It’s been nearly two months since an EF3 tornado damaged thousands of buildings in St. Louis, and rebuilding programs are slowly taking shape.
In the past two weeks, Mayor Cara Spencer has announced efforts to help residents reconnect their electricity, stabilize buildings and make home repairs. The increase in demand for contractors has led the city to unveil a registry of companies that are licensed and insured in the city.
“Our goal here is really to protect residents from fraud by giving qualified contractors access to those in our community who need them,” Spencer said when announcing the program earlier this month.
Yaphett El-Amin, executive director of MoKan Construction and Contractors Assistance Center, said she hoped the city would make sure that minority- and women-owned businesses have a fair shot at bidding for the work.
Many of those companies, she said, are based in and hire workers from the neighborhoods most impacted by the tornado.
“It puts taxes right back into our city that's needed to generate the revenue, and it further strengthens the economic viability of the residents that are in those communities.”
Julian Nicks, Spencer’s recently appointed recovery officer, said the city has begun leaving contracts open for bid longer, a move that makes it easier for smaller companies to apply.
In addition to the city-funded programs, the Community Development Administration, which helps manage federal grants, is asking permission to reallocate $3 million in unspent community development block grants to the Healthy Home Repair Program. It helps lower-income homeowners make repairs that if left undone would leave a property unsafe for occupancy.
There are currently about 70 contractors who work with the program, and Nicks said he was not worried about meeting the increased need.
“What we know from some of our partners at FEMA is that as you put more resources towards some of these things, people from the region tend to come and locate where the work is,” he said.
Many of the home repair programs require that the person living there have proof that they own the house. Those requirements cannot be waived, but Nicks said the city is offering legal assistance to make sure people have clear records of ownership.
“A lot of this is long overdue,” he said. “That's the same reason why a lot of these families can't get insurance and can't get access to other products to protect their home.”
