Louisiana Voice

Just how bad is housing affordability in the U.S.?

So bad that Republicans and Democrats were actually able to come together long enough to send a rare bipartisan bill, the 21^st Century ROAD to Housing Act to Diaper Don to sign into law in the Oval Office.

But of course, the unpredictable, petulant Trump flip-flopped at the 11^th hour, saying he would not sign the bill until Congress passed legislation requiring proof of citizenship for all voters—despite the existence of federal laws that already say quite explicitly that non-citizens cannot vote and despite any actual evidence that any non-citizens have voted in any elections.

Trump has chosen to ignore the plight of Americans who are increasingly feeling the pinch of housing costs, what with his Iran war- and tariff-driven inflation has done to the cost of living. But never mind all that, he wants a voter-suppression bill passed to ensure the Republicans maintain control of Congress at all costs (no pun intended).

Besides the increased cost of building materials, why has the cost of housing escalated so much?

Because corporations and hedge funds are snapping up houses and charging exorbitant rents because…. they can. Meanwhile, the housing market tightens up for prospective homebuyers who are forced to turn to apartments with high rent and hundreds of dollars in hidden monthly fees that—again, the hedge fund and corporate owners—gouge apartment dwellers with because they can—and do

Only yesterday, The Guardian ran an in-depth story about how Greystar, the biggest owner and operator of apartments in U.S., with nearly 977,000 units nationwide, soaks its tenants with a plethora of fees that defy reason. The publication identified 125 DIFFERENT FEES in leases, court documents and rental listings for Greystar apartments.

They include such charges as “boiler management fees,” “variable refrigerant flow fees” (whatever in the world those are), “solar rebill” fees and even something called “lifestyle fees.” Together, they can add hundreds of dollars to already out-of-control base rental fees.

Greystar owns three large apartment complexes totaling several hundred units in Baton Rouge—Bend on Bluebonnet, Paramount at Cedar Lodge and Blu on the Boulevard. Base rent ranges from $1,346 to $4,233 per month.

In addition to the monthly base rent, there are the “required monthly fees: $80 per month fee for cable, $3 monthly for pest control services, $25 per month for trash services.

Then, there are the optional fees. If you have a pet, there is a $20 per month fee. You’ll pay $50 per month to park in the covered parking area or $100 per month to park in the garage and renters’ liability and content coverage will cost another $13 per month.

Of course, we couldn’t forget the required one-time fees which include $400 to $600 security deposit, a $50 fee just to apply for an apartment rental and an administrative fee of $150.

There are also other optional one-time fees. Those include a pet fee (over and above the monthly fee) of $300 to $500 and a security deposit which ranges from $1,346 to $4,233.

And there are the “additional fees.” If you should lose say, the remote for the TV, it’ll cost you to replace it. That fee is from $35 to $50, depending on which device needs replacing. An early lease termination will cost you anywhere from $2,692 to $8,466. There’s something called an “intra-community transfer fee ($300), a late fee ($134 to $423), legal/eviction fees which can vary, something called “payment services – alternative” ($18), “payment services – third party” (varies), pet management – third party ($30), a reletting fee that runs from $1,144 to $3,598, “renters liability only – non-compliance” ($8), a returned payment fee ($25), a utility- vacant cost recovery fee and a utility-vacant processing fee, both of which vary.

A quick tally reveals those add-ons could cost you between $4,400 and $7,340 over and above your monthly rental.

In San Diego, where Blackstone Properties owns about 6,000 units, multiply that by only a few of the add-on fees, and you have a pretty substantial side hustle of a couple hundred thousand dollars per month.

As another online news service, Popular Information, points out, one overriding factor in the high cost of apartment living is the concentration in ownership. Private equity firms presently own somewhere around 11,800 apartment complexes with nearly 3 million units (about 13 percent of all apartment units in the U.S.). It’s even higher in states like Georgia (almost one-third) and North Carolina (about 25 percent).

There’s another little trick these private equity firms employ to maximize their bottom line: the firms acquire buildings funded by low-income housing tax credits at a low cost while rent restrictions still apply. Then, once those restrictions expire, the rents are increased and they sell the properties for a large profit. With half-a-million units in the U.S. whose rent restrictions will be lifted by the end of the decade, there are big bucks to be made. Blackstone, for example, has focused on this tactic, spending over $5 billion on purchasing low-income housing in 2021 alone.

Meanwhile, tenants are being squeezed but investors are fat and happy.

There has been one HOUSING MARKET BUBBLE to burse in recent memory.

Could we be headed toward another one?

It’s got to be the lingering effects of Agent Orange’s trailer park cage fight on the White House lawn. There can be no other logical explanation.

Whatever it is, a trio of men representing the institutions of law enforcement, the judiciary and most recently, spiritual inspiration have engaged in various forms of fisticuffs and mud ‘rasslin’, two of which appear to have been helped along with the aid of devil al-ke-hol.

And it’s cost one of those involved his career with the plea bargain of St. Tammany Parish SHERIFF RANDY SMITH who agreed to resign from office following an encounter May 29 in which he pounced on social media critic Bobby Couvillion in a Madisonville restaurant after running up a courage-boosting $346 bar tab.

Lost in all the hoopla over Smith’s confrontation with Couvillion was the simultaneous resignation of Smith’s Chief Deputy, Jeff Boehm, who stepped down Monday “in the best interest of the agency…”

That prompted the immediate question: Why is his resignation in the “best interest” of the sheriff’s office? All we could find online was a single sentence that said, “His departure comes amid significant internal turmoil within the office.”

Bret Ibert was promoted to Chief Deputy upon Boehm’s resignation and will now move up to interim sheriff until an election can be held for a permanent sheriff–permanent being a somewhat relevant term in St. Tammany Parish.

From over here in Livingston, two parishes removed, it would appear the St. Tammany Sheriff’s Office is in dire need of a general housecleaning. The previous sheriff was defeated for reelection by Smith and his subsequent arrest in 2019 on state charges of rape, incest and indecent behavior with a juvenile.

But, hey, that’s ancient history when we have ongoing brawls to turn our attention to, right?

Like 23^rd JDC JUDGE STEVEN TRUEAU, who back on 2023 got involved in his own altercation that ended with his honor and two women sprawled amongst the garbage and mud behind a Gonzales restaurant. The story became current again when the Louisiana Judiciary Commission set a September hearing date to consider charges against the robed rogue.

AND NOW LAAAAY-DEEEES and GEN-TEEEL-MEN—the main event of the evening! In this corner, in dark blue pinstriped suit, red tie and holding a Bible, here to protect his sheep…..REV-REND TONNNNEEE SPELLLLLL!

And in the other corner, the emerging challenger, the 20-year-old mystery man.

Spell, pastor of Life Tabernacle Church, REFUSED TO TURN THE OTHER CHEEK and instead, charged his adversary following a not-so-Christian exchange during which Spell says the neighbor, in the bravado of pre-fight hype, threatened to rape and kill his family. A video of their neighborly encounter appears to show the younger man throwing the first punch but it was Spell who finished matters, pummeling his younger opponent convincingly enough get the good reverend arrested for second-degree battery.

“I’m a pastor who shepherds his flock,” he said. “It’s not the job of the sheep to attack the wolves; it’s the job of the shepherd to protect his sheep.”

Back at his Tuesday night services after bonding out of jail, Spell told his congregation that he fulfilled the scripture by laying hands on the sick. “I don’t know how much recovery they’re going to have, but I laid hands on them.”

North Louisiana Medical Center in Ruston appears to be on life support following a devastating laundry list of deficiencies found during a five-day inspection tour of the center last month by an eight-person team from the Louisiana Department of Health.

The medical center, once the pride of north central Louisiana, was given until Wednesday (June 24) to submit a comprehensive plan of correction to the LDH Health Standards Section or face the prospect of losing its Medicare status and possibly even its hospital’s license and/or certification.

Among the findings included in the 87-page report by LDH:

• Staffing logs for the third-floor Progressive Care Unit revealed eight shifts where no RN was scheduled to work.
• Failure to ensure adequate numbers of RNs, LPNs, and support staff to provide nursing care to all patients.
• Failure to ensure a registered nurse was immediately available on each unit of the hospital at all times.
• Unsanitary conditions in the hospital kitchen, insects in the windows of some ICU rooms.
• Patient call bells that reportedly hadn’t worked for several months.
• Patients going unmonitored
• Dried red or brown residue and spatters on furniture and bedframes
• Clean and dirty equipment stored together because the hospital was out of tags to mark clean items.
• An emergency room patient who apparently slipped through the procedural cracks and suffered a medical emergency unsupervised because the LPN apparently assigned to the patient didn’t know anything about the patient or having been given her care.
• No specific policy regarding assessment or reassessment of patients in the emergency department
• Eight patients on telemetry monitoring, but only five who were actually being monitored. (Leads were off the other three.) 
• Failure to ensure that patients received care in a safe setting.

Federal Medicare Requirements for hospitals participating in Medicare require:  

• An adequate number of registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, and other personnel to meet patient needs.
• A registered nurse must supervise and evaluate nursing care.
• An RN must be immediately available for patient care needs.
• Staffing must be based on patient acuity and census.

Louisiana licensing rules similarly require hospitals to:

• Maintain sufficient nursing personnel at all times
• Provide qualified staff appropriate to patient needs.
• Ensure nursing services are organized and supervised by qualified nursing leadership.

To be assigned to ER, ICU or Labor and Delivery, one is required to be an RN.

Alluding to the ER patient who “slipped through the cracks,” one observer, a healthcare professional, said the surveyors would have likely asked a number of followup questions:

• Who assigned the patient?
• Why wasn’t the patient entered into the system?
• Why was there no documented RN triage assessment?
• Who was responsible for monitoring the patient?
• Why wasn’t the assigned nurse aware of the patient?
• What polity existed for reassessment of ER patients
• Was there adequate staffing that day?

“It seems that Bordelon would rather hire an LPN [and] pay a lower hourly rate of pay compared to that of an RN. It looks as though the LPNs at NLMC are practicing outside THEIR SCOPE OF NURSING,” the observer said.

It is particularly noteworthy that the LDH report cited the “governing body.” When surveyors cite governance failures, they essentially are saying that oversight failures occurred at the highest, or administrative, levels. At NLMC, those would be the CEO and CNO.

NLMC must submit a plan that is “specific, realistic,” detailing how the deficient practice[s] will be prevented from recurring, according to Interim Deputy Assistant Secretary of LDH’s Health Standards Section Cecile Castello.

The plan will be reviewed by the Health Standards Section which will then conduct an unannounced site visit to determine compliance. If found still out of compliance, a recommendation will be made to the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services that NLMC’s Medicare provider agreement be terminated effective Aug. 30.

That would mean a virtual death sentence for NLMC in that it would no longer be able to treat Medicare patients and could not receive Medicare reimbursement for eligible services.

NLMC is part of a widespread network of medical facilities headquartered in Bossier City and run by Allegiance Health Management. Most are in Louisiana.

The IRS has filed federal tax liens against NLMC for not paying about $9.4 million in payroll taxes. Vendors also have gone unpaid and the hospital currently has an occupancy rate of only about 25 percent with staff reportedly at a number insufficient to care for that many

IRS tax liens were filed against a number of other of the facilities run by Allegiance and its owner, Rock Bordelon, who claims the liens have since been settled.

Monica Adams was recently named to replace Kathy Hall as Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Also named to the hospital’s administrative positions were Jennifer Patton as Chief Nursing Officer (CNO) and Arnie Young, Chief Operating Officer (COO).

Left to right: Jennifer Patton, Monica Adams, Arnie Young.

Adams has run several facilities for Bordelon, most recently as CEO of Winn Medical Center in Winnfield. Winn Medical is another of Allegiance-affiliated entities.

The timing of the administrative shakeup at NLMC is especially interesting. The LDH team conducted its survey in late May. The new executive team at NLMC was publicly announced on June 8 and LDH released its findings on June 19.

Adams, as might be expected anytime there is a crisis of any kind, be it airline safety, worker safety issues or medical care, invoked the time-honored “HP clause,” in something of a 3-for-1 catch-all assurance, saying, “Patient safety, quality care and regulatory compliance remain our highest priorities.”

Though the future of NLMC is up in the air for the moment, it’s not like Rock Bordelon doesn’t have friends in high places. He does.

He hunts with Donald Trump, Jr., he’s generous with his campaign contributions, almost exclusively to Republican candidates, and in giving rides to key government officials.

He and his company, Allegiance Health, has given more than $380,000 in campaign money to Republican candidates, including more than $35,000 to Jeff Landry and his political action committee, Cajun PAC II.

In 2024, he provided FREE AIR TRANSPORTATION to and from Washington, D.C. for key state health care officials, including then-Surgeon General Ralph Abraham, Health Secretary Michael Harrington, Deputy Health Secretary Peter Croughan, Health Undersecretary Drew Maranto and health department general counsel Nicholas Gachassin (who should have known better).

The officials were in the Washington area for discussions with officials with the U.S. Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services, the federal agency which has considerable sway over how much hospitals, doctors and other health care providers receive in payments for providing treatment of Medicaid patients.

Only a couple of weeks before that trip, Landry unilaterally INCREASED MEDICAID PAYMENTS by $22 million to seven hospitals, four of which are owned by Bordelon. The action came less than a month after the state health department said it might be forced to cut services for children and those with disabilities because of an impending budget deficit.

Landry’s decision to increase payments and the comped flights for state officials came six years after Allegiance agreed to PAY $1.7 MILLION to the federal government to avoid litigation alleging it had overcharged Medicare for unnecessary outpatient therapy services.

NOTE: Names of the students had been redacted but were somehow visible when copies of the transcripts were posted. That was by error and the images of the transcripts have subsequently been removed.

An anonymous whistleblower complaint alleging falsification of student academic records and graduation eligibility at Haughton High School in Bossier Parish has been forwarded by email to the Louisiana Legislative Auditor Michael Waguespack and to Louisiana Department of Education Superintendent Cade Brumley. The sender copied LouisianaVoice with the complaint.

The complaint, while citing specific actions on the part of administrative personnel at the school, does not identify anyone by name. The letter’s author self-identified only as a “concerned employee,” presumably of the Bossier Parish School Board.

“On or about May 14, 2026 (two days prior to graduation), six senior transcripts at Haughton High School were reportedly deemed to be academically ineligible for graduation due to missing coursework and unmet graduation requirements,” the complaint says.

“Following those findings, it is my understanding and belief that counseling staff, with approval and direction from school administration, altered official student records in order to make certain students eligible for graduation,” the three-page letter says, adding that the actions were “allegedly carried out with the knowledge and approval of Haughton High School administration.”

The conduct, according to the letter, reportedly included:

• Changing grades and course classifications;
• Adding credits and coursework after students had already been deemed ineligible;
• Entering grades for courses students did not actually take;
• Creating transcript entries for courses not offered at Haughton High School;
• Fabricating grades and coursework for classes not actually attended or completed…

One specific example involved the addition of “Speech II” to a student transcript despite the fact that Haughton High School does not offer that course within its curriculum and the student allegedly never took the class. Another example included credit for a science not offered at Haughton High and changing another science grade from a “C” to an “A” to make the student immediately eligible for graduation. 

One of the individuals involved had reportedly been previously disciplined for changing grades in the past, raising serious concerns regarding repeated misconduct and lack of internal controls, the letter says.

“There is also widespread concern among employees that [one of those involved] was specifically moved into the senior counselor position, by higher-level parish administration this year, because she was willing to facilitate actions designed to artificially improve graduation statistics and school performance metrics,” it says. “Employees further believe Haughton administration gave counseling staff the ‘green light’ to manipulate records in order to protect graduation rates and school achievement scores.”

The letter’s author said one individual “did not even possess her own system passcode or access credentials until May 2026. “This raises significant questions regarding how mid-term grades, transcript modifications, or other academic record entries may have been submitted prior to that date, including whether another employee’s credentials or administrative access were utilized. It also raises concerns regarding whether another individual may have been performing work, entering grades, or modifying records … prior to her receiving official system access credentials.”

If substantiated, it said, the actions may constitute:

• Fraudulent alteration of official public records;
• False reporting to state education authorities;
• Unauthorized access or misuse of academic record systems;
• Violations of Louisiana Department of Education graduation standards;
• Potential misuse of state and federal funding tied to accountability metrics and graduation performance.

“The implications are substantial. Artificially inflating graduation rates, school achievement scores, and academic performance metrics impacts state accountability reporting, public trust, school rankings, and potentially the allocation of taxpayer-funded state and federal education resources.

“This conduct undermines every legitimate diploma earned by students who completed graduation requirements honestly and damages confidence in the integrity of Bossier Parish Schools.”

The letter’s author requested:

1. An immediate independent investigation into all transcript and graduation-status changes made at Haughton High School during the 2025–2026 school year;
2. Preservation of all electronic records, transcript audit logs, emails, login records, and internal communications;
3. A forensic review of all course additions, grade changes, counselor access logs, administrative approvals, and user credential activity;
4. Verification that all courses appearing on affected transcripts were legitimately offered and completed;
5. A review of prior disciplinary findings involving transcript or grade manipulation by counseling staff;
6. Protection for employees who report misconduct or cooperate with investigators under applicable Louisiana whistleblower protections.

“This complaint is submitted in good faith and in the interest of protecting the integrity of public education, academic records, and taxpayer-funded educational programs,” it concluded.

LouisianaVoice contacted both the Legislative Auditor’s office and the Louisiana Department of Education to determine if the emails had been received and if any official action was planned on the claims. The auditor’s office’s legal affairs representative said they respond to inquiries about complaints only to the complaintant. The Education Department has not responded as of this writing.