ST. LOUIS — An alderman active on homeless issues complained Friday that the administration of Mayor Tishaura O. Jones has moved too slowly on distributing federal pandemic aid allocated for that purpose.
Alderman Christine Ingrassia, 6th Ward, said with more than $16 million in federal money assigned last summer by the Board of Aldermen for homeless services, “we should not be having to pop up volunteer-led shelter space†in extremely cold weather.
One short-term shelter shut down Monday, and another, at which Ingrassia has volunteered, will close Saturday.
“We have the money to do this well with government funding,†Ingrassia said during Friday’s weekly board meeting. “I would encourage all of us to make sure we’re moving that funding forward in a much quicker pace than we have to date.â€
The comments by Ingrassia, normally a strong ally of the mayor, followed criticism about the slow pace of pandemic aid spending in general made earlier this week by Aldermanic President Lewis Reed. Reed has clashed with Jones on other issues previously.
People are also reading…
Reed issued his statement following a Jones administration report showing that only about $3.4 million of the $135.3 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds signed into law last summer had been spent by Jan. 31.
Mayoral aides have said the city is moving as quickly as possible to carry out the spending, in light of the various city procurement rules, federal regulations and requirements imposed by aldermen.
Regarding the homeless, they have noted that about $7.8 million has been obligated for emergency shelter. That includes 125 new “overflow beds†at five locations to cover people who usually won’t go to regular shelters for various reasons.
Those are typically used during periods of extreme cold, such as what occurred earlier this month. That’s also the case with the privately run pop-up shelters with few restrictions, including the one closing Saturday — Safe Haven at ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ University’s Il Monastero event space on Olive Street.
On Friday, Yusef Scoggin, director of the city Department of Human Services, again defended the agency’s homeless response.
He said more than $5 million has been deployed to support shelter spaces that would have lost funding at the end of last year and that other contracts are in the works.
“We have dollars out on the streets, doing the work now,†he said.
He also said the city did not receive a lot of proposals from private groups for some of the available contracts.
“Any shortage of beds is because there was a shortage in proposals†meeting city requirements, Scoggin said.
Tim Huffman, a ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ University associate professor and co-chair of a regional commission on homelessness, said he worries that about 100 people who have used the two pop-up shelters will have nowhere to stay during remaining weeks of cold weather. This weekend overnight temperatures are expected to be in the teens.
Huffman said the Il Monastero shelter, which has been open on and off since November, has to close because SLU needs to use the building for its regular activities beginning Monday.
He said the shelter’s private sponsors also are short of funding. The other pop-up shelter, at a church on South Kingshighway, was open for about a week, he said.
Scoggin said his department is trying to find places in other shelters for some people cared for at the two locations although some may not want to go to different facilities. He also said the city has provided some supplies for the two sites and bus tickets.
