Shreveport Feud Over Vagrants Intensifies: Squatter Laws Under Fire

SHREVEPORT, LA - The feud over vagrants in Shreveport has spiked again. It's really tough to explain the problem. But it revolves around the state law that deals with squatters in vacant properties.

Mayor Tom Arceneaux tells KEEL News the law requires that "the squatters be notified by a lawful possessor of the property". That seems to mean the owner has to notify the squatters that they must get out.

But Caddo Parish Commissioner John Paul Young says there is much more to the law than that and the city can go after the squatters who are camping out in these vacant homes. He is urging the Mayor to tell the police department to move forward with making arrests if it is obvious the home is abandoned and the vagrants don't belong in the property.

Young says these vagrants start fires to keep warm, they also set fires for cooking food, but they also use fires to cook meth in some of these properties. Young says his neighborhood is being burned up by "meth heads". Ironically, Mayor Arceneaux also lives in the Highland neighborhood and he tells KEEL News he's been working for 40 years to address this problem.

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Arceneaux says he is currently drafting an ordinance that would give the police more power to remove squatters or vagrants from abandoned properties. He hopes to get this ordinance before the city council during their first meeting in March.

READ MORE: See some of Young's passionate please to address the vagrancy problem.

Young is urging the Mayor and the city council to get tough on these vagrants. He says the policy that Shreveport currently follows would never happen in Bossier City or other neighboring communities.