Early on Monday, January 8, a group of about 15 activists delivered a wake-up call to St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson. They stood in front of Krewson’s Central West End home banging pots and pans and demanding that she come outside to speak with them. They were there to protest what they see as an inadequate response by the city to the plight of the homeless.
When the mayor finally emerged, she was met with a strange sight: a port-a-potty and two dumpsters, on her front porch.
These objects, large and blue and made of cardboard, were meant to call Krewson’s attention to their feelings that the city has failed to protect its homeless population – particularly in response to two individuals who succumbed to the frigid temperatures. In the past two weeks, a man named Grover Perry was found frozen to death in a port-a-potty, and another 54-year-old man (name unknown) was found frozen to death in a dumpster.
“This is what we feel like the city is calling a 24-hour emergency walk-in shelter: a port-a-potty and a dumpster,” activist Lisa Winter said. “And we think it’s just a disgrace. Nobody should have to shelter themselves in a port-a-potty or dumpster, and really it’s the failure of the city, who for three years waged a battle against Larry Rice, saying that his shelter was inadequate, and then provided no viable alternative.”
Last summer, Rev. Larry Rice’s New Life Evangelistic Center – the largest homeless shelter in the area – was shut down by the city due to hygiene and overcrowding concerns, in an effort spearheaded by downtown residents who have homes. It left the city with 300 less shelter beds this winter than before.
“I understand,” Krewson said. “I’m very distressed at the entire homeless situation.”
Most of the protestors outside her house were volunteers who have been working every night for the past two weeks, unpaid, to get people on the streets into shelters or at least give them a good meal and a blanket.
“We’re not here to just judge you,” said Derek Laney of Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment. “We’re here to implore you to do something. Because it’s not adequate. What’s happening is not adequate. We are here because we see it. We’re going out every night and we’re finding people. We are finding people on the street who would otherwise freeze to death or have hypothermia.”
“Well, this does take volunteers and government,” Krewson responded.
The activists wanted to know why so much of the burden has fallen on volunteers to do this life-or-death job of helping our city’s most vulnerable residents. Three new churches opened their doors as emergency shelters this past week, without any funding or official sanction from the city.
“We find money to do the things that people with resources want to have done,” Laney told the mayor. “We find money for stadiums, we find money for tax incentives, we find money for all those things. But we’re saying that the homeless population is as important or more important than those people who have resources.”
Before heading back inside, Krewson told the protestors if they wanted to get things done, they should schedule an appointment at City Hall.
“I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t wake up all my neighbors,” Krewson said. “They didn’t run for mayor, I did.”
As the mayor requested, the group took their concerns to City Hall about three hours later. They tried to bring their cardboard port-a-potty and dumpsters inside City Hall, but were stopped in their tracks by a guard at the metal detector.
Organizer Elizabeth Vega explained that the mayor asked them to come to City Hall to schedule an appointment, “so we are.”
“What rule says we can’t bring a box into the building?” one protestor said. “I don’t have a firearm, I don’t have a knife, I don’t have mace.”
As it became increasingly clear they would not leave the lobby, a harried representative from the mayor’s office was sent to speak with the group. A meeting with the mayor was scheduled tentatively for January 16.
“We had a guy in a couple nights ago that they could not take off his shoes because his shoes had frozen to his feet,” Winter said. “They could not remove his shoes to warm them up. We’re seeing frostbite so bad, there’s open wounds all over people’s hands and feet from trying to survive on the street. And they are our neighbors. I know that Lyda says she cares, and that’s amazing. But I want to see more than her just saying she’s sad in a tweet from the city. We want to hold the city accountable to its plan. We want it to be transparent.”
