Stop HB 211 – Homelessness Is Not a Crime

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Dear Chair Carter and Members of the Committee:

My name is [YOUR NAME]. I live at [YOUR ADDRESS]. I urge you to reject HB 211 and its Senate companion, SB 196. Public dollars will be spent on unsheltered homelessness no matter what. The only question is whether those dollars will be wasted going toward police sweeps, jail beds, emergency departments, and a brand-new court bureaucracy, or toward the service-first approaches that get people off the streets and keep them off.

We already know what criminalization costs. Take Minneapolis as just one example: one round of police-led encampment closures across four sites cost $392,464, with $363,700 of that going to law enforcement alone. This is a terrible use of public dollars. In just one encampment, the city spent over $200,000 to clear 28 people. Then what happened? They scattered to other locations. Nothing was solved. But when the city invested in a coordinated service approach at that same site — with healthcare workers, housing navigators, and community organizations on the ground for 10 days — 30 people who had never been assessed completed housing assessments. Within three months, 26 of the 28 residents were housed. One approach cost six figures and moves people down the block. The other costs a fraction and moves people from homelessness into homes. New Orleans has PROVEN this model works and the state should replicate our best practices throughout all parishes.

HB 211 would disseminate this predictable failure across every parish in the state.

A single jail bed in Louisiana costs taxpayers roughly $60 to $75 per day. A low-barrier shelter bed with wraparound services costs significantly less and produces exits to housing. Every person jailed under this bill will be a person Louisianians are paying to keep homeless.

The research is clear: housing costs drive homelessness. According to federal data, 40 to 60 percent of homeless people in the United States have a job. Their wages have not kept up with the cost of housing. Criminalizing people will not create a single unit of affordable housing. It will only make it harder to secure housing by saddling them with criminal records, fines, and court debt.

The National Healthcare for the Homeless Council has documented that encampment sweeps damage health, well-being, and connections to care. They compromise personal safety and civic trust. They undermine paths to housing and financial stability.

The opposition to this approach is broad. The Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office has testified against SB 196, warning it would worsen chronic jail capacity issues. The Louisiana Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys has said it is not informed by any best practices the American Bar Association recommends. The Louisiana Interchurch Conference and the Louisiana Conference of Catholic Bishops have testified in opposition. UNITY of Greater New Orleans, the Travelers Aid Society, and the organizations that serve unhoused people every day all oppose this bill.

Homelessness is not a crime. It is the result of historic disinvestment, systemic marginalization, and an acute shortage of deeply affordable housing. If you enact this law, you will be responsible for perpetuating these disparities. You will also be responsible for wasting our tax dollars.

I urge you to vote no on HB 211 and to oppose SB 196. Louisiana should use our dollars wisely and invest in what produces results instead of spending millions on an approach every expert and practitioner in this field has told you will fail. The people sleeping outside tonight are not criminals. They are our neighbors.

Opens your default email app with all 18 Judiciary Committee members pre-loaded.

Now Call Them.

Emails are easy to ignore. Phone calls are not. Legislative staffers track every call. When the phones ring all day, legislators notice. It takes 30 seconds.

One phone call has more impact than 100 emails. Staffers tally calls for and against. If they're getting calls all day about HB 211, your representative will hear about it before the vote.

What to Say

"Hi, I'm a Louisiana resident calling to urge the Representative to vote NO on HB 211. Criminalizing homelessness wastes taxpayer money, it fills up our jails, and it does not work. Please vote no. Thank you."

Robby CarterD
Chair, Dist. 72

(225) 222-4194

Kathy EdmonstonR
Vice Chair, Dist. 88

(225) 647-5646

Jacob BraudR
Dist. 105

(504) 230-2360

Emily ChenevertR
Dist. 66

(225) 366-5063

Kellee H. DickersonR
Dist. 64

(225) 380-4232

Jay Galle Jr.R
Dist. 104

(985) 624-4603

Kyle Green Jr.D
Dist. 83

(504) 349-8788

Troy HebertR
Dist. 31

(337) 347-7077

Edmond JordanD
Dist. 29

(225) 925-3700

Jeremy LaCombeR
Dist. 18

(225) 637-3803

Vanessa LaFleurD
Dist. 101

(225) 925-6880

Mandie LandryD
Dist. 91

(504) 383-3836

Shane MackR
Dist. 95

(225) 686-7500

Candace NewellD
Dist. 99

(504) 240-3435

Joseph OrgeronR
Dist. 54

(985) 693-9000

Charles OwenR
Dist. 30

(337) 460-8726

Lauren VentrellaR
Dist. 65

(225) 361-4318

Jeff WileyR
Dist. 81

(225) 698-5400

Jerome ZeringueR
Dist. 52

(985) 876-8823

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Homelessness Is Not a Crime.

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