Eve is here. This article has a celebratory tone about community groups serving the poor and desperate. While it’s great to see New Orleanians come together to help the homeless, the center’s very existence represents life in America. I lived in New York City in the good old days of the early 1980s, right after the financial crisis. Then came cheap lodging, also known as single-room occupancy hotels, which offered very cheap accommodation and kept many people off the streets. It is well documented that high housing costs are a major contributing factor to homelessness.
And when it comes to drug use, former Friday Harbor prosecutor David repeatedly points out that what is politely called a “rough sleeper” in the UK often leads to drug use and needs to be addressed. A friend here was commissioned as a writer in Australia to spend three nights on the street and report on his experience. He said that even during that short period of pseudo-homelessness, he found it impossible to sleep and was offered, and took, an unknown drug to give his eyes some rest. Therefore, the assumption that drug use leads to homelessness often has a reverse causal relationship.
Written by Aneri Pattani. The original article was published in KFF Health News.
The abandoned Family Dollar store in the Lower 9th Ward looks scary from the outside. It’s covered in graffiti, and the parking lot is dotted with aluminum cans and trash. The neighborhood is set on a street lined with other vacant lots and dilapidated buildings. It’s a symbol of the lingering devastation the neighborhood, one of the city’s poorest, has endured since Hurricane Katrina.
But inside, it’s a cozy oasis. Racks of donated clothing are adorned with twinkling string lights. Shelves and bins are filled with children’s books, allergy medicine, and toiletries. A curtain is drawn to one side of the room, where there is a stage for musicians and a neon sign depicting roller skating for the weekly free skate night.
The space is part free thrift store, part over-the-counter pharmacy, part punk show venue and entirely a “radical community center,” said Dan Bingler, who runs the place.
Bingler was a waiter and bartender in the city who founded a mutual aid organization called the Greater New Orleans Caring Collective. He told the building owners they would be allowed to use the space as long as they paid the water, electricity and trash bills.
Volunteers from other community organizations will show up Monday night. Before Bingler opened the store, volunteers gathered in the parking lot. We provide free testing for sexually transmitted diseases, basic medical care, hot meals, and sterile syringes and other supplies for drug users.
The purpose of the space is simple: “We’re definitely going to contribute to the community,” Bingler said.
Although it’s been open for several years, the space has become even more important to the community in recent months as the Trump administration has cut funding to many social services organizations and taken an aggressive approach to homelessness and drug use. In Washington, D.C., the government bulldozes tents and forces people living on the streets to leave the city. Nationwide, drug users are required to undergo compulsory treatment. The group criticizes harm reduction, a practice that public health experts say protects the safety and lives of drug users, but which critics say promotes illegal drug use.
A New Orleans community space named the Fred Hampton Free Store, named after the famous Black Panther activist known for rallying diverse groups for social reform, aims to be a haven during this wave of change.
Dan Bingler, who runs the Fred Hampton Free Store, calls it a “radical community center.” The store offers visitors free items donated by local people and organizations. Volunteers from other organizations are often on-site to provide free basic medical care and harm reduction services. (Aneri Pattani/KFF Health News) On Wednesday nights, the store will host free indoor roller skating for the public. (Aneri Pattani/KFF Health News)
Bingler said the organization receives no federal funding, state or local grants or foundation funding. It’s just neighbors helping neighbors, he said through tears, adding, “It’s really nice to be able to share all this space.”
All items inside have been provided by people or organizations within our community. At one point, Bingler said, a local hotel that was being renovated donated 50 flat-screen televisions.
Bingler said more than 100 people often visit the store on nights it’s open.
One autumn evening, dozens of people scoured for free clothing and over-the-counter medicine. Others sat outside on the grass, chatting while keeping an eye on bicycles and grocery carts filled with belongings.
James Beshears stopped by a harm reduction group in the parking lot to get sterile supplies to inject heroin and fentanyl. He said he had been receiving treatment for years, but after his doctor left, he relapsed and was referred to a clinic that charged $250 a day. Street drugs were cheaper than treatment, he said.
he wants to quit. But until he finds an affordable treatment, places like the Free Store will keep him going. Without it, “we’re going to have one foot in the grave,” he said.
Another man was waiting in the parking lot for Aquil Bey to arrive. Aquil Bey is a paramedic and former Green Beret known for helping people overcome obstacles to receiving medical care. As soon as the man spotted Bey’s black Jeep, he ran towards it.
“I have stage 4 kidney disease,” the man said, adding that he had planned to receive treatment at a hospital, but was unable to get there.
“Say yes,” Bey said as he unloaded a folding table and medical equipment from the car. “Please come see our team when they get here. Maybe we can arrange transportation.”
Bey is the founder of Freestanding Communities, a volunteer-run organization that provides free basic medical care and referrals to people who are homeless, drug users, or other vulnerable communities. The group has a steady presence in the free store.
That day, Bey and his team decided to connect a man in need of treatment for kidney disease with a low-cost transportation program. They also tested people for blood pressure and blood sugar levels, disinfected infected wounds, and called clinics to make appointments for patients who didn’t have phones.
A man with leg injuries said he was sleeping on the concrete floor of an abandoned naval base. Bey noticed a mattress in the furniture section of the free store. He and another volunteer carried it out, tied it to the roof of a car and delivered it to where the man was sleeping.
On Monday nights, Freestanding Communities will set up equipment on folding tables inside the Fred Hampton Free Store to provide health screenings, wound care and other services to all visitors. (Aneri Pattani/KFF Health News)
“We’re just trying to find all these barriers that people are facing and find ways to fix them,” Bay said.
The Free Store clinic helped Stephen Wilts get into addiction treatment. He grew up in the Lower 9th Ward and had been using drugs since he was 10 years old.
Wiltz said she didn’t want to go to any treatment facility because she was tired of discrimination from doctors who blamed her addiction. But after knowing the Free Store volunteers for years, he trusted them to lead him in the right direction.
Wiltz, 56, is in sustained recovery for the first time in his life, he said in a phone interview in the fall.
These volunteers “cared for people who had no one to care for them,” he said.
As the sun set over the store that fall night, a punk band began preparing for a show in a room across the street from the clinic. The lights dimmed and the music blared, reminding us that this was no ordinary doctor’s office or community center.
Bey continued to consult with gout patients.
“I got used to the sound,” Bey said of the quick drums and loud power chords. “I like it sometimes.”
Part of the Fred Hampton Free Store serves as a punk concert venue. Dan Bingler, who runs the space, rents it out to bands for a low fee of about $100 to $200 a night. This helps offset the water and electricity bills he pays for the space. Concerts are usually open to all ages. (Aneri Pattani/KFF Health News)
<
