Several political and community leaders said they were outraged that the Slay administration executed a “poor” plan for relocating about 125 homeless residents living at the New Life Evangelistic Center’s homeless shelter on 1411 Locust St.
For four years, downtown residents and business owners – along with some city officials – have been trying to close the doors on the shelter, run by Rev. Larry Rice. Recently, a circuit court judge approved the city’s “cease and desist order” because the shelter had been operating without an occupancy permit since 2015. This order allowed the city to shut down the privately run shelter on April 2.
That day, an estimated 75 men went to live in a temporary shelter – a warehouse used by the city’s Forestry Division to store gardening equipment, city-owned vehicles and certain chemicals. The “St. Louis Weed Control” building is located near the Biddle House, the city’s new homeless shelter in the majority-black Carr Square neighborhood. About 50 homeless women went to live in the 12th and Park Recreation Center, which put a stop to a number of afterschool programs for children in the surrounding neighborhood.
“It was a poor exit strategy,” said state Sen. Jamilah Nasheed. “How do you take individuals and put them in a warehouse not meant for human inhabitants? We have children out on the street now that their afterschool programs have ceased. It’s appalling.”
Eddie Roth, director of human services who led the relocation effort, said the plan wasn’t perfect but it is only temporary. The city’s Building Division deemed the warehouse a safe place to live, he said. And the city commits to being out of the rec center by the end of the school year.
“Is it ideal for the long term?” Roth asked. “No, it doesn’t have plumbing available. There’s Porta-Pottys and handwashing stations. It is not luxurious, but it provides a safe, reasonable, inspected, lawful shelter that’s 500 feet away from an excellent facility” in Biddle House.
On March 31, ArchCity Defenders and Saint Louis University School of Law Legal Clinic filed a class-action lawsuit in state court against the City of St. Louis, arguing that it violated state law when it warehoused the homeless men in “an uninhabitable temporary shelter.”
“Warehousing 100 men experiencing homelessness in a garage away in a low-income community of color is not a solution,” said Thomas B. Harvey, ArchCity Defenders executive director. “This is a crisis of [the city’s] own making.”
Harvey said after spending four years trying to close New Life, the Slay administration had plenty of time to come up with better shelter – and alert the community about those plans.
On April 7, Harvey and his team reached a settlement with the city, which stated that the city would close the temporary shelter on North 13th Street no later than June 5. The city can no longer store chemicals, lawn mowers or vehicles in the warehouse. The settlement also requires the city not to use the Forestry Division’s buildings as a place for human habitation in the future.
Harvey said city authorities didn’t collaborate with the members of the Continuum of Care – which is made up of 70 groups who are dedicated to aiding the homeless – about where the New Life residents would be moved. He said those groups could have helped come up with a better plan.
Roth said that the city asked for help in several areas, but it did not include the Continuum of Care in identifying the locations.
Roth estimates that it could take as long as a year and as much as $1 million to place the New Life residents into a regular shelter or housing. Because of the expense for the temporary shelters, Roth estimates that the first 60 days after New Life’s closing will cost the city $214,000.
The director at the 12th and Park Recreation Center, along with community members, only learned about the city’s intent to transform the center into a temporary shelter the weekend that it happened, said Marty Murray Jr., the 7th Ward Democratic committeeman.
“It’s a shock to the community,” Murray said. “I’m not even certain that the plan of action was thoroughly thought out. They didn’t give fair notice to the community.”
Murray said about 50 children use the center after school for basketball, dance lessons, tutoring and a safe place to hang out. The youth boxing program has continued, but some recreational activities for adults have also ceased.
Nasheed said she grew up in the neighborhood and the recreation center was her safe haven. She said the needs of people who use the rec center and others in the community were ignored to placate upper-income downtown residents.
“There was communication with those residents to get the homeless away from Washington Avenue,” Nasheed said. “Then why didn’t they do all they could to reach out to this community? We have too many kids dying on the streets, and now we have taken away their safe haven.”
