A massive downtown New Orleans demolition project planned by the state to begin next week that will require removal of the burgeoning homeless encampment from nearby Duncan Plaza must be delayed to allow more time to find shelter for the roughly 150 people encamped in the public square, a New Orleans official said.

A spokeswoman for City Councilwoman Stacy Head, whose district includes Duncan Plaza, said the city needs at least another month to complete its strategy to relocate the homeless population that has been growing steadily in the shadow of City Hall for months.

"This is a monumental task. Right now, there is just nowhere for these people to go," said Ruth Idakula, Head's executive assistant, who has been working with Mayor Ray Nagin's administration and homeless advocates to find a solution to the problem.

"We're trying to put the pieces together, but it's not something we can do overnight. If they go forward with this, it's just going to be a big mess." State officials were unavailable late Tuesday to respond to the request for additional time.

Nagin administration officials could not be reached for comment, but in the past mayoral staffers have emphasized that they don't support emptying Duncan Plaza until housing is found for residents of the small tent city.

The state is preparing to tear down the shuttered nine-story state office building that borders Duncan Plaza, along with an adjacent building that once housed the state Supreme Court, which has relocated to the French Quarter.

Plans call for the two structures to be replaced with a 336,000-square-foot building estimated to cost $75 million to $80 million.

While the state intends to design the new building to accommodate state offices now located in other parts of the city, that plan remains a work in progress.

The top official with the agency that oversees state-financed construction projects said a contractor is scheduled to begin erecting a fence Tuesday around the perimeter of Duncan Plaza, which will be transformed into a construction site over the next several months.

The barrier around the park, which will stretch along Loyola Avenue and Perdido and Gravier streets, was supposed to go up a week ago, but state officials agreed to delay the start date to give the city more time, said Jerry Jones, director of the Office of Facilities Planning.

"We're trying to make this transition as smooth as possible," Jones said.

"We're hoping that social service agencies and the city will step forward. "We build stuff, so we're probably not the best folks" to find shelter for the homeless.

Jones said members of his staff have visited Duncan Plaza in recent weeks to begin alerting the occupants about the impending work.

"We've tried to communicate to them that this is for their own safety," he said. "And I've been told that they are a good group of people who understand what's happening. They are not a rowdy group of folks."

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