NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A Louisiana civil court judge on Monday halted state agencies' plans to forcibly clear homeless encampments in New Orleans.
Orleans Parish Civil District Court Judge Ethel Julien issued a temporary restraining order blocking state police and two other agencies from evicting homeless people from their encampments in New Orleans or seizing their property without following city laws and due process.
Republican Gov. Jeff Landry had called earlier this month for the City of New Orleans to remove a large encampment before Thanksgiving and warned he would intervene if the city did not comply.
“If a judge believes that people have a right to be on whatever public space they choose, maybe that judge should have them move into her chambers and courtroom," Landry said after the judge issued the restraining order Monday.
Louisiana State Police spokesperson Sgt. Katharine Stegall said the agency’s legal team and the state Attorney General’s Office are reviewing the order.
State police have “promptly halted activities” and are “complying with the restrictions” of the order, Stegall said.
Landry and New Orleans officials have repeatedly clashed over how to address the issue of homelessness in the city.
New Orleans City Councilmember Lesli Harris said Monday that directing more resources towards moving homeless people into stable housing was “infinitely more effective than punitive sweeps” of encampments.
“Coordination between the government and service providers on the housing of people is imperative, and continuously moving people only makes it that much harder to house them,” Harris said.
But the governor has pushed to clear homeless encampments. In late October, Louisiana State Police, the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries and the Department of Transportation and Development converged on a homeless encampment under a highway to remove and relocate dozens of people prior to pop star Taylor Swift’s concerts in the nearby Superdome.
Some people who had been away at the time of the clearances returned to the area to find they had lost their personal property including family heirlooms, identification documents and medication, according to testimony in court documents.
City officials and advocates for homeless people decried the evictions and said they disrupted ongoing efforts to secure long-term housing for these individuals because they became harder to locate.
A judge later granted a temporary restraining order preventing more clearances but declined to extend it beyond early November after lawyers representing the state police indicated in court that removals tied to the Taylor Swift concerts had ceased.
But on Friday, homeless people began receiving flyers from state police officers ordering them to leave their encampments within 24 hours, according to a motion for relief filed on behalf of two homeless plaintiffs by the Southern Poverty Law Center and two other legal groups. The planned sweeps preceded the Bayou Classic football game on Saturday between Southern University and Grambling State University at the Superdome.
“Your presence is considered a violation,” the flyers stated, according to the motion for relief.
However, they were halted by the new temporary restraining order. On Dec. 3, the judge is scheduled to deliberate on whether to issue a preliminary injunction against the three state agencies.
“The vulnerable people with disabilities who make up the vast majority of people living in the street deserve to be treated with sensitivity and compassion,” said Joe Heeren-Mueller, director of community engagement for Unity of Greater New Orleans, a homeless outreach organization.
There are about 1,450 homeless people in New Orleans and neighboring Jefferson Parish, according to a January survey by the nonprofit Unity of Greater New Orleans. The city has committed to securing housing for these individuals by the end of 2025.
Brook is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Brook on the social platform X: @jack_brook96
FILE - People living in a homeless encampment pick up belongings after Louisiana State police gave instructions for them to move to a different pre-designated location as they perform a sweep in advance of a Taylor Swift concert in New Orleans, Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The deadliest place for women is at home and 140 women and girls on average were killed by an intimate partner or family member per day last year, two U.N. agencies reported Monday.
Globally, an intimate partner or family member was responsible for the deaths of approximately 51,100 women and girls during 2023, an increase from an estimated 48,800 victims in 2022, UN Women and the U.N. Office of Drugs and Crime said.
The report released on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women said the increase was largely the result of more data being available from countries and not more killings.
But the two agencies stressed that “Women and girls everywhere continue to be affected by this extreme form of gender-based violence and no region is excluded.” And they said, “the home is the most dangerous place for women and girls.”
UN Women’s Deputy Executive Director Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda told a news conference launching the report that women have been killed by their loved ones for a long time and the trend is continuing because underlying issues haven’t been addressed — especially gender stereotyping and social norms.
“This is killing which is associated with power over women,” she said, and it continues because of the continuing impunity for violent attacks against women.
Gumbonzvanda, a Zimbabwean and longtime advocate for women’s rights, said there is “a lot of perpetrator anonymity” when it comes to the killing of women by partners or family members because “it means the family members have to bring justice against another family member.”
UN Women is campaigning for those with economic and political power and for leaders in various traditions not to use their power to perpetuate violence. “Power should be used to facilitate options for prevention,” she said.
According to the report, the highest number of intimate partner and family killings was in Africa – with an estimated 21,700 victims in 2023. Africa also had the highest number of victims relative to the size of its population — 2.9 victims per 100,000 people, it said.
There were also high rates last year in the Americas with 1.6 female victims per 100,000 and in Oceania with 1.5 per 100,000, it said. Rates were significantly lower in Asia at 0.8 victims per 100,000 and Europe at 0.6 per 100,000.
According to the report, the intentional killing of women in the private sphere in Europe and the Americas is largely by intimate partners.
By contrast, the vast majority of male homicides take place outside homes and families, it said.
“Even though men and boys account for the vast majority of homicide victims, women and girls continue to be disproportionately affected by lethal violence in the private sphere," the report said.
“An estimated 80% of all homicide victims in 2023 were men while 20% were women, but lethal violence within the family takes a much higher toll on women than men, with almost 60% of all women who were intentionally killed in 2023 being victims of intimate partner/family member homicide,” it said.
The report said that despite efforts to prevent the killing of women and girls by countries, their killings “remain at alarmingly high levels.”
“They are often the culmination of repeated episodes of gender-based violence, which means they are preventable through timely and effective interventions,” the two agencies said.
Demonstrators take part in a rally ahead of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women which will held on Nov. 25, in Rome, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Demonstrators take part in a rally ahead of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women which will be held on Nov. 25, in Rome, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
People take part in a rally ahead of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, in front of the Colosseum in Rome, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024.. (Roberto Monaldo/LaPresse via AP)
People take part in a march marking the upcoming International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, in Lima, Peru, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Guadalupe Pardo)
People take part in a march marking the upcoming International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, in Lima, Peru, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Guadalupe Pardo)
CGT union secretary general Sophie Binet, center, attends a march during the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women in Paris, France, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
A woman holds a torch during a rally marking the upcoming International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, in Istanbul,Turkey, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)
Demonstrators take part in a rally ahead of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women which will be held on Nov. 25, in Rome, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Ariana Campos takes part in a march marking the upcoming International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, in Lima, Peru, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Guadalupe Pardo)
