A plan by the Louisiana State Police to clear the New Orleans’ largest remaining homeless encampment in advance of three mega concerts planned by pop star Taylor Swift set off a political firestorm this week, with city officials accusing Republican Gov. Jeff Landry's administration of disrupting ongoing efforts to find permanent housing for people living on the street, the Times-Picayune reports. On Monday, a dozen State Police officers showed up at an encampment under a freeway overpass in the city and told people there they had until later this week to leave. The commander of Troop NOLA, a state police troop operating in the city, said the encampment is a public health risk and state police can enforce laws that bar such sites under state-owned highways.
But New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell's homeless services director Nathaniel Fields and City Council member Lesli Harris — who rushed to the site to try and head Hyatt off — said the sweep would throw a major wrench in the city's ongoing effort to find housing for its most impoverished residents. Fields said his team has never closed an encampment without first attempting to relocate its residents. That undertaking is currently underway for those living near Calliope and on the streets of the French Quarter. "We are asking the governor to not perform the sweeping of this encampment and other encampments," said Fields, surrounded by more than a dozen housing advocates who gathered near the Calliope site. "We're asking them to work with us and be a part of the partnership and not part of the problem."
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