Nick Chrastil

Feb 12, 2025 | thelensnola.org | Nick Chrastil

The state-run homeless shelter hastily assembled last month came as a surprise to two key people within City Hall: Nate Fields, director of the city’s office of Homelessness Services and Strategy, and Lesli Harris, the City Councilperson most involved in homelessness issues. In mid-January, about a month before the Super Bowl, Gov. Jeff Landry had announced the imminent construction of the “Transitional Center,” a 200-bed congregate homeless shelter in an uninsulated warehouse.

Feb 1, 2025 | thelensnola.org | Nick Chrastil

Last summer, in July, a group of influential New Orleanians gathered, with hopes of preparing the city for a national spotlight ahead of Super Bowl LIX. Michael Hecht, the CEO Of Greater New Orleans Inc., who was tapped by Governor Jeff Landry to lead Super Bowl preparation efforts, informed the group that the GNO Inc. “internal Super Bowl team” had taken a drive around the Lower 9th Ward, checking out beautification and infrastructure needs in the neighborhood.

Jan 15, 2025 | thelensnola.org | Nick Chrastil |Katy Reckdahl

On Monday afternoon, Joe Ferrara pulled his roller suitcase down the shoulder of a long stretch of France Road in Gentilly. Behind him was the Interstate 10 high rise bridge, the Danziger Bridge and its mess of concrete, train tracks. Parallel to this industrial stretch of France Road was a ditch filled with water, more railroad tracks and the Industrial Canal. A cold breeze blew from Lake Pontchartrain less than a mile away. This part of France Road is not a street made for foot traffic.

Dec 26, 2024 | thelensnola.org | Nick Chrastil |Lawson Strickland

Strickland’s short story, “Waiting,” won the PEN Prison Writing Award for Fiction, and will be published in the forthcoming 2024 edition of the PEN Prison Writing Awards Anthology. It’s also published here by The Lens. What is your writing process like? When and where do you get your writing done? This has varied over time. For 23 years, I was confined to solitary, which afforded me all of the time I ever needed to write.

Dec 16, 2024 | thelensnola.org | Nick Chrastil

With hopes of getting state funding to expand, renovate, and build new jails and juvenile detention facilities around the state, local governments in Louisiana have submitted applications to a criminal justice funding commission requesting more than $500 million. Only a limited portion of those requests are likely to be filled — at least for now. Through a bill passed this fall, the state has set aside between $100 million and $150 million for a new correctional construction boom.