Louisiana is the poorest state in the U.S. It's also the incarceration capital of both the country and the entire Western world. Now, a new bill could allow unhoused people to be thrown in jail.
The National Homelessness Law Center is calling the bill "one of the cruelest anti-homeless bills in the country." Sixty percent of Louisiana's unhoused population is Black, despite being just 30% of the state's population. Historical and structural reasons, including Hurricane Katrina, are huge factors in the longstanding crisis of Black homelessness in Louisiana.
After the levees broke in the majority-Black Lower Ninth Ward, a neighboring parish where 93% of homeowners were white rushed to create a "blood relative ordinance," making it illegal for landlords to rent to anyone they weren't related to, just to keep Black renters from returning to the area. This latest bill is criminalizing the poverty that the state helped create.
Unhoused people found sleeping outdoors can be fined or incarcerated. If convicted, they can avoid jail time by enrolling in a treatment program at their own expense, even if they lost their housing because their rent went up. If they can't afford the program, the court can order them to perform unpaid labor to offset the costs.
This is the post-Civil War carceral system working exactly as it was intended, imposing vagrancy laws or Black Codes that intentionally criminalize Black life and maintain control over our labor. Unhoused people aren't problems we need to sweep up off the streets. They are members of our communities and deserve care, not criminalization.