A new, urgently needed women's shelter could be coming to St. Landry
St. Landry Parish Council members have been made aware that a non-profit agency has contacted officials with a proposal to establish a parish-wide shelter for women.
“After looking at our inmate population right now, many women in our parish have nowhere to go when they are placed into diversion programs or if they are under the jurisdiction of drug court,” Parish President Jessie Bellard said in an interview. “We are working with the district attorney and other agencies to try to create a place where women can go and receive some help.”
The parish has been without a women’s shelter for almost a decade after the Diocese of Lafayette closed one that had been located in a three-story former downtown hotel that is now owned by the City of Opelousas.
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Since the closure of the former shelter, the council and Opelousas elected officials have been approached at public meetings by individuals seeking funding for operating a women’ s shelter.
Bellard told parish council members last week that there is a woman, whom he did not identify, who has obtained at least $1 million in seed money that can be used to open a shelter somewhere in St. Landry and accommodate women in need of assistance and perhaps change the direction of their lives.
He said the benefactor prefers to remain anonymous until a more substantive proposal for the facility can be presented publicly along with input from parish council members, Bellard said.
At this point, where to locate the shelter appears to be the main issue with moving the project forward, said Bellard.
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“I will be able to give the parish council more information next month,” Bellard told the Council last week. “Where we are right now with this is deciding whether it will cost more to build a new building from the ground up or find a suitable building that has already been built. Obviously, it is going to cost more if we build a new one, so right now we are looking at places that already exist.”
Although he did not provide specific information on how many women the shelter would serve, Bellard said parish officials have been discussing the need for women’s housing and how difficult it has been to obtain the necessary funding for the project.
“There is not enough money that we (the parish) have available to make this a viable project without help from an entity like the one represented by this lady who is looking (at St. Landry),” Bellard added. “She wants to help and she has the necessary credentials and is searching for a way to help women who want to make a new start with their lives. She definitely has a plan to do this.”
District Attorney Chad Pitre said in an interview Friday that domestic abuse cases have spiked recently on the St. Landry Parish district court criminal docket.
Pitre also said the DA’s office has already begun what he described as a second-chance program to help women who need more assistance with getting their lives back together.
“We have been identifying individuals who are the low hanging fruit so to speak, such as those who have committed misdemeanors, need help with their mental problems or have substance abuse issues,” Pitre said. “We are working with the parish indigent defender board with this right now.”
Pitre said Bellard has placed former parish president Don Menard in charge of placing suitable candidates for re-admittance into the workforce by referring them to agencies that can provide the necessary help.
“I haven’t been in all the discussions yet with (Bellard) or anyone else regarding a women’s shelter, but since the diocese no longer operates the one in Opelousas then the need for one is obviously there,” Pitre said.
Bellard said that he does not feel he needs council approval in order to approve the women’s shelter unless a new one is built or perhaps placed on the property that is owned by the parish government.
If a shelter is constructed from the ground up, Bellard said, the likely place would be on property at the parish airport facility that is owned by the parish government.
This article originally appeared on Opelousas Daily World: New, urgently needed women's shelter could be coming to St. Landry
