Homelessness

Washington University instructor Quinn Tyminski and her students have made big inroads with St. Louis’ homeless community. Their weekly occupational therapy clinic seeks to help people move from surviving to thriving.

Local providers and organizers are scrambling to keep a pop-up emergency shelter open during freezing temperatures, while they wait on the city to fund one.

St. Louis has set aside more than $43 million in federal funding for homeless services and housing support. Advocates hope to see progress before deadly winter weather arrives.

The Veterans Community Project, a Kansas City-based nonprofit, is building tiny homes and an outreach center in the JeffVanderLou neighborhood to help veterans who are experiencing 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.