The nights are long in a cesspool of drugs and overdoses, with only the hum of interstate traffic and the occasional police and ambulance siren to break up the hours.
But if the โbudgetโ hotels are at the center of a crisis of drugs and prostitution, what happens in the clearer light of day? At many of the hotels, a school bus pulls up and picks up children.
In Baton Rouge, and probably a lot of other places, the literally deadly problem of addiction is also a housing problem, as people with nowhere else to go end up at cheap and short-term places to rent.
A team of reporters from ถถา๕h found the centers of the epidemic of overdose deaths at the string of budget hotels, typically along the Interstate 12 corridor.
In 2021, 311 people died of a drug overdose in the parish, according to the Coroner's Office. That's an almost 30% increase from 2020, the previous all-time high.
The core of that deadly surge is a four-mile strip of eight budget hotels along I-12. There have been 135 Emergency Medical Services calls for overdoses at those hotels since the start of 2021, EMS and law enforcement data shows. They are the deadliest spots for overdoses.
And, of course, dens of iniquity donโt tend to limit themselves to single-source sin: Hundreds of 911 calls have emanated from the same businesses over the year.
Reporters from ถถา๕h followed up on the tragically commonplace deadly shooting of a 32-year-old woman at the Oyo Motel in April. After the killing, they reported that Baton Rouge police had responded to 11 shootings, 11 assaults, 13 burglaries, seven weapons-related โdisturbances,โ four fights, 28 overdoses and a hit-and-run at the motel within the previous 15 months, but no action had been taken against the motel operator.
And that is years after the Metro Council passed an ordinance mandating that hotels and motels apply for permits through the city-parish. The city-parish can suspend or revoke those permits because of activity that "negatively impacts the health, safety and welfareโ of guests or people who live nearby. Activity to be tracked includes how many law enforcement calls are logged at locations over a short period of time.
Yet as always, in dealing with shutting down private businesses, city-parish officials pointed out that the ordinance might have legal problems on issues like identifying operators out of compliance and lacking an appeals process. And the social evils and corpses keep piling up at the hotels and motels.
While itโs pretty obvious that the city-parish government hasnโt been taking the problem seriously enough, the fact is that society hasnโt been particularly caring about these venues for what some consider disposable livesย โ too many people seeking out drugs and sex in the cheap hotels. It's also obvious that operators have few qualms about profiting off these peopleย โ acting as slumlords, if you willย โ without worrying about the consequences.
We worry that after the next big hurricane, these hotels that are deficient in bedding and plumbing will be housing more families with children, folks with no place else to go.
While the operators will get a nice subsidy from the U.S. government for crappy rooms, we wonder how kids surrounded with the worst impulses of humanity will grow up. The ideals that they will be taught in school wonโt be reflected in what they see, even if their guardians are doing their best to shield them.ย
We have a drug and crime problem, but also a housing problem.