New Orleans, Louisiana. — From the outside, the former Family Dollar store in the 9th arrondissement looks imposing. It’s covered in graffiti and the parking lot is littered with aluminum cans and trash. It is located on a street with other vacant lots and ruined buildings. symbol of destruction They claim the neighborhood, one of the poorest in the city, suffered damage after Hurricane Katrina.
But inside it is a cozy oasis. Lights decorate shelves of donated clothing. There are shelves and bins filled with children’s books, allergy medications, and personal care products. The space, separated by a curtain, has a stage for musicians, a neon skate sign, and free skate nights every week.
The space is part free thrift store, part regular drugstore, venue for punk concerts, and entirely a “radical community center,” explained Dan Bingler, who runs the space.
Bingler is the town’s waiter and bartender; Greater New Orleans Caring Collective. He said the building owner allows him to use the space as long as he pays for water, electricity and trash pickup.
On Monday afternoons, volunteers from other community organizations show up. Some of them used to open stores in the parking lot before Bingler opened his store. They provide free testing for sexually transmitted diseases, basic medical care, hot meals, sterile syringes and other supplies for drug users.
Bingler said the purpose of the location is simple. “We will support the community.”
Although it has been in operation for several years, the space has become more important in recent months as the Trump administration has cut funding for many social service agencies and taken an aggressive stance on homelessness and drug use.
His administration in Washington, D.C. demolished camp People living on the streets are forced into stores. leave the city. At the national level, it was urged. force people A person using medication to begin treatment. refused damage reduction —It’s a strategy that public health experts say protects people who use drugs and saves lives, but critics say it encourages illegal drug use.
The community space in New Orleans is named the Fred Hampton Free Store. famous black panther activistKnown for uniting diverse groups for social reform — it seeks refuge from all these changes.
Bingler said he receives no federal funding, state or local grants or foundation funding. “They are simply neighbors helping neighbors,” he said, his voice cracking. “It’s such a beautiful thing to be able to share this space.”
All items on the site come from people or organizations in the community. In one case, a local hotel undergoing renovations donated 50 flat-screen TVs, Bingler said.
He added that more than 100 people usually visit the store every day it is open.
One fall night, dozens of people searched for free clothing and over-the-counter medications. Some people sat on the lawn and chatted while looking at bicycles or shopping carts full of belongings.
James Beshears stopped by a harm reduction group in the parking lot to pick up sterilizing supplies he uses to inject heroin and fentanyl. He said he received treatment for several years, but relapsed when his doctor moved and was referred to a clinic that charges $250 a day. Street drugs are cheaper than treatment, he said.
I would like to stop using it. But until you find affordable health care, places like this free store will continue to help you. Without it, he said, he would already have “one foot in the grave.”
Another man in the parking lot was awaiting the arrival of Aquil Bey, a paramedic and former Army Special Forces soldier known for helping people overcome barriers to accessing medical care. As soon as he saw Bey’s black truck, he ran to find it.
He told her she had “stage 4 kidney disease,” adding that she had a hospital appointment scheduled but was having trouble getting to the hospital.
“Please do me a favor,” Bey responded as she unloaded a folding table and medical equipment from her car. “Come meet us when our team arrives. Maybe we can provide transportation.”
Bey is the founder. independent communityis a volunteer organization that provides free basic health care and referrals to people who are homeless, drug users or otherwise living in vulnerable communities. The group continues to exist in the free store.
That day, Bey and his team connected a man in need of treatment for kidney disease with an affordable transportation program. They also performed blood pressure and blood sugar tests, treated infected wounds, and called clinics to make appointments for patients who did not have a phone line.
A man with a leg injury said he slept on a concrete floor at an abandoned naval base. Bey noticed that there was a mattress in the furniture section of the store. He and another volunteer lifted him, tied him to the roof of the car and took him to where he was sleeping.
“We’re trying to identify all the barriers that people face and find ways to address them,” Bey said.
Free in-store clinic helped Stephen Wiltz get addiction treatment. He was born and raised in the Lower 9th Ward and had been using drugs since he was 10 years old.
Tired of discrimination from doctors who blame her for her addiction, Wiltz said she doesn’t go to any treatment centers. But after years of getting to know the Free Burial volunteers, he trusted them to guide him.
The 56-year-old experienced sustained recovery for the first time in his life, he said in a phone interview last fall.
The volunteers “cared for people who had no one else to care for them,” he said.
As the sun set over the store that night, a punk band started getting ready to play on the other side of the room where the clinic was located. The lights dimmed and the music started blaring, a reminder that this was not a clinic or your typical community center.
Bey was still caring for gout patients.
“I got used to the sound,” he said of the fast drum hits and power chords. “Sometimes I even like it.”
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