Homelessness

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After being kicked out of their father’s home at age 17, Al Fantauzzo, who uses they/them pronouns, quickly learned many of the hard truths of being homeless in Louisiana, from the necessity of owning a car to the inescapable, harsh temperatures.

For most of their life, Fantauzzo lived with their father and stepmother. Homelife was difficult, with Fantauzzo’s undiagnosed borderline personality disorder causing dispute after dispute in the house and culminating in many non-consensual trips to mental hospitals. Fantauzzo said the problem came to a head after their fifth trip to a mental hospital when an argument got particularly heated.

This argument came to a head with Fantauzzo’s stepmother calling the cops. With the father’s blessing, the police officers removed Fantauzzo from their home in New Orleans. Left without a place to stay, Fantauzzo spent the next two years constantly struggling to find a friend or stranger willing to loan out their couch for a day or two, while trying to finish a high school education and hold down a job.

“The night before I got kicked out, I was working on an art project, waiting to turn it in the next day. And then all of a sudden, I had nothing,” said Fantauzzo. 

​Fantauzzo, now 19 and about to start college, has since stabilized their life, which they said was only possible through sheer luck. By finding a friend in Baton Rouge that allowed them to take up residence on the couch for around four straight months, Fantauzzo was able to save up money while working at a mechanic shop directly across the street. 

While Fantauzzo was able to find friends and strangers willing to loan a couch, most homeless people in Baton Rouge don’t have that option. 

Only 200 Beds
On any night in Baton Rouge, there are around 500 to 700 homeless people and only about 200 beds, according to Pam Wall, the current board chair for the Capital Area Alliance for the Homeless.

A significant portion of Baton Rouge’s homeless population is left without a place to sleep on a nightly basis. This problem, however, isn’t new.

In 2019, The Louisiana State Balance of Continuum of Care’s (LA BOSCOC) 2019 Point in Time survey counted around 748 homeless people in the city. LA BOSCOC is a group of organizations and people working to end homelessness in the state and inform people about the reality of the problem by conducting annual demographic surveys of homeless people.

LA BOSCOC’s demographic work shows  that while homelessness fluctuated greatly during the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of people without a place to sleep has remained consistent.

St. Vincent De Paul is currently the biggest resource for homeless people seeking shelter at night. The facility first opened in 1997 and currently offers over 150 beds.

Aside from St. Vincent, the primary shelters in Baton Rouge are the Youth Oasis, which provides services for primarily children and young adults; Raven’s Outreach Center, which provides shelter for the general homeless population with a focus on veterans; the Jasmine Lily Foundation, which is a nonprofit that provides counseling and emergency shelter; and several others.

There are many organizations seeking to accommodate the homeless population, but ultimately, it doesn’t improve the number of available beds.

To make matters worse, homeless people from nearby Louisiana cities like Kenner and LaPlace often get discharged from mental health facilities and brought to Baton Rouge based on the assumption that a shelter bed will be available. 

Hunter James, the 36-year-old housing manager at Salvation Army Bed and Bread Lodge, said the Lodge sees someone dropped off from out of town with no I.D. around eight times a month.

“They weren’t given the paperwork they needed. They weren’t given the follow-up they needed. They were discharged from places that are so far away, so they won’t be a problem again,” said James. “They just drop them off as if they’re warm bodies.”

James said this practice speaks to a lack of respect for the basic humanity of people without homes. Without proper I.D. or paperwork, obtaining a job, housing or car becomes even harder.

The Mayor Steps In
Addressing the problem at large has been a central focus of Baton Rouge Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome, who announced a substantial homelessness prevention and accommodation initiative in February. 

The most significant aspect of this initiative is the large amount of funding being directed toward St. Vincent de Paul, which will receive $1 million of federal HOME American Rescue Plan funds to construct a 24-hour non-congregate shelter offering 32 rooms and 128 beds, an increase from XXXXXXX beds now.

All the current shelters in Baton Rouge are congregate, meaning most of the people seeking shelter share one or two large rooms filled with cots. 

These sleeping arrangements are a concern for some people seeking shelter. Many homeless people struggle with addiction or mental illness, so the large rooms with little or no dividing walls or personal space can be intimidating. 

Fantauzzo said they often avoided staying the night in shelters for those exact reasons. Over their two years without a home, Fantauzzo said they only stayed in a shelter for three nights and would often prefer to sleep on the couches of total strangers, despite having similar safety concerns.

“There's always either somebody in the corner all cracked out nodding off or somebody that you think is dead but is just probably deeply asleep from how much stress they’re under,” they said.

A shelter like the one proposed by Broome, with individual rooms for families and smaller groups of people, could help more homeless feel comfortable and safe to use available beds.

Wall, of Capital Area Alliance, thinks family shelters with individual rooms are an under-addressed aspect of homeless accommodations. She said there are multiple shelters for specifically women and children, so when a family needs a bed, the father must stay out on the street.

Alleviating Homelessness
In terms of making progress on the issue, Wall thinks the government could introduce many socio-economic policies aimed at alleviating some of the financial stress faced by the poorest people.

“Subsidizing childcare, raising the minimum wage and transportation---one of the problems in our parish, the CATs folks have trouble keeping up,” she said, referring to the local bus system.

But most important to Wall are systemic changes to how the public is educated about homelessness. She said many privileged people view homelessness as a personal failure that can be worked through and solved with enough effort, which Wall doesn’t understand.

“They believe that if you’re homeless, it’s just because you don’t want to work, or if you’re homeless, you just want to get all the government benefits,” Wall said.

“But when you look at people who are really homeless and talk to people who are really street homeless, who would want that kind of life?” Wall asked.

She also said that the public needs to understand how little money homeless people really receive from the government, if they’re receiving any at all. While most homeless people get a government check every month, whether it’s Social Security, supplemental security or disability payments,  it’s not enough to compensate for rising rent and insurance prices in the state, said Wall. 

Many homeless people don’t want to live off government aid. Many want jobs, but they often find the task of getting one to be near-impossible within the limitations of their situation.

Brady Norsworthy, a 23-year-old homeless man, said finding employment has been one of the biggest challenges he’s faced. Without a home address to give employers and without essential government identification, he can’t meet most of the basic requirements for most low-pay, low-skill labor. 

“It’s like a deal breaker for most people because they’re like, ‘we don’t want people who can’t take a shower or stay on the streets every night to be at the job,’” said Norsworthy.

Norsworthy was released from jail a couple of years ago after a drug charge, and has since gotten clean while dealing with the day-to-day struggles of living on the street. Now, he’s been sleeping on a bench behind the Capital Area Alliance shelter. He said he wants to try and secure a bed at St. Vincent de Paul.

“Finding a place to lay my head at night, you know it’s hard being out here and not knowing where your next meal is going to be or not knowing if you have a place to lay your head at comfortably,” Norsworthy said.

For some, homelessness can be nothing more than the result of an unfortunate stroke of bad luck.

L.C. Joseph Jr., a 60-year-old homeless man staying at St. Vincent de Paul, had a reliable place to lay his head at night, but Hurricane Ida toppled a tree on his house in 2021. Joseph has been homeless since then, and he’s been saving money from his job as a truck driver in hopes of getting a more permanent residence. 

Joseph doesn’t feel like life dealt him an unwinnable hand though, because the housing accommodations at St. Vincent have allowed him to save up while also having a place to eat and sleep. He believes most homeless people could do the same, but they’re either content to coast off government checks or allow drugs to ruin their lives.

“They chose to think they’re getting better when they get a check. And they get in some shelter some time and then they get kicked out,” said Joseph.