In Lafayette, single family homes available for rent are nearly nonexistent. Among the 530 properties managed by Keaty Real Estate, at one point in mid-May only 16 were available, property manager Amy Green said. Several landlords over the past two years got out of the rental business and sold their properties, shrinking the supply of properties.
Source: theadvocate.com
Southern states have led the charge in overturning abortion rights. But many of these states have also seen some of the highest rates of maternal deaths and child poverty.
From 2012-2016, Louisiana had the highest maternal mortality rate in the U.S. with 58.9 deaths per 100,000 births, followed by Georgia with 48.4 deaths, according to a 2018 USA TODAY investigation analyzing state health data.
Source: USA Today
Housing advocates have pushed for new shelter space since the pandemic. Lafayette lacks shelter beds and affordable housing.
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.
Source: The Daily Advertiser
“If you don’t like the laws of the states, you can move to one under which you like,” AG Jeff Landry told reporters after the decision. “That’s the greatness of America.”
A Orleans Parish judge has removed a temporary order blocking Louisiana’s ban on nearly all abortions from taking effect while moving a lawsuit that challenges the state’s abortion law to Baton Rouge. Judge Ethel Julien’s decision effectively closes the three clinics in Louisiana that provide abortion services.
Source: Louisiana Illuminator
Before the New York Times made it infamous, the Breaux Bridge ‘miracle school’ was a beacon. A new documentary, filmed as a scandal broke, puts T.M. Landry’s students in focus.
Lafayette can’t count on the industries that have powered its growth in the past. We need to pivot, and we have the tools to do it.
Data from the first quarter of the year has UL economist Gary Wagner forecasting a bad situation getting worse for Louisiana’s economy:
The state’s real gross domestic product fell by 4.3% on an annualized basis in the first quarter of this year, almost three times steeper than the U.S. economy. Only five other states posted a sharper contraction.
“It’s probably hard to imagine a report that’s worse right now,” said Gary Wagner, an economist at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, who found declines in almost every state and many industries. “I think there’s a 50-50 chance we’re in a recession.”
Source: nola.com
Here is a selection of items on the agendas for this week’s meetings of the City and Parish councils.
To everyone out there who is afraid of what has happened, and what may, know this: We will support you
In a letter delivered to both councils, M-P Josh Guillory suggests deferring questions about his drainage projects to an auditor.
Abortions are legal again in Louisiana until at least July 8, when Orleans Parish District Judge Robin Giarrusso holds her first hearing over a lawsuit challenging the statewide abortion ban.
In Louisiana, abortion is now illegal in almost in all cases. State law only allows for exceptions if pregnant woman’s life is in danger from a physical illness or a pregnant woman could otherwise sustain “serious, permanent impairment of a life-sustaining organ.”
Get it first. Sign up for our free newsletters. Learn more »