Twenty year ago, I founded The Well to minister to people needing shelter and restoration. Their most basic need was for an address and a shower. When we started the project, the City of Lafayette identified one unsheltered homeless person in the 1990 census. The Bowen administration did not see any need for programs or dialogue about the needs of the homeless. When we opened The Well, 15,000 people came through the door in the first year.
At last month's council meeting, Lafayette's City-Parish Council continued to ignore, delay, and defer making decisions about the housing needs of special populations. While a community dismisses real needs of real people, we will suffer the consequences. Jails and hospitals are serving as shelters to people whose real issue is homelessness. Ignoring the root causes of homelessness has a huge price tag for a community.
Our nonprofit organization, Unhindered, Inc, has a housing initiative program called "The Mustard Seed," based on the Biblical strategy Jesus described in the parable about the power of the mustard seed. It is one of the smallest seeds on earth; yet when it is sown, it grows and becomes great. Unhindered is calling for people to participate in a focus group to give input on crucial issues related to housing and homelessness in Acadiana. We want to develop a new collaborative model that links private enterprise, nonprofits, foundations, religious organizations and governments to create solutions.
Solutions include development of sustainable and affordable housing, increasing the inventory of rental housing, development of housing for people living with disabilities and removing barriers to home ownership. The group will explore the conditions that lead to homelessness. Of special concern is the growing population of fathers who are unable to support their children. Other issues will be identified by the participants.
The focus group will meet three times over three months, with the first meeting on Saturday, July 14. If you are interested in participating in the group, please contact Pat Raaz at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or call Carlos Russo at (337) 849-6837.
MAY 17 Here's a column from James Gill, this time in the Advocate. Gill, who has jumped ship from the Picayune, writes about the absurdity of dueling polls in this post. The numbers are so wildly different, it is obvious that both sides are "cooking the books," he writes. In particular, he looks at Sen. Mary Landrieu, and how her recent actions in DC have been received by those polled. Gill's acerbic, amusing prose is a welcome addition to a paper so conservative as to be occasionally lacking in personality.
MAY 17 Blogger Tom Aswell continues delivering bombshells about the state education department and Gov. Jindal's education "reform" efforts. In this post, he reports that students in the Shreveport area have been signed up for a charter school without their knowledge or consent. Most interesting to Aswell is how this Texas-based charter (with ties to GOP types) got the personal student information it has, if the students didn't give it.
MAY 17 This post by JR Ball in the Baton Rouge Business Report is an interesting tongue-in-cheek look at recent Baton Rouge economic development efforts. Among the items he examines is the idea that gaining a Costco makes BR a "world-class city." (Really? All you need is a different brand of Sam's? MK!) This effort, and other recent ones, are all built on the taxpayer's back, with tax zones, tax incentives and tax rebates, Ball writes.
MAY 17 Blogger CB Forgotston is critical of the legislature's reliance on a revenue-estimating committee's decision to include projected tax amnesty income in this year's forecast. That's a problem, CB posts, because the deadline for these people to pay their taxes is June 30, 2014. So when do you think these people who haven't paid taxes in years are going to pay their taxes? Surely not before June 30, and that means the money won't be there for this year's budget, he argues.
MAY 17 Here's an interesting blog out of California by a Hollywood writer, attorney and academic named Brian Alan Lane. He blogs about higher ed, and was a whistle-blower in a scandal over false credentials. In this post, he takes aim at LSU's new top dog, King Alexander. It's convoluted and a little confusing, but it sure makes Alexander a lot more interesting than he was yesterday.
MAY 17 Blogger Robert Mann writes about the LSU Board's refusal to allow Dr. Fred Cerise to testify before the legislature about Gov. Jindal's plan to close down all the state's charity hospitals and dump the poor on the private system. It's hard to imagine anyone more qualified than Cerise to testify about that, so why would anyone try to prevent him doing so? Mann thinks it is because the powers that be aren't interested in hearing any truth about the plan.
MAY 17 This post on the Louisiana Sinkhole Bugle, a blog that notes developments in the Bayou Corne and Jefferson Island salt domes, talks about a proposed expansion of the salt dome storage under Lake Peigneur in Iberia Parish. Residents are working against it for several reasons, including two biggies: the sinkhole disaster in Bayou Corne and the continuing, unexplained bubbling on the surface of the Lake.
MAY 17 NOLA police arrested more people Thursday accused of either being involved in the Mother's Day shooting or hiding the suspect afterward, this Gambit story reports. The NOLA police chief said he suspects the whole thing was gang-related and throws out a challenge to the gangs: he's got informants now, he says, and he knows a lot more than the gangs want him to know. The people who live in the neighborhoods terrorized by gangs are ready to talk, he says.
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