PRAIRIEVILLE - Law enforcement gathered at a trailer park in Ascension Parish Wednesday, making sure residents were clearing out after parish leaders took it upon themselves to do something about the property that's been plagued by crime. 

Unsafe living conditions, drugs and prostitution were cited as reasoning for the parish to step in and terminate the status of the property on Pookey Lane, which was originally grandfathered in according to councilwoman Teri Casso. 

The Ascension Parish Sheriff's Office stationed at the property Wednesday, along with contract haulers, while buildings and the remaining people who reside in them are removed. 

"Know this. There will never be one moved out with somebody [still] in it," said Sheriff Bobby Webre, who was overseeing the removal of the trailers Wednesday.

While the sheriff acknowledged that residents had been legally evicted Wednesday, he said his department's main goal was to help them get resituated. 

"I wanted to tell all the residents here, take a deep breath. Nobody's going to jail today. Nobody's going to be put out on the side of the road, on the side of a curb today," Webre told WBRZ. "It's got to happen, let's just do it in the right way."

The sheriff added that only a handful of residents were still there as of Wednesday morning. 

Many tenants say they had nowhere to go on such short notice, telling WBRZ on Tuesday that most trailer parks in Ascension Parish are already full or don't take the type of campers they have. 

Councilwoman Casso says the residents have been given resources to assist them with finding another place to stay, along with addiction counseling. 

Sheriff Webre noted that the process of moving the remaining residents could drag on days longer than first planned but added, "It can't go on forever."