New Orleans' largest emergency shelter for people experiencing homelessness is facing a proposed $5 million cut in the city's 2027 budget, and Councilmember Lesli Harris says the fallout could put up to 200 people back on the street. The Low Barrier Shelter is the only facility in the city that boards pets and skips sobriety tests and identification requirements, features that make it an unusually accommodating option for people experiencing homelessness, including those with pets.
City leaders floated the cut on Tuesday as part of next year's budget proposal, according to Verite News. Harris called the proposal deeply concerning, warning that losing the shelter could overwhelm the city's network of nonprofit shelters, many of which require identification that people experiencing homelessness often struggle to obtain. As Fox 8 reports, Harris warned that up to 200 people could be forced back onto the streets, directly threatening the city's broader homelessness response.
A Shelter Built Around Fewer Barriers
The Low Barrier Shelter opened in 2018, and Odyssey House Louisiana took over its operation in 2024, per the same Verite News report. The shelter served 1,001 people last year, connecting them with case management, healthcare, housing assistance and career help along the way. Its lack of restrictions around identification, sobriety and pets sets it apart from the rest of the city's shelter system.
Gordie Wykes, a homeless man living in New Orleans, told Fox 8 that many people rely on that flexibility to survive. Speaking near the city's riverfront, Wykes said the shelter is a resource that keeps people alive, and that the prospect of losing it is scary. He told the station he hopes to eventually count himself among the last people experiencing homelessness in the city.
New Camping Law Adds Pressure
Wykes also pointed to recent legislation that criminalized unauthorized camping while aiming to divert arrested individuals into housing services instead of jail, according to Fox 8's report. He said cutting shelter beds while enforcing that camping ban could undercut the law's own purpose, since people pushed off the street would have fewer places to go. Nonprofit shelters, Fox 8 notes, often carry their own eligibility requirements, including identification that not everyone can provide.
City officials have pushed back on the idea that the cut is settled. Chief Administrative Officer Joe Giarrusso said the proposed reduction is an initial figure that requires a longer conversation, according to Fox 8, and that the city should evaluate its own responsibility for funding the shelter. The Moreno administration told the station that the city is still at the beginning of its budget process, and budget hearings are expected to continue over the next few months. The potential cut has not been finalized.
Who Else Should Help Fund Homeless Services
Giarrusso said he hopes other agencies involved in combating homelessness will join a broader conversation about funding, noting those agencies are in charge of homeless services and receive considerable federal funding of their own, Fox 8 reported. Verite News notes that the region's local homelessness funding authority distributes $41.2 million across the area, underscoring how funding responsibilities are spread across multiple agencies beyond city hall.
Outside New Orleans, the state intends to use federal funding to open a 200-bed shelter in Baton Rouge, according to Verite News. If the Low Barrier Shelter does close over budget cuts, it would mark the second closure of an Odyssey House Louisiana-managed shelter in the city, following the January shuttering of the Sobering Center.
