ST. LOUIS—City officials have officially disbanded a homeless encampment at St. Louis City Hall that has been growing over the last few months.
The mayor’s office says work to clear the area began Monday night, citing numerous police calls and disturbances. However, Alderman Rasheen Aldridge confirmed to Spectrum News that the process was paused overnight. He explained that it was preferable for that to happen during the day as opposed to late at night.
Tuesday afternoon, Adam Pearson, the director of the Department of Human Services, said there are beds available and the 10 p.m. park curfew will be enforced tonight.
Outreach workers from the Department of Human Services (DHS) and others spent Tuesday helping individuals find shelters, according to a city spokesperson.
As of Wednesday morning, the camp has been completely removed. A statement from the mayor's office was issued, saying:
“The City took action to save lives and protect people. Full stop. My administration navigated this complex situation to connect dozens of unhoused residents to shelter and resources while addressing a growing public safety hazard. This is a testament to the collective work of City employees as well as the major investments the City has made to improve access to shelter and double our number of tiny homes.
“Homelessness and housing instability cannot be fixed overnight, but St. Louis is breaking from past practices by ensuring we have places for people to go where they can get support and on a path to permanent housing. While this process is never perfect, and the work is never finished, those housed today will sleep more safely tonight.
“I am especially grateful to all the City employees who came together to resolve this issue, from the outreach workers who made dozens of trips to the site, to the Forestry and Park workers cleaning and repairing the grounds, to SLMPD officers who secured the location. I am also thankful to Ald. Aldridge for working with my administration to de-escalate tensions and coordinate outreach on-site today."
Pearson explained beds at shelters have recently opened up and DHS has worked with several shelters to hold 50 beds for individuals.
Since Aug. 11, the mayor’s office says EMS responded to more than 30 calls for service at the encampment, including overdoses and medical emergencies. SLMPD has responded to more than 50 calls in the same period, according to the mayor’s office.
There have also been reports of city employees increasingly being accosted on their way to work, says the mayor’s office.
City officials also say the rapid growth of the encampment from individuals being dropped off has created an unsafe and unsanitary situation and has strained the DHS’s outreach efforts.
Over the past two months, DHS, licensed clinical social workers and community health organizations visited the site to identify and offer housing and resources to those living in the encampment, the city said.
Gino McCoy, his pregnant wife and the couple's three dogs have been living there. McCoy said offers of assistance have meant breaking up his family by sending the dogs to a pound and his wife to a separate shelter, so they refuse.
He's asking city officials for compassion.
"I didn’t want this. I didn’t ask for this. This isn’t something I woke up and said hey, I’m going to be homeless and I’m just going to sleep outside, no. I didn’t want that. I wanted to give my wife and our kids something I didn’t have which is a family," he said.
The move to decommission the encampment came hours after two members of the St. Louis Board of Aldermen announced the introduction of an Unhoused Bill of Rights.
The legislation would repeal ordinances that criminalize homelessness, guarantee protections for those displaced when intentional encampments are disbanded and amend the zoning code to broaden shelter access.
Officials are working on decriminalizing panhandling and loitering, as well as laying the foundation for safe camping areas that would have designated areas for tents, showers, toilets and hand-washing stations.
“If we don’t create places for our unhoused to go, then they will create it for themselves,” said Alisha Sonnier, alderwoman for Ward 7. “Many of our unhoused neighbors need a place to go to become stabilized before they are ready to transition into shelters and a much smaller group of them do not want housing. And I want to be clear that this is their right.”