In the News

SHREVEPORT, La. (KSLA) - Eviction bans across the country and here at home are beginning to expire, or will soon, during this coronavirus pandemic.

Between that fact and an estimated unemployment rate of 16 percent by late this summer, a new study predicts homelessness will jump by 40 to 45 percent by the end of the year. That’s according to an analysis by Columbia University economics professor Brendan O’Flaherty.

That increase is already being felt in places like Shreveport.

And it did not take long for us to find a homeless camp on the fringes of downtown on Friday, June 12.

While the man we met living inside of one of the tents we came across did not want to talk with the media, we did speak with other homeless people.

That included Justin Sullens, who we met just as lunch began to be served a few miles away at Christian Service Ministries.

“Yeah, it’s been pretty scary, intense.” Sullens said there is no escape from the threat of COVID-19 for him and no help if he gets sick.

And as the surges in evictions and job losses soar, Christian Service Executive Director Al Moore told us they are already seeing an increase in the number of homeless people.

Yet Moore said they had to stop their emergency services program.

"We help people with their gas, rental and electric. We had to stop those services right now because of the virus because of social distancing. But we will be opening that back up; not the clothing store, but the emergency assistance."

Christian Service operates off donations. Moore said he is very grateful for all the public support over the years.

"Want to thank the community for really stepping up and helping us continue to feed the needy in our community. We're the only game in town that's doing this 7 days a week 364 days a year."

Employee, Fredrick Fuller, whose own mother just recovered from COVID-19, agreed with his boss.

"Especially with the rise that just came out with the 21 states that have been hit with the second round already. Yeah, there's definitely a need."

The number of homeless people is also beginning to increase at places like the Shreveport-Bossier Rescue Mission.

It’s the beginning that many describe as a coming wave of human suffering, including the Executive Director Larry Otwell.

“It is. It is. And that’s what we do here. We’re a 65-year-old mission, 100 percent Christ-centered mission. We’ve been here 65 years in Shreveport, Louisiana.”

And with word of the expected spike in homelessness, that's why an announcement from U.S. Representative Mike Johnson late this week has attracted so much attention.

As a member of President Donald Trump's Task Force for Reopening America, Congressman Johnson announced that Shreveport is receiving more than a million dollars in federal funding through HUD, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, to help prevent and respond to COVID-19 among Shreveport's homeless population.

Those funds will go to Shreveport's Community Development Office to help with everything from child care and health care to job assistance.

So for Sullens and so many others just like him, the stakes couldn’t be any higher than life or death.