ST. LOUIS — At the request of Mayor Lyda Krewson, top city leaders voted Wednesday to allocate another $2 million to a fund dedicated to helping residents keep up with rent and mortgage payments amid the coronavirus pandemic and ensuing recession.
The $2 million is in addition to $5.4 million already dedicated by the city to provide relief to struggling renters and homeowners. The money comes from the $35.3 million in federal aid to the city authorized by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act.
The mayor’s office said about 4,200 applicants so far have been determined eligible for the rent and mortgage assistance funds.
“We recognize that housing is a human right and that because of the economic fallout of this pandemic, a lot of individuals and families are on the verge of becoming homeless or housing insecure through no fault of their own,†Krewson said in a statement. “One of the most important steps we can take right now is to keep them in their homes.â€
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Applicants and need to demonstrate financial hardship to officials at the city’s Department of Human Services, which is overseeing the program. Assistance is capped at $3,500 and households can receive three months of mortgage payments or up to three months of rent and an additional three months of back rent.
ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ courts have frozen eviction proceedings until September. The city previously had a moratorium on evictions from March to early July. They briefly resumed in July and early August.
The extra $2 million, approved Wednesday by the three-member ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Board of Estimate and Apportionment, comes out of a $6.5 million contingency fund the city set aside out of its federal appropriation. The board also approved using $200,000 from that fund to pay for additional GPS monitoring of people who would otherwise have to report to city jails.
Airport, nonprofit aid and rules
The Board of Estimate and Apportionment, made up of Krewson, Board of Aldermen President Lewis Reed and Comptroller Darlene Green, also approved a measure to give vendors in ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Lambert International Airport a break on fees.
The measure allows shops, eateries, car rental firms, cabbies and other vendors doing business there to waive the minimum monthly fee owed for any four months they choose between March of this year — when the pandemic hit full force — and June 2021.
Reed also asked that the board hold back a $6 million, three-year contract with a company for snow services at Lambert out of Chicago called Ace Snow Removal LLC.
“I don’t believe there is any minority participation on this contract and the other contract that was ignored was a contract that roughly $1 million cheaper than this contract with local minority participation,†Reed said.
The board agreed and Krewson said they would revisit the contract at a future meeting after gathering more information.
The board plans to hold a special meeting next week to discuss giving up to $450,000 in aid to support , launched last year as part of an effort by the Missouri Faith Leadership Council.
Much of the meeting, though, was spent discussing a package of formal rules for the board, which Reed said it lacks. But Green pushed back against the necessity of the rules, and abstained from voting on a motion to place them on the September agenda. Per the city charter, an employee from Green’s office serves as the board of E&A’s secretary.
