Lafayette City Council may direct $1 million for new homeless shelter as need increases

Lafayette’s City Council may spend $1 million to help build a new shelter for people experiencing homelessness this month as the area’s unhoused population continues to grow.

The Acadiana Regional Coalition on Homelessness and Housing is set to receive $1 million in federal stimulus money from the city if the City Council approves Councilman Glenn Lazard’s bid to do so at its next meeting on July 19.

CONSIDER SUBSCRIBING TODAY: Help support local journalists like Andrew Capps

“It's been my opinion from day one…that a sizable portion of those funds should go toward addressing what I call human infrastructure. … That's addressing housing and homelessness, the health and wellness disparities,” Lazard said Tuesday.

“As of this point, we haven't spent one penny of our $38 million addressing those issues, those economic disparities, that are clearly documented,” he said.

The funds would bolster efforts to build a new, $11 million shelter for the area’s unhoused population.

ARCH: We sheltered 1,700 people experiencing homelessness in 2021

Lafayette City Council members Pat Lewis with District 1 and Glenn Lazard with District 5 held a series of town hall meetings to discuss a report from the Protect the City Committee to deconsolidate the Lafayette goverment. Wednesday, June 16, 2021.
Lafayette City Council members Pat Lewis with District 1 and Glenn Lazard with District 5 held a series of town hall meetings to discuss a report from the Protect the City Committee to deconsolidate the Lafayette goverment. Wednesday, June 16, 2021.

ARCH interim Executive Director Elsa Dimitriadis said the need for more shelter space has grown during the COVID pandemic and could continue to increase as a federally funded program that has helped house families in Acadiana is set to expire in the coming weeks.

"To be clear, we currently have no available shelter beds in Lafayette Parish," Dimitriadis said. "Our (Emergency Solutions Grant)-funded Homeless Prevention and Rapid Rehousing program will be ending at the end of August.

"That's a program that has served thousands. We will see an immediate and steep increase in homelessness at that time."

Dimitriadis told the council Tuesday that the new facility, called the HearthStone Community Shelter, would be able to serve 100 households and would sustain itself financially by charging a “deeply affordable” cost for housing to half of those families.

A man holds a sign asking for money beside a street sign installed last year that warns motorist that panhandling is not safe. Lafayette’s City Council may spend $1 million to help build a new shelter for people experiencing homelessness this month as the area’s unhoused population continues to grow.
A man holds a sign asking for money beside a street sign installed last year that warns motorist that panhandling is not safe. Lafayette’s City Council may spend $1 million to help build a new shelter for people experiencing homelessness this month as the area’s unhoused population continues to grow.

“This would serve 100 households," she said. "Fifty of those households will be served through a shelter model. The other 50 would be deeply affordable housing in the same location, so the operations would be covered by that deeply affordable housing.

"So while the investment that we're asking for would get us off the ground, the long-term sustainability would be built in through that affordable housing piece.”

The city’s $1 million for the project would come from its $38.3 million windfall of federal COVID funds that were awarded in 2021 as part of the American Rescue Plan.

Mayor-President Josh Guillory already went outside the council’s plans for that funding by investing $21.6 million into drainage and downtown infrastructure improvements using an unconventional veto.

Lafayette veto: Guillory defies unified councils, will spend COVID-19 funds on infrastructure

Lafayette Mayor President Josh Guillory. Tuesday, Oct. 19, 2021.
Lafayette Mayor President Josh Guillory. Tuesday, Oct. 19, 2021.

Another veto by Guillory, which would require a four-vote majority of the City Council’s five members to override, presents a potential challenge for the plan, though it is unclear so far how realistic that threat may be.

Funding for the shelter was not included included in Guillory's original budget for the federal COVID relief funds, which focused almost exclusively on infrastructure spending.

From 2021: Josh Guillory plans 70-project budget for LCG’s $86M in federal funding

In a statement Wednesday, Guillory said his administration will look into the need for the new shelter and the city funding before making a decision on a veto.

"We will look into and evaluate the need, look at the resources that organization currently has or expects to receive, and we look forward to further discussion at the next council meeting," he said.

Follow Andrew Capps on Twitter or send an email to acapps@theadvertiser.com.

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Daily Advertiser: Lafayette City Council to vote on $1M for new homeless shelter