Catholic Charities of Acadiana shares plan to keep open their shelters

LAFAYETTE, La. (KLFY) – Officials with Catholic Charities of Acadiana spoke to the public about what efforts they have in store to keep the shelter open.

This comes after Governor Jeff Landry cut $1 million dollars in state funding from Catholic Charities of Acadiana. The money would have been used to keep open an emergency homeless shelter serving eight parishes. Kimberly Brown, CEO of Catholic Charities of Acadiana, the announcement came as a surprise.

"We were surprised by the cut. We know that wasn’t the solution", Brown said. "It was a temporary funding source to keep us alive another year. I think that this gives us an opportunity as a community to say do we want a homeless shelter. I think we do.”

According to Brown, there are nearly 400 people who are homeless in Lafayette, while around 129 are in emergency shelters. In addition to this, she says Catholic Charities of Acadiana has had to turn around 40 people due to minimal space at the shelter.

With the fiscal year approaching on July 1st, Brown says the organization has a few ideas on how to keep the shelter open, starting with converting old buildings into shelters.

"We talked about rehabbing buildings that are no longer in use", Brown said. "Cross the country many communities are taking all the hotels and converting them into housing with supportive services and so we looked at that model and then we looked at new construction. If we’re going to build something new what would that look like, housing with support.””

Brown says while this seems like a dark time for the organization, she says it is important for the public to connect on how they can improve surrounding communities.

Brown says she looks forward to working to ensure the homeless population continues to decrease.

Latest Stories