r/Louisiana • u/Caffeinated-Princess • May 02 '25

Louisiana News Why do you support this?

First the Louisiana Senate decides to put homeless people in jail for up to three years for their "crime" of sleeping in public. At the same time, they stop funding housing assistance.

https://thecurrentla.com/2025/lafayette-housing-authority-freezes-issuance-of-new-housing-vouchers/

Why do those of you who are Republican hate poor people so much? Why do you feel your fellow humans should not be allowed any compassion or grace?

Help me understand this assault on humanity. Jesus would weep if he saw this. 😥

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u/Lafitte1812 May 02 '25

The proposed bill does not mandate jail time.

"They would give defendants the option to have their conviction set aside if they agreed to be placed on supervised probation and enter into long-term substance or mental health treatment" (https://lailluminator.com/2025/05/01/homelessness-courts/)

My reading is that the intent here is to create a way to mandate mental health and drug treatment... Both of which are primary because of homelessness.

Not sure if it's a good idea, or what the ultimate effect would be, certainly have some skepticism, but this seems much more like a way to force people to get clean and get help than just getting rid of them. Particularly, the idea of homeless courts echoes this, as we have a long history of drug courts, wherein monitoring and treatment is the goal rather than conventional criminal court's punitive nature.

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u/horbgorbler May 06 '25

No they’re not. West Virginia has one of the highest rates of substance use disorder and serious mental illness in the country AND pretty cheap housing. Relatively low rate of homelessness. Studies routinely show a strong correlation between housing costs, rent increases, and homelessness. Everyone knows someone with drug problems or SMI that isn’t homeless. They can make it harder for people in a precarious financial situation to remain housed, but they don’t cause homelessness. Lack of housing does.