(Make America a Slaver Colony Again. The rapaciousness of the Trump regime has emboldened the Brownshirt fascists in local and state government to fly their Nazi flags proudly. They will round up homeless people like the apes chasing down the feral humans in Planet of the Apes and then ship em off to some camp someplace where Big Boss Man will rent em out to local businesses as slaves. You might think I am reaching with this evaluation of the story... and maybe I am... for now. Today. But you wait. In 3 to 4 years that is exactly what will be happening. Big Business will be paying the state for the use of slave labor as the wardens pocket kickbacks.)
from Common Dreams
The Louisiana House of Representatives voted this week to pass what the National Homelessness Law Center says is “one of the cruelest anti-homeless bills in the country.”
Like many other anti-homeless bills being advanced around the country following a 2024 Supreme Court decision
allowing states and cities to criminalize homelessness, House Bill 211,
which passed by a vote of 70-28, makes unauthorized sleeping in public
spaces a crime.
It is punishable by a fine of up to $500, imprisonment for up to six
months, or both. Repeat offenders could face one to two years in prison
with hard labor and a $1,000 fine.
The bill, which will now advance to the GOP-controlled state Senate, has been nicknamed the “Streets to Success Act” because, according to
its sponsor, state Rep. Debbie Villio (R-79), the goal is not to jail
homeless people but to “connect them to service providers.”
Those who are convicted of sleeping outdoors could be given the option
to avoid jail time by instead entering into a mandatory treatment
program for at least 12 months. The bill authorizes local governments to
set up semi-permanent camps in remote areas, where defendants would be
required to stay and receive treatment.
The bill requires homeless defendants to pay “all or part of the cost
of the treatment program to which he is assigned,” a steep cost for
many, as the average cost
for residential drug and alcohol rehab treatment in Louisiana is more
than $4,400 per week, according to the addiction referral service
directory Addicted.org.
According to the bill, those who cannot
afford this steep cost would be required to perform unpaid labor for the
state or a local community center in lieu of payment.
Bill Quigley, director of the Gillis Long Poverty Law Center at Loyola University New Orleans, called the bill’s entire premise “a farce.”
“If
people had the resources to pay for housing and physical and/or mental
health services, they would not be on the street,” he told Common
Dreams...
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