Parish Council also hears from Section 8 Housing coordinator
– The St. Martin Parish Animal Shelter has taken in fewer animals this year than at the same time last year, but the numbers will go up because it is the time of year when kittens taken in by the shelter are on the rise.
Andrea “Pinky” Mire, the shelter’s coordinator, told the council’s Public Works and Administrative/Finance committees that the shelter has taken in 536 animals — 280 dogs and 256 cats — or about 25 fewer than the previous year at the same time.
“But we’re at the very beginning of kitten season, so those numbers are gonna drastically go up,” she said. “We get kittens in almost every day. And unlike when you get in one dog, it’s one dog; when you get in a litter of kittens, it’s four to six, so if you get three or four litters a day, it’s quite a few animals coming in all at once.
“So far this year, 108 animals have been adopted from the shelter and 136 have been transported out to other shelters that put them up for adoption. Another 43 have been returned to their owners.
“Our trap-neuter program for cats, we’ve done 22 so far this year, so that’s 22 feral cats that will not be producing litters,” Mire said.
The trap-neuter-release program (TNR) is being stressed to help reduce the number of cats brought to the shelter.
“We really want to focus on the TNR program for feral cats because the majority of our cats are kittens coming from those feral cats,” Mire said. “Because people can catch those kittens. They can’t catch the mom, but they can catch the kittens and then they bring them to us.”
Once or twice a month the shelter advertises TNR days where people can trap neighborhood feral cats and bring them in to be spayed or neutered at no charge, then re-released in the area to help control the rodent and snake populations. Those cats that have been spayed and neutered also have their ears tipped to show that they have been fixed.
“This is very important in trying to keep the number of cats brought in,” she said.
Most of the 128 animals that have been euthanized at the shelter this year have been because of a lack of space.
Shelter
“We just don’t have the kennel space for the amount coming in,” Mire said. “There were quite a few aggressives in that amount. We’re on 21 for the year. That’s animals that we can’t touch, whether it be a dog or a cat. We do not risk being bit or injured.”
Aggressive animals are the first to be euthanized for space reasons, she said. Aggressive animals are not returned to the community, either to the owner or through adoption.
Twelve animals have died in the shelter, mostly tiny kittens that are found and taken in by people who think the mother has abandoned them. Those kittens are simply too small to survive without the mother, Mire said.
Among the improvements to the facility was the donation of a shelter building for cats and kittens.
“We had a lot of improvements done this year that we were very happy about,” Mire said. “I had a lady come in today to look at cats and she commented on how nice it was. She said you guys have a really nice facility.”
The ramp for the cat house that had been planned was completed. Concrete was poured for the play yard in the back and on the side of the facility and the play yard was covered so the animals are not out in the sun and jumping in the mud. It also allows for disinfecting the play area. The wash bay cover also was finished so cleaning of dishes and litter pans is not being done in the rain or direct sun.
New kennel house doors also have been installed and will be painted soon.
A four-compartment sink also allows for disinfecting litter pans and bowls. The food containers are now climate controlled as well.
An incinerator was installed for the facility, and a new faucet was added to the outside of the cat building.
“That’s pretty much everything that was on the list,” she said. “Next year we need to fix some broken kennels on the fence line, but for the most part that was all taken care of.”
Mire said that CareVet of Bayou Teche won a contest sponsored by the national corporation. The contest, called “Fill the Bowl,” asked customers to donate food for the shelter, and the local office won first place and a $5,000 donation for the animal shelter, which was given by CareVet of Bayou Teche to the shelter.
The council could approve a budget amendment to allow the shelter to use the money to buy 12 more 10x5 kennels and five door panels to complete the kennel space in the cemented area in the play area. The total for that would be $6,149.82.
Mire said she was waiting to hear from Dr. William Cenac, an orthopedic surgeon in New Iberia who wants to make a donation to the shelter, about how much he wishes to donate. She was planning to order some of the kennels or door panels needed for the play area with that money but needs to know how much the donation is before placing any orders.
Mire said that she usually tells people who wish to donate to the shelter to instead purchase something that the shelter needs so that council does not have to become involved in amending the budget every time — dog food, supplies, toys, treats, cleaning supplies are all things that the shelter can use, she said.
The $5,000 donation has already been presented, however. Council Chairman Chris Tauzin said he didn’t think there would be any problem with amending the budget to use the money for the shelter, whether it’s for new kennels or something else.
Councilwoman Carla JeanBatiste suggested waiting a couple of weeks to find out how much Cenac planned to donate and then amend the budget to use the $5,000 donation to purchase however many more are needed.
Tauzin asked if there were any other items remaining from this year’s list of needs that could be taken care of with the donation.
Most items have been completed, but Mire listed several things such as repairing a few of the kennels; buying larger heaters to use in the kennels during extreme cold weather; sealing the kennel house floor, painting the inside of the kennel house; and adding a sliding door for the breezeway.
Section 8 Housing
The rising cost of living and decreased funding from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) means that the parish’s Section 8 Housing benefits have gone down, program coordinator Jennifer Tyler told the parish council.
Section 8 funding supplements rent payments for low and very low income families. Tyler told the council that instead of receiving $100,000 per month to help residents, the parish now receives about $88,000 to pay landlords.
Landlords are asked to give rent increase requests in writing three months ahead of the planned increase to be approved by HUD, and to have the increase added to the local Section 8 Housing budget.
The local Section 8 housing office also has had to undergo extensive training because of new rules regarding the income of tenants. If income for a household is incorrectly calculated, the local office is fined for the mistake.
The staff also has had to learn HUD’s NSPIRE rules, or the National Standards for the Physical Inspection of Real Estate by which local Section 8 offices judge whether a rental meets the standards for the national program.
“Everything that we do, we have to make sure that we follow the HUD rules,” Tyler said. “If we don’t follow those HUD rules, we will be penalized. And that’s something we don’t want to happen.”
The local office also has to be certified in national Fair Housing guidelines.
“But on a positive note for the parish Section 8 department, St. Martin Parish housing is currently still taking applications, even though our funding has been reduced,” Tyler said. “We’re still taking applications. We’re still housing people, families to our program.”
Applicants are put on a waiting list and as other families move out of Section 8 housing, those on the waiting list are called to verify they still qualify for Section 8 vouchers. Tyler said the local office takes about three months to get people off the waiting list and into housing.
The office has pamphlets for veterans and 800 numbers that veterans can call to get help in applying for housing assistance.
Tyler said that in addition to keeping up with all the new and existing guidelines and rules, the office staff also has to follow an administrative plan and is required by HUD to produce a five-year annual plan and keep it up to date. The current five-year plan is for 2026-2030. Anyone who wishes to see the administrative plan or annual plan is welcome to go to the Section 8 housing office and look at it, Tyler said.
The local office is “graded” by HUD using its Section 8 Management Assessment Program (SEMAP). HUD scores Public Housing Agencies across 14 key operational indicators to ensure they are helping families afford decent rental housing at the correct subsidy cost, according to HUD. Tyler said that the local office passes the SEMAP every year.
The local office also updates its utility allowance each October by calculating utility costs for each local community to submit to HUD. Section 8 tenants receive a utility deduction based on the annual reports.
“We submitted all of our reports to HUD and HUD has said that we are in compliance and that we are meeting all of the rules and regulations,” Tyler said. “We also had an audit by Mr. Chip Maraist and that was successfully passed.”
Tyler said that the local office has partnerships with the sheriff’s office, Chez Hope and the Office of Veteran Affairs to try to help all the tenants in the area.
The local office also is working with Rose Wiltz of Kind Hearts Community Outreach, who works with homeless families in the area, to try to help those families get housing. St. Martin Parish’s Section 8 housing office uses about 90 percent of the vouchers it receives, Tyler said.
The parish has 346 vouchers and uses about 290 in order to stay within its budget, Tyler said. As funding increases more vouchers will be used.
Wiltz said she works with homeless people in an eightparish region. In addition to mental health and medical help, she said her office encourages families who are homeless and seeking shelter to apply for the Section 8 program.
Ledet Legacy Foundation
The council was asked by Wilbert Ledet Jr. to pass a resolution recognizing the Louisiana historical marker placed to commemorate PBD’s Club Valentine, a business started as a grocery store that later also became a night club in the Promised Land Community settled by local black families.
Ledet’s parents built a dance hall and community grocery store in the 1950s in a local Black community, the Promised Land Community. Ledet spurred the placing of the first family business site Louisiana historical marker in St. Martin Parish to highlight the business.
Ledet read a state Senate resolution sponsored by Sen. Blake Miguez honoring PBD’s Club Valentine for nearly 70 years of cultural, social and community significance and as one of the oldest Black-owned family businesses in St. Martin Parish and the oldest one still in operation.
