Government Plaza in downtown Shreveport, La. Photo: Emilee Calametti / The Center Square
By Darren Svan | The Center Square
Shreveport City Council members appear uncertain about which departments are responsible for concerns voiced by residents and unclear about the limits of their authority to rectify those problems.
Public works, property standards and zoning were a major focus at the council’s administrative meeting Monday. Department directors were asked about substandard housing, overflowing apartment dumpsters, drainage, potholes, overgrown grass and Section 8 housing inspections.
Councilman James Green asked the assistant city attorney about white collar crimes. He was responding to complaints about overflowing garbage dumpsters at several apartment complexes.
“If they take your money and don't give you the service, is that a crime?” Green said. “Is there anything that the sheriff’s department could do about it?"
Tenants can report it to the district attorney’s office for investigation, attorney Zelda Tucker said, adding that they can “always take that landlord to a civil court.”
Stephen Jean, executive director of the Shreveport-Caddo Parish Metropolitan Planning Commission, confirmed that apartment owners can be cited for trash violations.
Alan Jackson, representing District E, sought clarity about Property Standards Department protocols for properties identified as adjudicated, or burned down or those with “bad owners.”
“Do we have to call you each time the grass gets high?” Jackson asked.
“The issue we had this particular year is we had a mix up in the paperwork,” said Director Terrence Green. “When that mixup happened, we had our whole bidding process started over.”
The council was made aware of the issue and voted to approve the change at a previous meeting, Green said.
“So our whole grass season was thrown off by about three months because we had to go through a whole process all over again,” Green said. “So we are late with grass but we are cutting at full speed now.”
Jackson asked the administration to find out if they are recovering funds from delinquent property owners whose grass was cut by the city.
Chairwoman Tabatha Taylor was concerned about the lack of air conditioning in rental houses.
“For me," the punishment "is to make you live where you make somebody reside,” Taylor said. “I think the court should make you stay the way you make somebody else stay.”
She asked about the city’s ability to enforce laws and enact stiffer penalties against “slum lords.”
Taylor was informed that landlords are not required by city code to provide air conditioning.
Oversight “requires a lot of departments, it’s not just a property standards issue,” Green said. “And then you have the government who is funding a lot of these properties. I believe the government should get involved in the inspections of these properties.”
If a landlord does not meet the terms of a lease, the tenant can pursue recourse, not the city, said council member Grayson Boucher.
“If maybe there’s a hotline that we could report this, and then when the Housing Authority comes up to renew this person’s Section 8 … then Section 8 does not have to renew your certificate,” Boucher said. “Section 8 needs to stop giving these vouchers out to people who are not complying.”
Mayor Tom Arceneaux said there are two important issues related to property standards.
“The Housing Authority of the city of Shreveport is not a city department … and they control Section 8 housing,” Arceneaux said. “On interior complaints by tenants … property standards code does not permit them to go make an interior inspection, except upon a tenant affidavit.”
The council asked its legal department for clarification about Ordinance 195, which passed in 2022. It requires landlords to register their residential rental units. Its goal is to ensure that tenants reside in safe and habitable living conditions.
It's unclear if the ordinance is being enforced.