Shreveport residents press committee for uniform enforcement of blight and trespass laws

At a Property Standards Committee meeting, Councilwoman Tabitha Taylor and neighborhood residents pressed city officials to enforce existing blight and trespass laws more uniformly and to clarify who to call when vacant houses are occupied or catch fire.

Neighborhood leaders said repeated fires and unauthorized occupation of vacant houses are damaging property values and public safety in Highland and other neighborhoods. "This new law would allow officers to take people out of such houses and would probably prevent some fires," said John Paul Young, a resident who spoke during public comment, describing the proposed ordinance being discussed by the administration.

Why it matters: Residents said enforcement is the principal gap. Several speakers described multiple calls that led to no follow-up, and neighborhood volunteers and inspectors reported ongoing problems with open dumping and people living in boarded or vacant houses. The committee heard that existing city code (Chapter 58, article 6) already defines blight and provides penalties but that implementation is uneven.

Residents and neighborhood leaders described specific problems. Teresa Edgerton Scott, a Highland neighborhood volunteer, said property standards staff and volunteers picked up "38 bags of trash" at two lots during a recent cleanup and asked the city to better…