Mayor's point person on the homeless says attempts by the homeless to set up camps have been minimal
Since the city of New Orleans shut down a large homeless camp underneath the Pontchartrain Expressway, there have been reports of homeless people trying to set camp in other locations in the city.
But Stacy Horn Koch, the mayor's point person on the homeless, says those attempts have been minimal - and when homeless camps pop up, non-profit outreach teams are sent out to move them to safe shelter.
"We try to move people into some sort of safe place that they will accept because not everybody is wild about going into a shelter, even if a shelter bed is available," Koch said in an interview with 99.5FM Tuesday.
Koch says safe shelter was provided to all 55 homeless people who were camped out under the expressway.
"This was a way to help them, not just to respond to citizens who were rightly upset by the condition in their neighborhood, or passersby who didn't like looking at them," Koch said.
