During the 17 years she’s lived in the West End, Tonnie Smith has witnessed her fair share of bad and downright dangerous effects of disinvestment in her community. However, she’s also seen how the Neighborhood Advocacy program has turned things around in recent years by decreasing the vacant buildings in neighborhoods north of Delmar and the southeast communities in the city.
Neighborhood Advocacy program serves 16 neighborhoods in St. Louis, helping residents and community-based organizations to prevent and reduce vacancy and property abandonment. Smith says the program has encouraged residents to get involved in their community and to gather and discuss grievances and solutions.
Most active in Hyde Park, Dutchtown, and the West End communities, the program aids with environmental nuisances in these neighborhoods where industrial plants are located. These sites can cause health problems for nearby residents.
The advocacy data shows almost 6 percent of the City’s housing stock – 7,663 buildings and over 12,000 lots – are vacant. About 75 percent of the vacancies are in the region’s poorest neighborhoods. In 2018 Legal Services of Eastern Missouri launched Neighborhood Advocacy to help reverse decades of disinvestment and create neighborhoods that are safe, vibrant, and have economic opportunity.
“ Many of the property owners of the vacant buildings either don’t live in the neighborhood or never lived here before,” Smith said.
“So it’s not affecting them.” The West End resident feels scared when her neighborhood is riddled with vacant buildings frequently used for dealing and using drugs, sexual assaults and other criminal activity.
Peter Hoffman of Legal Services of Eastern Missouri and managing attorney for Neighborhood Advocacy said St.Louis City has the third highest vacancy rate in the country. In the last six years, the program has moved 300 vacant properties, which adds up to about $6 million of unsubsidized investment, Hoffman said. The advocacy group helps underserved areas with community development and neighborhood revitalization. These advocates partner with neighborhoods like Smith’s to take legal action in getting title clearance on vacant properties.
Missouri laws allow neighborhoods to take legal action to help create a pipeline to get the abandoned properties back to good use. Hoffman says the most common issues with the vacant properties are out-of-state owners, property owned by an LLC, liens on the property, and a deceased owner.
Neighborhood Advocacy partners with the community members to help guide the program’s strategy on setting priorities for residents. Pro bono cases have helped scale the cost for those seeking legal action. Partnerships with bigger law firms have helped expand the initiative, Smith said. Attorneys participate in neighborhood clean-ups and then find themselves even more interested in taking on some of the cases. The St. Louis Vacancy Collaborative, a non-profit, holds forums and provides data to help locate vacant properties.
Smith told the St. Louis American some of the owners have no idea their property is a nuisance, and are unaware of the shady activities taking place. In one instance the neighborhood association connected a non-active property owner with Hoffman. Shortly thereafter, the owner decided it was best to sell his building to a new owner who came in and renovated the property.
“It’s an asset to the neighborhood,” said Smith.
Funding from St. Louis City, the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, and the St. Louis Development Corporation SLDC has helped the program move forward in decreasing the number of vacant buildings.
“The City has supported the idea of neighborhoods getting legal action,” said Hoffman.
According to Hoffman, once the legal barriers on the vacant properties are removed people will buy them and renovate them. “Once the redevelopment starts to happen the value goes up,” he said.
“ It has a synergistic effect when we can get these properties back to productive use.”
Ashley Winters is a Report for America reporter for the St. Louis American.