About a week after the city of St. Louis cleared a makeshift homeless encampment from the area around City Hall, a new cluster of tents has popped up less than a block away.
About nine tents now spot the lawn outside the old Municipal Courts building at 14th and Market Streets downtown. Some of the dozen or so people living there say that they were at the City Hall encampment when it was officially cleared on October 3.
Tahtia Wilson, who's 24 and has been living rough for about two years, says she was one of the 20 to 30 people forced to leave the lawn at City Hall. "They said it was OK to stay over there, and then all of sudden they told us we had to go," she says.
"We got shammed out of our home, some place we called home," says Keanyne Head. "Now we got to start over."
She adds, "They aren't messing with us [here]. We're cool."
Mayor Tishaura Jones' decision to clear the encampment outside City Hall was a controversial one, with activists accusing her of only doing so because Vice President Kamala Harris was coming to visit St. Louis for a Democratic National Committee meeting. Department of Human Services Director Adam Pearson said at the time that the city had 50 beds available for those forced to leave.
After ordering the camp cleared, Jones issued a statement that said in part, "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."
When asked if the city offered her a place to stay, Head replies, "No. We got left."
But here, about a 45-second walk from the previous encampment, no one seems to be giving Head or anyone else any trouble — much less taking any action to “save lives.”
"Now that we're right next door they don't give a fuck," MG says.
Pearson, however, tells the RFT that his agency has been on-site.
"While the City has concerns about individuals who are receiving tents when they should be receiving services including treatment for addiction and mental health support, the dedicated outreach team at DHS will continue its efforts to offer services that actually support their long-term wellbeing," Pearson says. "The City of St. Louis has a robust ecosystem of shelter and housing providers with a shared mission to get individuals off the street and on a path to permanent housing."
The building that MG and the others now live outside has been shuttered since 2003. According to a KMOV feature about it, the building was designed by the same architect who designed buildings for the 1904 World's Fair.
When asked what the people living in the ad-hoc camp need, a man who identifies himself only as Joe says that he'd like for someone to send a couple containers of cleaner and some scrubbing brushes. He'd like to keep the steps of the old courthouse as clean as possible while people are living here.
"It's hard," adds Wilson. "And then there's winter coming."
We welcome tips and feedback. Email the author at [email protected]
or follow on Twitter at @RyanWKrull.
Subscribe to Riverfront Times newsletters.
Follow us: Apple News | Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Or sign up for our RSS Feed
