DOTD chief: Time to tend to communities

The man in charge of maintaining Louisiana’s roads on Saturday urged St. Mary Parish people to keep up their communities, too.
Dr. Shawn Wilson, secretary of the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development, spoke at the 17th annual Tri-City Helping Hearts Foundation Banquet at the St. Mary Parish Senior Citizens Center.
The banquet is a fundraiser for the foundation, the primary purpose of which is “to assist citizens needing financial assistance with the burial expenses of a loved one,” according to the foundation’s website.
The organization’s website is www.tchhf.org.
Wilson, who has served as the state transportation secretary since 2016, began his analysis of community ills with a look at rents. He cited a study by LSU professors Jim Richardson and Roy Heidelberg for the Louisiana Housing Corp. that says more than 44% of Louisiana renters pay at least 35% of their income on rent.
That gives Louisiana the fifth-highest percentage of households considered rent-stressed in the United States.
The professors warned in an Advocate story that their 44% figure can include wealthy people with significant disposal income left after they pay rent. But they also noted that the percentage of households considered to be rent-stressed is up 15 points since 2000.
“How do you build communities without investing in home ownership?” Wilson said in Morgan City.
Another problem facing communities is Louisiana’s incarceration rate, Wilson said. About 1,100 of every 100,000 Louisiana people are in the justice system, including 24,000 in state prisons, 12,000 in local jails and 1,009 in juvenile detention.
“These are our people,” Wilson said. “They come from our families. They come from our homes. They come from our communities.”
Louisiana also ranks near the bottom in health care outcomes, Wilson said, and suffers from lagging high school graduation rates.
“We have to start our children on a path to science, technology, engineering and math,” Wilson said.