OPELOUSAS, La. — Neighbors past and present are concerned about some seniors living down Caddo Street.
"I would like to see the street, the neighborhood, the surrounding area like it used to be; not just torn down houses, people going into them just having a good time with drinking and alcohol and drugs," said Ray Fontenot, a former neighbor.
Fontenot is mostly concerned about the blighted properties.
"They just attract the wrong kind of people; they come in there and spend the weekend in there, overnight, and they end up making the house look like a drug house," said Fontenot."
The city has already knocked down a few, but Fontenot says the problems still need to be solved.
"This is one of our older areas in town, so you are going to have a lot of older homes; people that moved away, and that's why we are fighting to revitalize and revive Opelousas," said Opelousas Police Chief Graig Twin Leblanc
After hearing the concerns, the chief of OPD took a walk in the neighborhood, talking to residents about how to improve the area.
OPD says there have only been six calls made in the last month, but he is taking every complaint seriously. But he says it's hard battling crime without the staffing the police department lacks.
"One of those is a shortage due to a lack of pay; we can't do this by collecting a mere seven mills; we have a millage in the ballot for 20; we need the people of Opelousas to invest in their city," said Leblanc
But for now, Fontenot says the complaints are more like cries for help.
"We want them to have the opportunity, like years ago, to be able to walk down the streets like they used to and visit their neighbors, but we can't have that with all the drug activity," said Fontenot.
We reached out to the city regarding the blighted properties. One property is in the process of being condemned, and another is set to go through rehabilitation.
