wages.” Fields said. “That’s how we create the solutions that make people not come into homelessness.”

Other plans include looking to salvage abandoned buildings and convert them into more housing options with on-site services, including access to employment services, mental health care, and issuing government identification.

Kegel said so far she’s impressed with the new director whose direct perspective and lived experience has already tremendously increased the capacity of the city’s Low-Barrier Shelter, which was understaffed.

Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s administration last year completed a $5 million expansion of the city’s low-barrier shelter and increased the number of beds from 100 to 346, but there was only enough staffing for about half of the new beds, NOLA.com reported.

“We are failing families. Families are falling apart,” Fields said. “In my first year, I’m hoping that we are moving people off the street at a high level, into and through the shelter systems, and also have at least started the creation of one, large affordable housing project.”

However, families experiencing homelessness wonder if the city can follow through with such lofty goals. There are open lots, she said, but they’re not being saved to build apartments or houses that could help.

“They’re not interested in homeless mothers. They’re not interested in homeless fathers. They’re not interested in children with no place to live,” Barconey said of elected officials. “They’re interested in tourism, and they’re interested in condos, and they’re interested in big market value stuff, things that can make a dollar.”