ST. LOUIS — A push to transform the city’s approach to caring for the homeless is running into some delays.
Aldermanic President Megan Green postponed a press conference on Friday where she and allies were supposed to introduce an Unhoused Bill of Rights and other bills.
Then the alderwoman tasked with carrying the legislation said she’s not sure the board will support it.
The bills are supposed to inaugurate a new approach to the unhoused in St. Louis, and commit officials to treating people living on the streets with more respect and restraint.
One of the bills would clear the way for more shelters by eliminating neighbors’ power to vote down new facilities.
People are also reading…
The second, the bill of rights, is expected to bar the city from clearing encampments unless shelter beds are available, and require the establishment of “safe camping areas” with 24-hour security and access to showers, toilets and social services for those don’t want to go to shelter.
Supporters are hoping that together, the bills will help build trust between the homeless and service providers, make shelters more accessible to those who need them, and ultimately make it easier to get people from tent to bed to home.
But when it came time for Alderwoman Alisha Sonnier, of Tower Grove East, to file the bills Wednesday for Friday’s Board of Aldermen meeting, it didn’t happen. Another plan to introduce the bills on the floor at Friday’s meeting was also scrapped.
Sonnier said she was still working with the mayor’s office and the city departments that would be tasked with carrying out the new policies. She said she’s also still figuring out the cost of the plans.
The bills, however, will definitely be coming next week, she said.
And she predicted they would test just how progressive the new board really is.
“When we talk about how we handle people in poverty, those are usually our hardest conversations,” she said.
And this one has already started.
Alderman Shane Cohn, of Dutchtown, said in a Planning Commission meeting earlier this month that he worried the proposed shelter policy would lead to facilities clustering in low-income neighborhoods like those he represents, and further concentrating poverty.
Alderwoman Anne Schweitzer, of Boulevard Heights, told the Bevo Mill neighborhood association last week that she didn’t think the plan had the votes.
And Mayor Tishaura O. Jones, who endorsed an unhoused bill of rights during her campaign, has been noncommittal. She says other area governments need to do more on the issue.
But she may also just be busy.
An encampment underneath her window at City Hall has nearly doubled in size in recent days, growing from 14 tents late last week to more than 25 this week.
The growth of the encampment has drawn new attention to the city’s struggle to properly shelter all of its homeless and created another eyesore downtown.
St. Louis officials are looking to improve on the homeless tent camp in front of City Hall: Ƶ want to set up their own.
City officials are taking aim at a rule that gives neighborhoods veto power on homeless shelters.
Robert Cohen has been a staff photographer at the Post-Dispatch for 23 years. His work following unrest in Ferguson after the killing of Michael Brown was part of the 2015 Pulitzer Prize in Breaking News Photography awarded to the photo staff. He was a finalist for a Pulitzer in 2010 for work documenting the plight of homeless families living in suburban motels during the recession. Most recently in 2021 he was a finalist for 'Photographer of the Year' in the Pictures of the Year International competition.
