Homelessness

An investigation by St. Louis Public Radio and APM Reports found at least five homeless people froze to death this winter after city officials declined to fund a 24-hour walk-in shelter.

A program at St. Patrick Center that houses at-risk homeless women in St. Louis has been in a precarious position in recent years, but an influx of federal funding has allowed it to expand its capacity.

Clayton attorney Bevis Schock won a victory in federal court this week on behalf of Robert Fernandez, a homeless man repeatedly cited for violating St. Louis County ordinances against panhandling.

Since the pandemic began, the number of teens and young adults waiting for a shelter bed at Covenant House Missouri in St. Louis has more than doubled — and many are experiencing homelessness for the first time.

St. Louis officials stressed last spring that two downtown tent encampments posed a threat to public health, eventually relocating residents to temporary housing across the city. An investigation by St. Louis Public Radio in collaboration with APM Reports has found the city may have put residents in harm's way by placing them at hotels with a history of criminal violence, drug activity and unsanitary living conditions.

All 50 of the units in the tiny home village will be full as of this week, but homeless advocates say the federal coronavirus relief money could have been stretched further to help more St. Louisans in need.

For months, a small group of people has occupied about a dozen tents along the McGuire Moving & Storage building, a vacant warehouse north of downtown St. Louis. But late last week, a notice to vacate appeared on the side of the building, informing encampment residents to leave the private property by Monday morning.

Though the city of St. Louis has added hundreds of new beds this year, outreach organizations are worried about the possibility of viral spread within emergency homeless shelters. With the first day of winter less than seven weeks away, these groups are scrambling to rewrite existing shelter procedures in an effort to keep the virus at bay.

Homeless veterans in St. Louis will soon have a place to get back on their feet. Officials held a ceremonial groundbreaking Friday on the first Veterans Community Project village in St. Louis.

On her good days, 51-year-old Sharon Morrow is out the door pretty early, helping to get food and water to homeless St. Louisans. And for Morrow, who is disabled and also a breast cancer survivor, April 14, 2019, started out as one of those days where she felt healthy enough to do the work. But as St. Louis police officers began arresting a man outside City Hall that afternoon, she started filming. Soon, Morrow herself would be arrested — and in a lawsuit filed last Friday, the ACLU of Missouri alleges it was retaliation for her First Amendment activities.