The burgeoning homeless community under the Claiborne Avenue overpass has caught the attention of the White House.
Monday, Philip Mangano, director of the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, visited the homeless camp at Canal and Claiborne. Afterward, Mangano met with Mayor Ray Nagin and then later with two city council members, as well as local housing advocates.
Mangano says shelters should only be used as temporary housing. The city plans to put people living under the bridge in a domed shaped shelter at the New Orleans Mission. That could happen as early as this week.
Director Mangano then flew back to Washington on his private Lear Jet to get a good night’s rest in his 3500 square foot central-heated row house located in upscale Georgetown, protected 24/7 by unnamed, armed Federal security services. Vagrants sighted near the residence were detained, given a blanket, and asked if they filed their 2007 tax return to receive benefits from President Bush’s Economic Stimulus Act, sometime in mid-May, if they meet the minimum income qualifications of $3000 for the taxable year.
(portions of this story re-posted from Fox 8; thanks)
Brian-Michel is/est:
