Photograph: Bertheaud Avenue Home. (Photograph by Bobby Ardoin.)
BOBBY ARDOIN
Editor/Consulting Writer
A transitional woman’s home scheduled to be located at 221 West Bertheaud Avenue was approved last week to begin operation by the Opelousas Board of Aldermen.
Approval for Veterans Point homeless shelter was needed for Board approval since representatives for the facility are apparently converting a former residence into a dormitory-style rooming house for an estimated eight women.
Veronica Mallet, who spoke to the Board and requested approval of the zoning variance, said the women who occupy the facility will be considered transitional residents.
“The shelter will allow these women to transition to more permanent housing and receive resources that are available to them,” said Mallet.
Code Enforcement Director Margaret Doucet said the women at Veteran’s Point are not expected to live at the shelter for an extended period.
Doucet added that representatives for Veteran’s Point received approval for the zoning variance request from the City Planning Commission the day before the Board meeting Feb. 14 at City Hall.
Veterans Point, Doucet said, doesn’t qualify as a group home.
Operation of Veterans Point said Doucet will also not be regulated by the city, following an initial municipal inspection.
Instead residents will be monitored by the Veterans Administration, according to Doucet.
The women who live at the facility, Doucet added, will be assigned VA case workers who will supervise their progress.
Doucet did not indicate during her presentation before the Board whether any residents living along Bertheaud had been notified or objected to changing the residential variance in order to accommodate the development of the facility.
Mallet however appears to have previous experience advocating for veterans’ issues in Opelousas.
In a 2021 article posted on the KATC-TV website, Mallet and her husband opened an assistance program for veterans located inside a pair of rooms formerly used by North Elementary at 308 West Martin Luther King Jr. Drive in Opelousas.
Mallet, who was interviewed for the story, said her operation at the former school would provide benefits, items, mental health assistance and career support for what she described as homeless and struggling veterans.
