Landrieu signs executive order to create Homeless Services Working Group

The Louisiana Weekly Staff Reports

New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu on Wednesday signed an executive order establishing the Homeless Services Working Group — an official Mayoral Advisory Committee — tasked with developing a strategic master plan to prevent, reduce, and end homelessness in New Orleans. The strategic plan, which will include policy changes to achieve that goal, is due to the mayor by September 30, 2011.

“Unfortunately, on any given night, approximately 6,500 New Orleans residents are without a home,” said Mayor Landrieu. “Our city has one of the highest numbers of homelessness in the nation, and since Hurricane Katrina, the homeless population has reached unprecedented levels. Earlier this year, we hired a point person on our staff to coordinate city grants and services. Now, we are looking to develop innovative and coordinated programs here that have worked in other cities. Ultimately the goal of this group is to make sure that all New Orleanians have a place they can call home.”

The executive order, Mayor Landrieu’s ninth since taking office in May 2010, charges the group to:
• Review all aspects of homeless services in the City of New Orleans;
• Review the planning processes, policies, and implementation strategies undertaken by homeless service providers as part of the Continuum of Care;
• Review information about national best practices for homeless services and recommendations that other organizations may submit to the working group;
• Make final recommendations to the mayor regarding a long-term strategic plan for homeless services in Orleans Parish.

Stacy Horn Koch, Director of Neighborhood Services and Facilities, who leads the city’s initiatives on homelessness says this group represents the first step in helping resolve the homelessness issue in New Orleans.

“We have an opportunity to create solutions that are patterned after national models. We realize that we have a long road ahead of us, but this working group is committed to developing programs that will move us forward and hopefully get people back on their feet permanently,” Koch said.

The group – comprised of a cross-section of the community representing the business, criminal justice, health care, higher education, faith-based, government, non-profit, neighborhood, and philanthropic sectors – will work cooperatively with federal and state partners in order to create outcome-driven approaches based on national best practices in order to best serve the needs of the homeless and the city. Judge Jay Zainey and Jade Brown-Russell will lead the 48-member group as co-chairs.

Zainey is a federal judge for the United States District Group for the Eastern District of Louisiana. He joined the Court in 2002 after being nominated by President George W. Bush. A Louisiana native, Zainey holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of New Orleans and a Juris Doctor degree from Louisiana State University. He also served in the U.S. Air Force Reserve from 1970-1976. In 2004, Judge Zainey founded Project H.E.L.P., which now provides free legal services to the homeless in New Orleans and 15 other cities.

Brown-Russell is an associate with Harrah’s Corporate Securities, Mergers, and Acquisitions Practice Team in the Transactions and Corporate Advisory Services Group. She earned her Juris Doctor cum laude from Southern University Law Center. Brown-Russell is the chair of the Downtown Development District and a board member of UNITY, which has worked to serve the homeless population in New Orleans.

The group held its first meeting on Friday, June 3, at 8:30am at Gallier Hall.

This story originally published in the June 06, 2011 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.