Our mission is to transform unjust housing policies, discriminatory practices, and inequitable development schemes by engaging in strategies that create permanently affordable housing, advance tenant rights, expand housing security, and uphold equitable housing patterns and land use planning.
Get Informed Now to Protect Yourself Later
Summer storms and heat are brewing and unfortunately evictions are as well. When festival season ends is when we see the greatest peaks in eviction numbers and habitability issues. Here at Jane Place, we want you to know what to do if you’re facing eviction or repair issues.
Summer Evictions & Repairs: What NOT to do
First, YOU CANNOT WITHHOLD YOUR RENT for lack of repairs. If you haven’t been to a Jane Place renters’ rights workshop, read our eviction comic book, or talked with a pro-bono housing attorney at one of our clinics, then please know this. In Louisiana, there are only two excuses for not paying your rent and they are:
- Your unit was totally destroyed in a natural disaster.
- You are vacating your apartment unit due to domestic violence from a romantic partner or a threat of physical violence from a landlord or someone else in proximity.
Resources: What Exists and Doesn’t?
- In Orleans Parish, we do have the “Healthy Homes Ordinance.” The Healthy Homes Ordinance, passed in 2023, requires landlords to meet basic habitability standards and stops retaliation by landlords targeting you because you ask for repairs. Now, you still must pay your rent and follow the rest of your lease. Learn more at nola.gov/next/healthy-homes/home.
- Everywhere in the state we have “repair and deduct.” If your landlord refuses to make critical repairs after an “urgent amount of time,” then you can either make the repairs yourself OR pay someone to make the repairs. You can then deduct the cost of the repairs from future rent payments. Please consult us or read up on information on the Bad Landlords Nola Facebook group to learn more.
- Affirmative Rent Abatement: This process involves taking your landlord to court and asking for rent reductions due to not being able to utilize major parts of your apartment due to repairs being needed (e.g. the ceiling in the kitchen collapses, plumbing in a bathroom renders usage impossible, etc.). THIS process should only be done with a lawyer.
Legal Note: As a reminder, the above does not constitute giving you legal advice nor are we agreeing to represent you in any legal matter. Please come to one of our renters’ rights legal clinics to talk to an attorney to get more information or call Southeast Louisiana Legal Services at (504) 529-1000. For less urgent renters’ rights questions in all parishes in our metro area, call Jane Place’s renters’ rights hotline at (504) 539-4504.
Homelessness is Now a Crime in Louisiana: HB 211 becomes Act 788
Governor Jeff Landry has signed House Bill 211—House Rep. Debbie Villio’s (R-Kenner) “Streets to Success” Act—into law. Most elements of the law go into effect upon the governor’s signature, meaning it is already illegal to sleep outside or engage in “unauthorized public camping” as of this article’s writing. With the governor’s signature, the bill became Act 788 and has been formally incorporated into Louisiana law.
As we’ve kept you abreast of this legislative session, alongside our comrades at NOHHARRM (New Orleans Homeless and Houseless Advocacy, Research, and Rights Monitoring; @nohharrm on Instagram), this law imposes a $500 fine and/or up to six months in jail for individuals who engage in unauthorized public camping, which could simply mean lying down on a piece of cardboard or under a blanket in any public space in Louisiana, as the law states:
“Unauthorized camping on public property is the intentional use of any tent, shelter, or bedding constructed or arranged for the purpose of or in such a way to permit overnight use on public property that is not a designated campground.”
Proponents of the bill defend it by stating it is a way to get unhoused individuals into treatment, as a bulk of the bill outlines a framework for Louisiana judiciaries to establish homeless diversion court programs that will connect unhoused defendants to ambiguously-defined “treatment.”
Notably, however, these homeless courts are both a) rife with problematic assumptions about unhoused people and incorrect protocol on how to assist them, and b) only a permissive element of the law, meaning no judiciary will be required to set up these courts to “assist” unhoused people who are charged with unauthorized public camping or any other crime. Indeed, Act 788 at its core only serves to criminalize our homeless neighbors’ survival, and makes no genuine efforts to assist them.
In light of the bill’s passage into law, our comrades at NOHHARRM are asking anyone who observes law enforcement arresting or detaining unhoused people to report such activity via text or call their hotline at (504) 500-7972. In these dark times, all of us are needed to ensure our neighbors are protected.
Upcoming Fun Events, Workshops, and How to Connect
Wanna get involved? Get informed? Join us at these events!
New Orleans Renters’ Rights Assembly (and Renters’ Rights Legal Clinic)
Thursday 7/2
6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
First Grace UMC (entrance through back parking lot)
3401 Canal St. 70119
Gentrification or the Ghetto?: How Intentional Policies Created Housing Disparities in New Orleans
Saturday 7/11
1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
RSVP to frank@jpnsi.org for more info
Land Justice Film and Panel Discussion: Occupy the Farm
Sunday 7/19
2 p.m. to 5 p.m.
RSVP to frank@jpnsi.org for more info
For more information, go to jpnsi.org or @janeplace_communitylandtrust on Instagram, email frank@jpnsi.org, or text UPDATES to (504) 517-5470 with your name and the event you have interest in.
This space is provided to Jane Place Neighborhood Sustainability Initiative as a community service and does not necessarily reflect the opinions or editorial policies of ANTIGRAVITY.
