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Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
‘Dangerous and disastrous': Cuts to federal jobs could disproportionately impact Black workers
Protesters demonstrate outside U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise's office at Heritage Plaza in Metairie on May 22, 2025. (Katie Jane Fernelius/Verite News) NEW ORLEANS – For Harold John, a job with the federal government meant a more stable, comfortable life than the one he knew as a child. John grew up in the Melpomene Projects with his three sisters. Neither of his parents, both of who had grown up on rural farms in Louisiana, had obtained more than an elementary school education. John was able to finish high school, join the U.S. Navy and then get a job with the U.S. Postal Service, all of which helped carry him into the middle class in the 1980s. But today, the now-retired letter carrier is concerned that that same pathway may not be available to young people growing up in similar circumstances. That is because the second Trump administration has set its sights on dismantling the federal workforce, especially through the slash-and-cut measures of the Department of Government Efficiency, which until recently was led by Elon Musk. In its first few months, DOGE had already targeted diversity, equity and inclusion efforts and initiated mass layoffs across multiple federal agencies, which, some allege, have disproportionately impacted women and people of color. The U.S. Postal Service has not yet been subject to the same types of abrupt and indiscriminate cuts seen at agencies like the U.S. Agency for International Development or the Department of Education but DOGE has its sights set on the post office, which worries John. 'There's been a dedicated narrative from the right that federal workers aren't necessary for a long time,' John said. 'This is not the first time that they've come after the postal service or federal unions, but it's the most disastrous and dangerous time.' The U.S. Postal Service is highly diverse. As of 2023, 45% of postal employees were racial minorities. Though Black people make up about 14% of the total U.S. population, 30% of postal workers that year were Black. To John, who is Black, that diversity is one of the Postal Service's greatest strengths. 'That was one of the better things about having a federal job: you knew they weren't going to discriminate when it came to hiring,' John said. There are approximately 34,000 federal employees in Louisiana, 38% of whom identify as Black – the second-highest share of Black federal workers among the states, behind only Georgia. This trend is consistent across most of the South. In Mississippi, Alabama, South Carolina and Tennessee, at least one-third of federal workers are Black. Part of the reason Black people are overrepresented in federal workers in the South is due to the fact of demographics: There are more Black people in the South. But Gary Hoover, an economist at Tulane University, said that overrepresentation of Black people in the federal workforce also has to do with the fact that public sector work is one of the few on-ramps to the middle class for historically marginalized communities of color, especially in the South. 'You have to go back nearly 60 years to … the Civil Rights Act in 1964, where employment discrimination became a federal offense,' Hoover said. 'There's the creation of the [Equal Employment Opportunity Commission] that looks into unfair hiring and labor practices. And with the creation of the EEOC, the federal government becomes a leader in fair hiring practices – not by doing anything particularly progressive, just by actually upholding the law as it is written in regards to employment.' At that time, many Black workers, especially educated Black workers, struggled to get hired or be promoted within the private sector due to widespread racial biases. This was not only the case in white-collar and professional industries, but also in skilled blue-collar industries. Especially since the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964, public sector work, notably with the federal government, has provided an opportunity for upward mobility for Black workers. It was also a workforce that was rapidly becoming more unionized following a 1962 executive order by President John F. Kennedy granting federal workers the right to engage in collective bargaining In Louisiana and across the South, a unionized job with the federal government was a good job – and one that ultimately helped build the Black middle class, Hoover said. 'Once I have job security, I can start thinking about buying a home,' Hoover said. 'Once I start thinking about buying a home, I'm thinking about stable communities. Once I have a stable community, then I can start thinking seriously about the future and intergenerational wealth transfers.' On a recent steamy afternoon in May, a group of protesters gathered outside Republican U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise's Metairie office. The protest, which was organized by the grassroots organization Step Up Louisiana, featured about two dozen people decked out in union garb, holding picket signs above their heads. Marching in a circle outside the 18-floor Heritage Plaza office tower, the protesters took turns leading raucous chants. 'Step Up,' one protester shouted. 'For federal workers!' the rest replied. 'Step Up,' went another call. 'For U.S. Mail,' came the response. The protest had been organized in response to a Trump-championed budget reconciliation bill, called the 'One Big Beautiful Bill Act,' which, as drafted, would significantly cut assistance for Medicaid and food stamps. Scalise was set to vote on the bill that same day (May 22). (He ultimately would vote in favor, along with 214 of his colleagues, and help the bill pass the U.S. House of Representatives.) The group outside Scalise's office included a contingent of current and former federal workers — all of them Black — who were also protesting DOGE's cuts to the federal workforce. Terrence Johns, a current employee of the National Finance Office, a New Orleans-based federal office that manages payroll and personnel across multiple federal agencies, stepped up and spoke into the megaphone. 'Here in the South, you know there's largely a minority population that makes up these government service jobs,' Johns said, noting that his own office was majority Black. 'Believe me, brothers and sisters, everything that comes out of this administration attacks Black and Brown people.' Johns, who has also served as the longtime president of a local chapter of the American Federation of Government Employees union, said that both federal jobs and social welfare — necessary to sustaining the people of the Deep South — have been gutted since the Reagan administration. 'Don't believe the rhetoric,' he added. 'Nobody is living high on the hog. But these are decent jobs and have always set the standard for American workers.' When John started at the Postal Service in 1985, that there were a small number of good, unionized jobs across the greater New Orleans area, such as at the Avondale Shipyard and the port, John said. But apart from those, the best opportunities were in unionized public sector work. Many educated Black people like him found opportunities with the federal government at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (then known as the Veterans Administration), or at the nearby NASA Michoud facility. Or with the Postal Service. 'We had a definite economic impact on New Orleans,' he said, referring to the Black middle class that was emerging through public sector work. Troy Lee Davis, another Postal Service employee in New Orleans, grew up in the Desire Projects before moving to New Orleans East. His dad, who had served in World War II, worked in construction while his mom worked as a housemaid and cook. Davis, like his father before him, joined the military, which helped pay for college at the University of New Orleans. After that, he got a job as a mail handler. 'This was one of the better-paying jobs in New Orleans,' Davis said, adding that the job came with benefits, paid time off, holidays and regular cost-of-living adjustments. 'So, it was a big opportunity for anybody coming from poverty to get to have a comfortable lifestyle.' Being part of the Postal Service has a long, storied reputation among Black communities because it was one of the earliest available public sector jobs – and one that paid decent wages. But these days, both John and Davis are worried that the second Trump administration may unravel the gains that post office and other federal employees have made. In March, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy entered into an agreement with DOGE, allowing the team to find 'further efficiencies' in the postal service, targeting a specific list of issues, including the management of retirement plans, workers' compensation costs, lease renewals and counterfeit postage. He also said he would seek to cut 10,000 of the Postal Service's 600,000-plus employees through early retirement offers. (DeJoy resigned later that same month.) However, some worry that the DOGE partnership, along with Trump's pick of a FedEx board member to lead the USPS, means that the Postal Service may soon be privatized – an idea that Trump and Musk have expressed support for in the past. 'I've seen all the progress that was made during my lifetime destroyed in less than one hundred days,' John said. 'It is just so disheartening to see it all gone, pretty much overnight.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE This article first appeared on Verite News New Orleans and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Yahoo
09-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Despite pay problems and staff turnover, New Orleans EMS takes each call in stride
New Orleans EMT Daniel Rokos, left, and paramedic Ivy Molloy reset their ambulance after taking an elderly man with chest pain to the hospital on May 2, 2025. (Halle Parker/Verite News) NEW ORLEANS – It was mid-morning when Ivy Molloy and Daniel Rokos answered the first call of their shift. The details were sparse. Shots fired. Walmart parking lot on Tchoupitoulas Street. Officer down. The ambulance sped to the scene as a line of flashing blue lights and sirens grew behind them. As they searched for their patient, Rokos slowly steering the ambulance through the parking lot, a shopper leaving the store yelled at the pair to get out of the way. Finally, they found her, lying on the asphalt on a nearby street, wearing a shredded New Orleans Police Department uniform and crying out in pain. The emergency responders strapped the woman onto a gurney. Inside the ambulance, Molloy helped lift and pull the gurney in place as Rokos hooked the patient up to health monitors. As the patient calmed down, she told Molloy what happened. While working in the Walmart parking lot, she had revived someone overdosing in the driver's seat of his car with Narcan, only for the man to then hit the gas pedal, pulling her along. To try to free herself, she had shot him in the chest. He then crashed into a pickup truck, crushing her between the cars, before driving off again. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Molloy was unfazed, calmly taking blood pressure readings, giving medicine and helping her patient relax. 'Bad things happen to good people all the time. You know that, you see it every single day,' Molloy told her patient, who shuddered with sobs. The paramedic walked the officer through a breathing exercise. Breathe in, hold it for two seconds. Let everything out. Repeat. 'Slowing down your breathing is going help your nauseousness,' Molloy said. 'It's going to help you feel more in control, and that's half the battle right there: feeling out of control.' The scene, which took place in May, was emblematic of some of the city's pressing social issues — policing, the opioid epidemic. For Molloy and Rokos, it was just another day with New Orleans Emergency Medical Services. Molloy and Rokos are two of the 150 employees working at New Orleans EMS to provide emergency health care and transport to the public. And despite witnessing some of the most traumatic events in the city, they both say it's a better career than their old office jobs. Five years ago, Molloy was about to go to school to become a social worker. But during the COVID-19 pandemic, she heard a news story about a national shortage of EMTs and paramedics. So, she changed her plans. 'The first time I got on an ambulance, I just felt like this is where I was supposed to be,' she said. After more than a decade as an EMT, Rokos has watched cars block his blaring ambulance; he has a scar on his arm from where a patient bit him; passersby have yelled and honked at him as he treated someone in cardiac arrest. Yet he stays because he knows he's doing important work. 'You don't often feel the need for an ambulance in your life. Until you have that need … it just doesn't really occur to you,' Rokos said. As the city's EMTs face daily challenges on the job, New Orleans EMS faces an even bigger challenge: holding on to those workers. Molloy and Rokos say it's demoralizing to watch dozens of colleagues leave the agency, taking years of experience and knowledge with them, to take higher-paying, lower-stress jobs or leave the field altogether. Slowing turnover remains the agency's top priority, said Alexis Paquette, EMS's public information officer. Since 2019, staffing at EMS is down by nearly 14%, and the city has slashed the agency's personnel budget in recent years as it struggles to fill jobs. Paquette said the turnover has two main causes: staffers don't make enough money and don't see EMS as long-term career path. For years, the agency has said it needs room in its budget to pay paramedics and EMTs competitively. Although EMS staff have received incremental citywide raises under LaToya Cantrell's administration, the agency hasn't been allocated department-specific money for such pay raises. Currently, a paramedic like Molloy earns about $27 per hour, while an EMT like Rokos earns about $20. 'The people that answer the phone when you call 911 make more money than I do,' said Rokos, who has more than a decade of experience as an EMT. Molloy says she can afford to live on what she makes because of her lifestyle choices. 'I tell people I make a living wage because I'm an independent person who drives a 20-year-old truck, and I have no interest in being married, having children or owning a home,' she said. New Orleans EMS faces a high call volume, currently receiving a new call every 10 minutes on average. For the last two years, the department received more than 70,000 calls, according to data shared by New Orleans EMS. The department's pay and budget don't match the workload, Paquette said, exacerbating the problem. It also affects how quickly New Orleans residents receive help. In recent years, the agency has also faced criticism over lengthy wait times. Paquette said staffers often leave to work for private emergency service providers, companies that can pay more and offer more downtime. Others are working EMS jobs while studying nursing or medicine. Pay bumps could help staying at the agency feel more sustainable, she said. ' A lot of our staff are young people who don't have families or don't have much responsibility outside of working here,' Paquette said. Though the origins of emergency medical services have been traced back to Napoleon's time, the EMS system as we know it only evolved after federal reforms in the 1970s, making it a relatively young health care profession. The low pay can help amplify a perception in the health care industry that EMS is a temporary job, not a career, Molloy and Rokos noted. 'The more expensive things get, the harder it becomes,' Molloy said. 'We're hemorrhaging people left and right.' As summer heats up, Molloy and Rokos expect to stay busy, responding to more injuries related to doing outdoor activities, stormy weather and extreme heat. Meanwhile, the agency will be preparing yet another ask to the Mayor's Office and the City Council for higher wages. Paquette said she hoped to see residents show up to the city budget meetings that typically occur in August and September to help bolster support for raises. This year, the City Council approved fee increases to help EMS bring in more revenue, but it's unclear how that might translate to pay raises. One legislative effort to put state money toward paying EMS workers has failed three times, most recently during this session. Had it passed, local EMS workers would have received $600 a month each in extra pay. Back in the ambulance, Rokos drove as Malloy attended to their patient. 'I just want to know if they got him,' the officer said, crying again. 'I just can't believe he did that.' Molloy reassured her, promising to find the answer when they reached University Medical Center. Within 10 minutes, the ambulance arrived. The officer, surrounded by a team of trauma doctors, was whisked away in the gurney with Molloy at her side. Not far behind, doctors swarmed around another gurney. This one carried the man shot by the officer, an automated CPR machine pounding on his chest. NOPD later said the driver died at the hospital, while the officer, who was working an off-duty security shift at the time, was in stable condition. As Molloy handled the patient paperwork with the hospital, Rokos quietly started setting up for the next call. In the downtime, he helped clean out blood from the other ambulance on the scene. 'This is pretty run of the mill,' Molloy said, dropping down on a seat in the back of their ambulance after the patient transfer followed by Rokos. 'We've seen that and worse, 100 times over,' Rokos added. Then, it was onto the next call: this time, an elderly man with chest pain who had taken a fall. After pulling up to a small home on the West Bank, the pair jumped out and grabbed the gurney — ready to do it all over again. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE This article first appeared on Verite News New Orleans and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Housing advocates warn public encampment ban carries risks for Louisiana
A relocation notice is posted in front of a makeshift shelter at the Earhart Boulevard homeless encampment Jan. 13, 2025. Those living near the corridor were take to a state-operated transitional center in Gentilly. (John Gray/Verite News) A bill requiring local governments to enforce a ban on sleeping on public property passed through a Louisiana legislative committee Wednesday within the hearing's final minutes, though housing advocates and groups that serve the homeless say it remains problematic in its current form. The proposal, House Bill 619 by Rep. Alonzo Knox, D-New Orleans, would direct local governments to enforce a ban on 'public camping' or face possible lawsuits. Local governments could instead designate government-sanctioned encampments – much like the recent state-operated 'Transition Center' in New Orleans – in areas where they wouldn't 'materially affect the property value' of homes or businesses. Any resident or business within 1,000 feet of an illegal public camp, as well as a local district attorney, would be able to sue local governments if they failed to enforce the ban. Knox's bill also requires homeless service providers who receive state funds to provide detailed documentation of their work to municipalities upon request or else lose their funding. Unity of Greater New Orleans, the leading nonprofit serving the city's homeless population, has drawn scrutiny from Knox and others for not providing more specific data on how it spends federal dollars. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Knox has repeatedly accused housing nonprofits of waste and decried the 'homeless industrial complex.' He pushed for the legislative audit of New Orleans' Continuum of Care providers earlier this year. It found that the city and Unity spent $216 million between 2019-24, with the majority of funds going toward permanent supportive housing. The audit also found that shelters need better oversight to ensure they're meeting minimum health and safety standards. When Knox's measure was brought up Wednesday in the House Committee on Health and Welfare, it was after hearings on two other bills spanned more than three hours. Chairman Rep. Dustin Miller, D-Opelousas, noted that 11 people wanted to speak against Knox's bill but wouldn't have time because the House had already convened on the floor. Committee members were given the option to defer Knox's bill until next week but chose instead to continue the meeting. With limited time, Miller limited the opposition to just three speakers. Two attendees who've experienced homelessness were among those who didn't have the chance to speak. Knox agreed to amendments suggested by Rep Chris Turner, R-Ruston, which included changes in how the bill defines dwelling structures and extended the timeline for encampment clearing notices. Committee members suggested that the amendments should remove opposition to the bill. But opponents said the amendments did not allay their concerns, and in some cases even increased the risk of harm. The state-sanctioned encampments proposed in Knox's bill parallel Gov. Jeff Landry's recent transition center in New Orleans, set up at a warehouse in a remote industrial section of the city. Unsheltered people were taken there from encampments downtown just before the Super Bowl. Knox toured and praised the site while it was open, but his bill has sparked questions about how money for housing can be spent most efficiently. Landry's transition center, which cost about $17 million, ultimately placed 108 people in permanent supportive housing. Since 2023, Unity of Greater New Orleans has spent $2.3 million to permanently house 275 people, according to the audit. The state spent about $100,000 per person on the warehouse site over 10 weeks, compared to the $20,000 per year it costs to provide housing and support services per person, said Angela Owczarek with the Jane Place Neighborhood Sustainability Initiative, a housing rights advocacy. A pandemic-era emergency rental assistance program, which ended last year, cost about $3,000 per New Orleans household to prevent homelessness for those facing eviction, Owczarek said. Elsa Dimitradis, executive director of Acadiana Regional Coalition on Homelessness and Housing, testified that she had 'serious concerns' about Knox's bill, particularly the mandate about sharing client information with local governments. She warned the potential violations of privacy and disability laws could jeopardize $93 million in federal funding for housing nonprofits across the state. Unity of Greater New Orleans is already suing the state for trying to compel the organization to produce protected information about its clients, such as medical histories and Social Security numbers. Dimitradis also testified that the bill as written 'appears to allow for open-ended demands at any time without clear standards or limitations,' which is 'an operational threat.' Hannah Adams of the National Housing Law Project argued the bill should provide exceptions to the ban if local governments are actively working to rehouse people. 'Clearing an encampment when social workers are actively working to rehouse individuals does interfere with their ability to maintain contact and secure long-term housing for their clients,' Adams told the committee. The audit, likewise, noted that unexpected NOPD sweeps and state pressure to clear encampments contributed to delays in the city's rehousing efforts. Monique Blossom, director of policy at Louisiana Fair Housing Action Center, also warned that by directing state officials to inspect group homes, the bill risks violating the federal Fair Housing Act, opening the state to liability. The bill could lead to the shuttering of some group homes, including domestic violence shelters, sober living homes and even homes for seriously ill children who need to stay near hospitals, she said Donna Paramore, executive director of the Travelers Aid Society of Greater New Orleans, told Illuminator the group is in 'strong opposition' to the bill despite the amendments. 'The framework it proposes still undermines essential safeguards for vulnerable populations,' Paramore said. The issues outlined by Dimitradis 'could jeopardize federal funding' and 'create serious legal and ethical conflicts,' she added. Paramore also noted her nonprofit undergoes an independent financial audit each year and has never had an adverse finding. She said that instead of banning public encampments, the state should expand supportive housing, behavioral health services and trauma-informed care. Knox dismissed objections at the close of the hearing, calling some 'technical and nitpicking.' He rejected Adams' request for leniency when social workers are actively working on rehousing someone. 'If that language were to be included, they will always be 'actively working,'' Knox said. The representative's office did not respond to a request for comment after hearing. Knox's bill was advanced to the House floor without objection.
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
New Orleans activists make the trek to protest Mahmoud Khalil's detention
Demonstrators gathered across from the Central Louisiana ICE facility in Jena to protest Mahmoud Khalil's detention on Thursday, May 22, 2025. (John Gray/Verite News) JENA – A group of protesters headed Thursday from New Orleans to the Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center in LaSalle Parish to demand the release of Mahmoud Khalil. The former Columbia University student and pro-Palestine activist was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in March and has since been held in detention. Khalil was in immigration court Thursday for a hearing on a motion from his attorneys to terminate his deportation proceedings and release him. The hearing, which began in the morning, was still ongoing by mid-afternoon. By early afternoon, hundreds of protesters had gathered in the grass across from the detention facility, chanting, flying Palestinian flags and playing drums. Some members of the group kneeled and prayed on the street. Khalil, a legal permanent resident who was born in Syria, faces deportation for his involvement with pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia last year. He is one of a number of people the Trump administration has detained over their political activities in the last several months, drawing alarm from free speech activists. Kristi Dayemo, 29, arrived at First Grace Methodist Church on Canal Street for a bus ride to the ICE facility in Jena, along with other New Orleans residents. Dayemo said she comes from a service-oriented family and that she has a spirit to help people. Her parents raised her to have a duty to make the world a better place. 'If we allow him to be arrested without a warrant and deported from this country it calls into question all students that aren't from here, whether or not they're allowed to have their First Amendment rights,' Dayemo said. On the way to the facility from New Orleans Thursday morning, organizers handed out snacks and prepared the riders for their day of action. Sabrine Mohamad, a human rights lawyer traveling with the group, spoke to riders on the bus ahead of the arrival to Jena. 'Today is so much bigger than Mahmoud, it's so much bigger than all of the students that have been kidnapped by ICE. This is really a vital moment in the history of the United States democracy and Palestine,' Mohamad said. On the way to the facility, organizers handed out snacks and prepared the riders for their day of action. Protesters discussed current events, while removing biometric authentication from their phones and writing loved ones' phone numbers on their arms in preparation for potential arrests. Sabrine Mohamad, a human rights lawyer traveling with the group, spoke to riders on the bus ahead of the arrival to Jena. 'Today is so much bigger than Mahmoud, it's so much bigger than all of the students that have been kidnapped by ICE. This is really a vital moment in the history of the United States democracy and palestine' Mohamad said. Once arriving in Jena, the New Orleans protesters joined with another group that had come in from Texas. Organizers disembarked from their buses, prepared their drums and signs and began marching towards the ICE detention center. The group was greeted by facility guards who kept them from setting foot on the property. Noor Abdalla, Khalid's wife, came out to the crowd to thank them for their demonstrations, saying that they are keeping Khalil going as he faces deportation. Abdalla had visited with Khalil on Thursday with their newborn son, Deen. It was his first meeting with the boy, who was born while Khalil was in detention. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX This article first appeared on Verite News New Orleans and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Electric bills are rising while pathways for aid are threatened at state, federal level
A utility crew restores power at a New Orleans intersection after Hurricane Francine in September 2024. (John Gray/Verite News) NEW ORLEANS – The recent end to a state-led energy efficiency program combined with massive layoffs last month at the federal agency that provides electric bill assistance to low-income households have residents of greater New Orleans worried about how they are going to cool their homes during the hottest months of the year. The Louisiana Public Service Commission, which regulates electric utilities for most of the state, eliminated an energy efficiency program that it had been working on for over a decade in mid-April. In early April, the Trump administration fired all of the Low Income Energy Assistance Program's staff, leaving the future of the program in jeopardy. Without state-level plans to increase energy assistance, spending on electricity will probably rise, experts said. And with LIHEAP in the lurch, people might not be able to access assistance they need to pay those high bills. Logan Burke, the executive director of the Alliance for Affordable Energy called the LIHEAP cuts 'outrageous,' especially because there are already few avenues for energy bill assistance. Burke said that Louisiana spent 7% of its LIHEAP funds on weatherizing homes last year, and that if LIHEAP doesn't continue, then there will be no low-income weatherization or efficiency programs in the state. 'The problem here is that those are the minimal backstops that people have depended on for decades — the LIHEAP dollars — both for bill assistance and weatherization of housing, and without them, we simply lose billions of dollars of bill assistance and efficiency upgrades in low income housing,' Burke said. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Local LIHEAP administrators are silent on how the layoffs will affect residents or the future funding. The Louisiana Housing Corporation — which is in charge of distributing funds to parish organizations that then go through applications and work with residents to provide aid — did not respond to phone calls. Neither did JeffCAP, Jefferson Parish's LIHEAP distributor, or Total Community Action in New Orleans. Even though the average unit cost of electricity is lower in Louisiana than much of the rest of the country, Louisianians use the highest amounts, leading to high bills, said Logan Burke, executive director of the Alliance for Affordable Energy, and average rates have only been increasing in recent years. Between 2018 and 2024, the base rate for energy bills in Louisiana increased 40%, and is expected to increase 30% in the next 15 years, according to analysis from the financial consulting firm BAI Group. Extreme weather, old housing infrastructure and Louisiana's reliance on natural gas, a volatile market, are all partly responsible for the high prices, experts said. 'A lot of our housing stock is old and simply isn't good at retaining heated and cooled air,' Burke said. 'So a lot of our energy is just wasted around leaks and cracks around our windows and doors.' For the past 14 years, the Louisiana Public Service Commission had been working on an energy efficiency program that would have helped residents identify ways to consume less energy by making every unit of power go further — through renovations such as increased insulation in homes or upgraded thermostats, Burke said. But the commission abruptly voted to dissolve the program less than a month before contractors were slated to report to the commission about how the program would work. Republican commissioners said the administrative costs of the program would be too high. The decision frustrated residents of the greater New Orleans area who struggle to pay their energy bills and were looking for state support to lower costs. 'Because if you go around sealing up all these cracks and holes in these old houses, don't you think now they're going to use less to heat and cool their homes?' said Dorginia Lucas, a Metairie resident. 'That's why I would drop it too if I was them. 'Why would I help you lower your bill?' That's how I look at it.' Lucas said she has been working since 14 years old, but still struggles to pay her utility bills, which range between $249 to $440. She said dealing with Entergy's billing system is frustrating and overwhelming. A recent report by the Louisiana Association of United Ways, a coalition of nonprofits that connect residents with health and financial aid resources, found that wages haven't been increasing at the same rate as basic necessities in recent years, making household costs difficult to cover, even in families with steady incomes. And utility assistance has been one of the most sought-after aid requests over the past decade in Orleans Parish (with an exception in 2021 after Hurricane Ida), according to caller data from counseling service center Vialink. Entergy distributes funds to nonprofits for its utility assistance program, 'The Power to Care,' that aids seniors and people with disabilities. The New Orleans Council on Aging distributes those funds to residents in Orleans Parish. Howard Rodgers, the executive director of the New Orleans Council on Aging, said there is a 'tremendous need' for assistance paying utility bills in the city. Rodgers said seniors particularly need assistance because they might rely on benefits and need to pay for medication, which might lead them to deprioritize utility payments to the detriment of their health. The New Orleans Council on Aging helps around 10,000 to 15,000 people every year through 'The Power to Care' program, Rodgers said, and most funds come from charitable donations that Entergy matches. But the program has also changed in recent years. Due to high demand, the Council on Aging no longer accepts walk-ins for utility bill assistance. Additionally, those seeking help have a $500 cap on assistance every year. Rodgers said this allows the council to provide assistance to more people. That might not go too far for many residents. A 2023 Verite News analysis found that the average Entergy bill in New Orleans was $179 in 2022. And consumer advocates worry that the situation could get worse. Last year, the New Orleans City Council voted to approve the sale of Entergy New Orleans's gas business utility to a company backed by private equity. Energy advocates and community members spoke out against the sale, saying that it might increase rates for energy users. Louisiana's investments in exporting liquified natural gas abroad could also lead to higher energy costs at home, according to a Department of Energy report from last September. Jannie Yarbrough, a retired New Orleans resident, said she lives alone and pays around $185 to $200 per month, a squeeze on fixed retirement income. Yarbrough said the city and state could be doing more to lower energy costs. Yarbough said she could ask her daughter to help out, but doesn't want to depend on her. 'I'm blessed that I have a daughter that could pay, but I'm not trying to depend on my child,' Yarbrough said. Despite the rising costs of gas, public assistance pathways for utility payments are also dwindling at the local level. Last July, the city's Office of Community Development shuttered its emergency rental and utility assistance program after four years. The office didn't respond to requests for comment. Entergy has its own energy efficiency program, but it still gets paid for funds it may lose from lower energy energy consumption — a program called 'Quick Start,' according to the Alliance for Affordable Energy. Quick Start will expire at the end of the year, and on May 19 the Louisiana Public Service Commission voted to initiate a three month process to look at and make changes to the program and another that helps public entities with energy efficiency. Under an independent, state-run energy efficiency program, Entergy wouldn't be able to earn back potential profits it lost from energy efficiency upgrades. Rodgers said the Council on Aging is anticipating a higher demand for utility assistance since the LIHEAP layoffs. He said he has already spoken to Entergy employees about the possibility of the end of LIHEAP. An Entergy New Orleans spokesperson did not respond to questions about if and how assistance pathways might change if LIHEAP ended, but said the company's rates are consistently below the national average and that customers can contact the utility for bill management resources. 'We won't know what to do until it happens,' Rodgers said. 'We can think about it, plan for it, but then we are just going to have to be reactionary when that happens.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX This article first appeared on Verite News New Orleans and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
