Christopher Gladney took to the mic at a Northside Independent Neighborhood Association meeting in O’Fallon in late August.
“I've been a business owner for the past 25 years, and I just really want to see what is the best way forward for the north side,” said Gladney, an O’Fallon resident and president of the group. “How can we practically change our conditions that we face here?”
Nearly 20 residents from all over the north side of St. Louis sat in rows of chairs in the Uhuru House on West Florissant Avenue in the city’s O’Fallon neighborhood.
It was the group’s seventh meeting since its inception earlier this year, and everyone had one question on their minds following an EF3 tornado that cut through portions of the St. Louis region on May 16 and displaced hundreds: Where is the money?
Significant portions of the north side look like a wasteland since the storm, as piles of debris linger, and various community groups have taken it upon themselves to continue cleaning up the debris. Some residents say they fear it will remain this way if the government doesn’t provide adequate resources to rebuild homes and the economy.
“The primary concern from the community continues to be, where is the $30 million from the interest of the Rams money?” said Alison Hoehne, secretary of the Northside Independent Neighborhood Association, during the meeting in late August. “To date, the north side community has not seen a dime from the city, and now it seems all that money is going to certain nonprofits to administer, and the residents won't see any of it.”
Hoehne was right that some of the money is being given to certain nonprofits to administer. But St. Louis Board of Aldermen President Megan Green said this method helps the city disperse the funding faster — groups like United Way and Mission St. Louis have been assisting.
“The reason we structured it that way is because we would have to go through a much longer process to be able to give a grant to every individual organization,” Green said. “But if we can get one lump sum to an entity like the United Way, and then they get all those grants out, they can do it a lot faster than we can.”
United Way has been helping disperse grants to nonprofits that have exhausted their resources in tornado relief efforts. Eligible groups have until Sept. 19 to apply.
Mission St. Louis runs the city’s home repair program and has been helping disperse funds for contractors and home repairs, and other resources.
A total of $30 million in Rams settlement interest was designated toward relief efforts in June.
In early July, the mayor’s office announced that $18 million of those funds would help pay for meals, rental assistance, home repairs, nonprofit support and other needs. In addition, $1.2 million from Community Development Block Grants was also designated toward the efforts.
The State of Missouri also approved $100 million for St. Louis storm relief in June, but the money has not yet been distributed.
Last week, St. Louis Mayor Cara Spencer announced that the remaining $12 million of the $30 million in Rams settlement interest is being allocated for recovery. City officials said $5 million of that will help repair affordable, public and nonprofit vacant housing units.
Another $5.35 million will help bring dumpsters to private properties and allow nonprofits, community groups and consulting services to perform site assessments to allow city demolition and residential debris removal.
A bumpy road
Green, wearing a green dress, stood inside the Uhuru House on Aug. 26 and addressed the room. It was the same day as the FEMA deadline, and she explained why the city made certain decisions around relief funding and also took questions.
Some contractors can't be trusted, she said.
“Some of these contractors we've seen have taken money from folks and then never showed up to do the work,” Green said. “And so [Mission St. Louis has] gone through a list and [is] in the process of standing up that home repair program to be able to get dollars out to residents [for home repairs], or to pay contractors.”
Green sympathized with residents and said that she, too, wishes the city could move faster. She said the storm merely amplified the historical disinvestment on the north side that predated the tornado.
“We have a duty to put the north side back into a better condition than it was pre-tornado,” Green said. “But that's going to take all of us working together, from city government to community to corporate to philanthropic. … One of the most common questions I get is, ‘Why hasn't all the Rams money been spent yet?’
“Well, the reason for that is we want to make sure we do it right. We want to make sure that we do it with what your vision is for rebuilding, and not just what the Board of Aldermen vision is for rebuilding.”
Spencer said during a press conference last week that the city is accessing data from FEMA about how many people have been approved and denied assistance.
However, it still isn't clear exactly how much money has gone out to residents for rental assistance and housing repairs from the city.
“We are not done providing assistance to residents,” Spencer said. “How we go about doing that is an ongoing conversation. We just seeded an advisory board that will help drive some of that, and we've also opened up applications for a community-led advisory board, which will help us answer some of those questions … how to best allocate the resources that we have to families … as we move forward.”
It’s not enough
Wanda Dunn lives on Cora Avenue in the Ville and was approved for FEMA aid but says she only received $2,308.
“I didn’t get anything for the property,” Dunn said. “As a renter, I’m only qualified for personal damages. And the FEMA assessor didn’t list all of my damages — he didn’t believe my bed had gotten wet from my ceiling. But it had gotten wet, because the tarp that Samaritan’s Purse put on my roof was blown off.”
Dunn said one of the closets in her home also has a lot of mold due to a roof leak that drips inside every time it rains.
“They certainly don’t provide you with what you need to rebuild, only people whose homes were completely destroyed will they give you the maximum.”
She said she’s worried about her home because her landlord is considering selling the property since most of the homes on her street were severely damaged by the storm.
Chaunta Gibbs, 48, lives on an intersecting street, Cote Brilliante Avenue. She was neighbors with Delois Holmes, 70, who is one of the five people who died in the storm.
Cote Brilliante and Cora Avenues both look the same as they did in late May — some homes were nearly flattened by the tornado and mere remnants of other houses remain standing. Piles of wood and debris are also stacked outside some of the homes.
Gibbs owns a couple of properties on Cote Brilliante Avenue, and none of her homes was insured, she said. She said she received $10,000 from FEMA for roof repairs, but that it barely covers the cost of window replacements.
“If we homeowners, I guess you could try to hold us some type of accountability, like OK, you should have had insurance,” Gibbs said. “We can’t afford that if eggs (are) $10 a dozen. The pay is not going up. It’s like they want to keep their foot on our backs and then tell us to get up. How?”
Gibbs has lived in the Ville since 2011, and she said seeing her community void of people and full of debris is heartbreaking. She’s living in the county temporarily while she and her husband navigate how to finance full repairs to her home, which sustained significant damage to the roof.
“It’s a lot of people here that’s misplaced and homeless because of this,” Gibbs said through tears. “We need to be working together and not trying to tear each other down. Looking around at these houses, it’s just really, really crazy, and really sad.”
