Nearly 80 evacuees from the Heritage House Apartments attended a housing fair organized by St. Louis City Hall yesterday.
More than a dozen community groups, including the Urban League and the St. Louis Area Agency on Agency (SLAAA), took part in the event held at the Hilton by St. Louis International Airport.
The Hilton is where around 120 former residents of the Heritage House Apartments have been sheltering while they seek new homes. Frozen pipes that burst on January 15 flooded several floors of Heritage House, a 18-story high rise in Midtown St. Louis, forcing the evacuation of nearly 200 residents, most of whom are elderly and disabled.
Charles Wartts, 77, has lived at Heritage House for two years. Tuesday’s housing fair lifted his spirits, he says, since “I’m looking at two or three very good possibilities” for a new home.
Wartts adds that he is heartened by the fact that the rental companies he talked to are giving “a special dispensation to us because of the special emergency situation. So many of them are offering things like free first month’s rent and waiving application fees to make it as easy for us as possible.”
One big question remained: who would pay for the movement of tenants’ furniture still left at Heritage House?
Warts says the cheapest estimate he’s gotten for moving his furniture and other stuff out of Heritage House is about $1,500.
”We didn’t hear any answers,” Wartts says. “And nobody was supplying them.”
Michele Coleman, a case management coordinator with SLAAA, says the agency is working on a way to fund evacuees’ apartment moves, as well pay for their stays at the Hilton beyond the Feb. 6 deadline.
”It’s not clear,” Coleman says. “We will have a better answer tomorrow.”
The housing fair is scheduled to also run on Wednesday, January 31, from 1 to 8 p.m. at the Hilton.
But one Heritage House evacuee, while trying to remain hopeful, expresses concerns about the lack of communication she’s experienced while staying at the Hilton.
So far, the 65-year-old woman hasn’t found a new home to move to because “the cost is one thing and location is another.”
The woman says she has experienced a lot of anxiety about her future over the next few weeks.
”Even if you’re not in this situation, and you’re looking for housing, it takes more than a week,” she says.
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