St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson announced Tuesday plans to build a tiny house community for people who are homeless. The planned development will be located at 900 N. Jefferson Ave., the site of the former St. Louis RV Park.
The community will include 50 tiny houses for adults. There will be 40 single houses, eight doubles, and two houses that are ADA compliant. Each dwelling will have room for a bed, desk, chair, shelving unit, heat and air conditioning, and a charging unit for electronic devices.
In a news conference streamed live on Facebook, Krewson said the first year of the lease will be financed with more than $600,000 in federal CARES Act funds St. Louis received this year to address the effects of the coronavirus. People will begin to move into the homes by Dec. 1.
Krewson said individuals who want to stay in one of the houses must be screened through the existing Homeless Missourians Information System and will be placed in a tiny house based upon a referral.
“With this investment, we’ll be able to create new opportunities for temporary, transitional housing and better protect our unhoused neighbors, who remain at risk of contracting this dangerous virus. I’m grateful to my staff and the various city departments who came together collaboratively and proactively to prioritize this project and the needs of the most vulnerable among us,” Krewson said.
The houses range from 80 to 96 square feet will serve as transitional housing for residents for about four to five months while case workers try to find them permanent shelter, according to news reports. Krewson was scheduled to ask the Board of Estimate and Apportionment to approve the proposed lease during a virtual meeting at 2 p.m. Wednesday.
This will be the second tiny home community for homeless people in St. Louis. Kansas City, Mo.-based non-profit, Veterans Community Project, built 50 similar for veterans who are homeless near North Grand Boulevard and Aldine Avenue in north St. Louis.
Krewson’s announcement comes as the winter months are approaching, temperatures are dropping and local organizations have concerns about people who will be left out in the cold.
John Lunardini, senior vice president of Catholic Charities, expressed his concern, saying phone calls to the organization from families on the verge of losing their homes have jumped 300 percent.
On Nov. 6, St. Louis officials extended the suspension on evictions through the end of the year, as new COVID-19 cases continued to rise in the region.
The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, also known as the CARES, is a $2.2 trillion economic stimulus bill passed by U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Donald Trump on March 27 in response to the economic fallout of the pandemic in the United States.
As of Monday, there were 10,503 COVID-19 cases diagnosed in St. Louis and 223 deaths due to symptoms of the virus since the beginning of the year.