It is only seven miles away from the New Orleans Superdome, the 76,000-seat stadium that will host this weekend’s Super Bowl between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles, yet it may as well be in a different galaxy.
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.
According to Landry, a Republican endorsed by President Donald Trump during his race in 2023, relocations were a necessary step amid heightened security in New Orleans following the New Year’s Day terrorist attack there. That night, a man rammed a pick-up truck into a crowd of pedestrians, killing 14 and injuring dozens more. In a Jan. 13 press release, Landry said it is in “the best interest of every citizen’s safety and security to give the unhoused humane and safe shelter as we begin to welcome the world to the City of New Orleans for both Super Bowl LIX and Mardi Gras.”
The same day, relocation notices sprang up at encampments close to the Superdome. Flyers for the transitional center promised “comforts and amenities,” three meals a day plus snacks, bedding and hygiene kits, showers and working toilets, heating, laundry facilities and a recreational area with a television. There was the pledge of basic medical care, on-site nurses and counselors and “support for your new start” via longer-term housing assistance.
The leaflet, however, included a warning: Failure to comply may result in “enforcement actions or legal proceedings.” Landry’s press release said some people with means may be given “bus or train tickets out of state.”
The site’s remote location poses a challenge for those working in central New Orleans (Adam Crafton/The Athletic)
Prior to hosting the 1996 Olympic Games, Atlanta in the neighboring state of Georgia altered its laws to arrest over 9,000 people experiencing homelessness and spent public funds to send homeless people on buses elsewhere. That perception — out of sight, out of mind — was raised this week by New Orleans councilwoman Lesli Harris, who argues Landry wanted the homeless people to be “invisible” as wealthy tourists, national broadcasters and global sponsors arrive for the Super Bowl.
Mike Steele, spokesman for the governor’s office of homeland security and emergency preparedness, insists such comparisons are unwarranted. “Our staff feels like every effort is being made to do this the right way,” Steele said. “There is no hesitation on my part to say this is a benefit to a lot of the people at the center.”
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.
Sarah Parks, executive director of the Grace at the Green Light organization, which specializes in outreach to homeless people, said people told her they had received threats of arrest if they refused to board the buses. “Many of the folk under the bridge close to the stadium already had housing caseworkers,” Parks said. “If they went to the warehouse, they may pop up for us, but if they just moved along, as many did, we may not be able to find them to continue that work.”
The Athletic asked Louisiana State Police how many people were arrested, but received no response.
The Jan. 1 attack on New Orleans left 14 dead and dozens wounded. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds / AFP via Getty Images)
Harris said that when Taylor Swift played three nights at the Superdome in October, the state sent in Wildlife and Fisheries officials along with the police to move an encampment close to the stadium to a “less visible place underneath the overpass, without any porta-potties, without any trash receptacles.”
She added: “Some of these people were relocated and lost. So people who had vouchers in hand, ready to be housed, lost touch with their outreach workers.”
For some, the new lodgings were also not as advertised.
The images that are published from within the compound in this article were shared with The Athletic by people who have been present at the site, on the condition of anonymity in order to protect relationships. Steele, from the governor’s office, conceded “there were a few problems with heating units,” meaning temperatures dropped to “uncomfortable levels.” He also said there was a “sewage line problem,” meaning that temporary outdoor portable toilets needed to be used.
On a guided visit, Harris was left unimpressed by conditions. She described her first impression of the site as a “warehouse with a couple of tents thrown up.” She added: “There was no heat. The plumbing went out. The beds are not even mattresses, they’re cots — almost like if you take your dog to a doggy daycare.”
Angela Owczarek, a former social worker who leads a local grass-roots collective called New Orleans Homeless and Houseless Advocacy, Research and Rights Monitoring, described the blankets provided as akin to those handed out to passengers on airplanes. Harris said she felt like she was in a “prison.”
The “transition center” was set up to host up to 200 members of New Orleans’ homeless community.
Harris also says the location failed to deliver initially on the services that had been promised, such as adequate medical care, outreach services and housing assistance. Steele conceded only one nurse has been on site, while a volunteer health outreach provider called Free Standing Communities is offering some form of assistance.
State spokesman Steele did not comment on all the specifics but insisted the plumbing and heating issues have been resolved, while he said in an email that medical services on-site include flu/Covid-19 testing, blood pressure checks, non-narcotic pain management and wound care, as well as telehealth assistance and shuttle assistance for medical appointments, addiction treatment and jobs.
Harris, Owczarek and Parks all said they had been told that residents believed a 9 p.m. curfew was in place at the center, but Steele denied this, adding “there is a check-in process for anyone who leaves and comes back late at night or early in the morning, in order to verify they are a resident.”
Amid the discrepancy in the depictions of the center’s conditions, The Athletic asked the governor’s office to provide access to the site. This was not granted, which has also been the case for local media. The Athletic went to the compound in person on Wednesday morning, but security guards said we would not be permitted to enter. A guard repeated “No comment” when asked to describe the conditions inside.
Steele said allowing entry to media members could “make a lot of people in the center feel like they’re on display.” He also points to comments by State Representative Alonzo Knox, who posted on Instagram from a visit to say all those he spoke to at the warehouse felt “respected and appreciative.”
Members of Harris’ team visited again this week and saw an improvement, albeit, they say, from a low baseline.
Outreach specialist Parks says she has been told that a small number of people from the center have now been assisted in securing housing, while she has also heard positive reports on the standard of food. Harris says all seven people who have been rehoused were people already in the city’s system and advanced in their process.
The NFL also reached out to Harris’ office following news reports about the sweeps and enquired about local initiatives it might support. They landed on Parks’ Grace at the Greenlight, making a $50,000 donation. Parks says: “We were chosen as an organization that has been in frontline crisis mode.”
Local city officials say they had already been working for several years on a plan to tackle homelessness in New Orleans.
Councilwoman Harris has been at the heart of such efforts and says the city has housed 800 people since the start of 2024, with an approach to encampments based around “systematically going in, doing concentrated outreach and rehousing.” She claims the state had not taken up a previous request from her to commit $8 million to support these city initiatives. The governor’s office did not respond to this point.
Instead, the state committed major funding following January’s attack. According to the Louisiana Illuminator, a local news outlet citing draft proposals from the contractor, the cost of the warehouse project is at least $11.4 million for 60 days in operation, while it may rise to $16 million if it is extended beyond Mardi Gras in early March to be a three-month mission. Steele says there are currently 170 people registered to stay, meaning a 60-day operation would cost a startling $67,000 per person.
Outreach worker Parks argues that these millions “would have been much better spent actually housing people and providing resources, rather than putting them in a warehouse hidden away.” Steele, from the governor’s office, counters: “We were hit with near-blizzard conditions across south Louisiana a few days after the shelter opened. If this wasn’t open, what kind of conditions would they have faced?”
Owczarek, the former social worker, says: “If we can’t imagine a way to keep people safe during extreme weather that doesn’t involve … the threat of arrest and uninhabitable conditions, then we shouldn’t be making decisions about other people’s lives.”
In New Orleans, homelessness is a long-standing challenge, and it became particularly acute in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, when thousands of people were left unhoused due to the physical damage inflicted on the city in 2005. Councilwoman Harris said the rising cost of living, plus insurance costs both for health and housing, has made things worse.
Parks, who estimates more than 1,500 people are unhoused in New Orleans, says a person would “have to work three full-time jobs at minimum wage ($7.25 per hour) to afford a one-bedroom apartment in New Orleans at market rates.” Her organization runs a daily 6:30 am breakfast club, providing free meals to unhoused people, many of whom have jobs. She says: “Our highest growing population is the elderly and people that have never been homeless. They’ve worked their whole lives, but because of housing and insurance rates going up, they can’t afford it anymore.”
The Super Bowl has brought heightened security to the tourist areas of New Orleans. (Adam Crafton/The Athletic)
Michael Hecht, selected by Gov. Landry to be the state’s Super Bowl coordinator of economic development and infrastructure, told The Athletic in a call last week there were concerns of fire risk if people are camping, while he added that in the city’s Eighth District, which includes the French Quarter, over a third of crimes “are attributable to the unhoused population.”
However, the New Orleans Police Department, when asked by The Athletic if these figures are accurate, said it does not track statistics on crimes committed by unhoused people. Asked for the source of his claim, Hecht responded in an email that he heard it from a member of the public who claims to attend weekly crime briefings in the district.
Joe Heeren-Mueller, who works in advocacy for homeless people at Unity of Greater New Orleans, counters: “It’s absolutely clear that people who are unhoused are particularly more liable to be victims of crime than the general public. I haven’t seen any studies that have suggested that people who are unhoused or unsheltered are more likely to commit crimes than anybody else.”
As of Tuesday, Steele said 170 homeless people were registered at the site. But there is little clarity as to what will happen following Mardi Gras, when the majority of tourists leave. Steele was non-committal, despite Gov. Landry previously stating a desire to “enact legislative reforms that should produce the framework needed to properly move people from homelessness to housing in a coherent, stair-stepped plan.”
In the meantime, Parks says some people have left the warehouse, pointing to its distance from downtown, where some of them are employed, as a major issue.
Former social worker Owczarek adds: “Maybe they do have showers now, but let’s not ‘other’ unhoused people to the extent where we feel like if they have a hot shower, they should be happy. If you were taken somewhere at 5 a.m. with little notice, under threat of arrest, even if it was paradise, would your ultimate experience be one of … a happy vacation?”
On Sunday evening, the eyes of the nation and beyond will turn to the game at the Superdome and then on Monday morning, the NFL will move out of New Orleans, handing the Super Bowl baton on to San Francisco and the Bay Area in California, which hosts in 2026.
For Parks and the displaced homeless population of New Orleans, what happens next remains uncertain.
(Top photo: Adam Crafton/The Athletic)
