Thrift store. clinic. Roller rink. Center has become a ‘radical’ lifeline amid homelessness and drug crisis.

NEW ORLEANS — From the outside, the abandoned Family Dollar store in the Lower 9th Ward looks menacing. It’s covered in graffiti and the parking lot is littered with aluminum cans and trash. It sits on a street with other vacant lots and decaying buildings. lasting destruction One of the poorest neighborhoods in the city, the neighborhood endured after Hurricane Katrina.

But inside the store is a welcome oasis. Twinkling string lights decorate shelves of donated clothing. Shelves and bins are overflowing with children’s books, allergy medications, and toiletries. A curtain is drawn on one side of the room, which features a stage for musicians and a neon sign depicting roller skates for the weekly free skate night.

The space is part free thrift store, part drugstore, part punk venue and entirely a “radical community center,” said Dan Bingler, who runs it.

Bingler is a waiter and bartender in the city. Greater New Orleans Caring Collective. He said the building owners allowed him to use the space as long as he paid his water, electricity and trash bills.

On Monday evenings, volunteers from other community organizations show up. Some took their places in the parking lot before Bingler opened the 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 space is simple. “We’re going to provide a service to the community.”

Although it’s been open for a few years, the space has become increasingly important to this community in recent months as the Trump administration cuts funding to many social service agencies and takes an aggressive approach to homelessness and drug use. In Washington DC, the executive branch bulldozer tent To push out people living on the streets leave the city. Across the country, people who use drugs are being asked to: forced to undergo treatment. it has Harm reduction blame — a practice that public health experts say keeps people who use drugs safe and alive, but critics say encourages illegal drug use.

Community space in New Orleans — named after Fred Hampton Free Store famous black panther activist Known for bringing together diverse groups to fight for social reform — it aims to be a haven in the sea of ​​change.

Bingler said he takes no money from federal funds, state or local grants or foundations. It’s just neighbors helping neighbors, he said through tears, adding, “It’s such a beautiful thing to be able to share all this space.”

Everything inside comes from people or organizations in the community. Bingler said at one point, a local hotel undergoing renovations donated 50 flat-screen TVs.

At night, the store is open and often attracts more than 100 people, Bingler said.

One fall evening, dozens of people searched for free clothing and over-the-counter medications. Others sat on the lawn outside, looking at bicycles or shopping carts full of goods and talking.

James Beshears stopped at a harm reduction group in the parking lot to get sterilizing supplies he uses to inject heroin and fentanyl. He received treatment for several years, but said he relapsed after his doctor moved and he was referred to a clinic that charges $250 a day. Street drugs are cheaper than treatment, he said.

He wants to stop. However, he can continue to work in places like the free store until he gets affordable care. Without it, he said, he would have “one foot in the grave.”

Another man in the parking lot was awaiting the arrival of Aquil Bey, a paramedic and former Green Beret best known for helping people overcome obstacles to accessing health care. As soon as the man spotted Bey’s black Jeep, he ran over.

“I have stage 4 kidney disease,” the man said, adding that he had been scheduled to receive treatment at a hospital but was having trouble getting there.

Bey said as she unloaded a folding table and medical equipment from the car. “Come and meet us when our team gets here. Maybe we can provide you with transportation.”

Bey is the founder. independent communityis a volunteer organization that provides free basic health care services and referrals to people who are homeless, drug users, or other vulnerable members of the community. The group maintains a steady presence in free stores.

That day, Bey and his team connected men in need of kidney disease treatment to a cost-saving transportation program. They also checked blood pressure and blood sugar for anyone who wanted it, cleaned infected wounds, and called the clinic to make appointments for patients without a phone call.

A man with a leg injury said he was sleeping on a concrete floor at an abandoned naval base. Bey noticed that there was a mattress in the furniture section of the free store. He and another volunteer took it out, tied it to the top of a car and delivered it to where the man was sleeping.

“We’re trying to find all the barriers that people face and find ways to address them,” Bey said.

The Free Store’s clinic helped Stephen Wiltz connect with addiction treatment. He grew up in the Lower 9th Ward and had been using drugs since he was 10 years old.

Wiltz said he was reluctant to go to any treatment facility because he was tired of discrimination from doctors who blamed him for his addiction. But after knowing the Free Shop volunteers for years, he trusted them to point him in the right direction.

Wiltz, 56, experienced sustained recovery for the first time in his life, he said in a phone interview in the fall.

The volunteers “cared for people who had no one else to care for them,” he said.

As the sun set on the store that fall evening, a punk band began preparing to play across the street from the dispensary. The lights dim and music blares, reminding us that this is no ordinary clinic or community center.

Bey continued to consult with patients with gout.

“I’m used to the sound,” Bey said of the fast drums and loud power chords. “I like it sometimes.”