An open letter to the St. Louis Board of Public Service:
Dear Board Members,
We are writing on behalf of members of the grassroots effort known as St. Louis Winter Outreach. We serve the homeless population in the City of Saint Louis on winter evenings when the temperature drops to 20 degrees or below or when severe winter weather affects the area. We have operated in St. Louis over the past eight years and are well-known to the City and shelter providers for distributing blankets and searching for individuals who have not been able to secure protective shelter for the evening. The individuals that we find may be staying in abandoned buildings, under bridges, in parks or numerous other places not meant for human habitation. The St. Louis Winter Outreach network also provides shuttle services from The Bridge, located in Centenary Church, to as many as eight different emergency shelters that are part of our network, and who open their doors to the homeless because other shelters are filled to capacity. This effort became necessary due to the inadequacy of shelter space in the City’s shelter network and was established to lessen the chances of the homeless freezing to death in the most severe winter weather conditions.
The purpose of this letter is to directly respond to the presentation of a petition naming New Life Evangelistic Center (NLEC) as a nuisance property. We have a radically different view of the situation than the one stated in the petition. Most of us live in the City and some of us live and work downtown. We feel the complaints raised in the petition are improperly directed at NLEC. Some issues targeted in the petition address individual behavioral issues that arise and are not the responsibility of New Life. Most of the “nuisance” issues listed, however, highlight the reality that there are hundreds more homeless men, women and children than the current St. Louis shelter network is equipped to provide for and this is the responsibility of and an opportunity for, us all.
The unmet needs of the homeless include an extreme lack of available shelter space and few places where the homeless are allowed to sit downtown while awaiting shelter. (This has increased with the closing of Lucas Park, the curfew in other downtown parks, new restrictions in the recently renovated library, moving the homeless from one side of the “Bridge” to the other to be out of eyesight of neighbors and then moving them back again, the recent effort to end the homeless congregating at Union Station and the erecting of barriers on the sidewalks in front of New Life.) The unmet needs also include lack of public restrooms, lack of adequate access to affordable transportation which greatly hampers opportunity for employment, the lack of shower and laundry facilities and the lack of lockers or safe places where the homeless can store their personal belongings.
While we have some great programs such as The Bridge and St. Patrick Center and the Horizon Club, they are inadequate to meet the needs of the large numbers of homeless in the City of St. Louis. If this were not so, we would not see the significant numbers of people congregating outside at The Bridge, St. Patrick Center, NLEC, parks and other public spaces in the evening while awaiting shelter or the excessive numbers of people who have no choice but to stay at the overcrowded NLEC space. There are also great efforts being made to provide for permanent housing for the homeless but these efforts take time and demand that a way be provided for those who do not yet have access to these programs.
We believe that making efforts to address the inadequate resources for the homeless would be a more prudent use of resources and energy than closing New Life Evangelistic Center. Any attempt to close down or limit access to NLEC will not only waste valuable resources in legal confrontations and public demonstrations, it will also frustrate and amplify an already serious problem by reducing the number of shelter beds available. It is also clear to us that forcing 150 to 180 individuals out onto the streets will make the issues that frustrate downtown neighbors far worse than what is currently being experienced and petitioned against.
We ask for your thoughtful consideration and rejection of what we see as a short-sighted petition. Instead, we invite the City, downtown residents and downtown businesses to work with us and with the homeless, themselves, to better identify and provide needed resources. In this way we will be addressing the true issue before us and looking for a way that everyone in our City will win.
Sincerely,
Teka Childress, St. Louis, MO
Wilfred J. Krenn, St. Louis, MO
Whitney Priebe, St. Louis, MO
(On behalf of Members of St. Louis Winter Outreach)Share · Wednesday at 4:07pm near Saint Louis
Dear Board Members,
We are writing on behalf of members of the grassroots effort known as St. Louis Winter Outreach. We serve the homeless population in the City of Saint Louis on winter evenings when the temperature drops to 20 degrees or below or when severe winter weather affects the area. We have operated in St. Louis over the past eight years and are well-known to the City and shelter providers for distributing blankets and searching for individuals who have not been able to secure protective shelter for the evening. The individuals that we find may be staying in abandoned buildings, under bridges, in parks or numerous other places not meant for human habitation. The St. Louis Winter Outreach network also provides shuttle services from The Bridge, located in Centenary Church, to as many as eight different emergency shelters that are part of our network, and who open their doors to the homeless because other shelters are filled to capacity. This effort became necessary due to the inadequacy of shelter space in the City’s shelter network and was established to lessen the chances of the homeless freezing to death in the most severe winter weather conditions.
The purpose of this letter is to directly respond to the presentation of a petition naming New Life Evangelistic Center (NLEC) as a nuisance property. We have a radically different view of the situation than the one stated in the petition. Most of us live in the City and some of us live and work downtown. We feel the complaints raised in the petition are improperly directed at NLEC. Some issues targeted in the petition address individual behavioral issues that arise and are not the responsibility of New Life. Most of the “nuisance” issues listed, however, highlight the reality that there are hundreds more homeless men, women and children than the current St. Louis shelter network is equipped to provide for and this is the responsibility of and an opportunity for, us all.
The unmet needs of the homeless include an extreme lack of available shelter space and few places where the homeless are allowed to sit downtown while awaiting shelter. (This has increased with the closing of Lucas Park, the curfew in other downtown parks, new restrictions in the recently renovated library, moving the homeless from one side of the “Bridge” to the other to be out of eyesight of neighbors and then moving them back again, the recent effort to end the homeless congregating at Union Station and the erecting of barriers on the sidewalks in front of New Life.) The unmet needs also include lack of public restrooms, lack of adequate access to affordable transportation which greatly hampers opportunity for employment, the lack of shower and laundry facilities and the lack of lockers or safe places where the homeless can store their personal belongings.
While we have some great programs such as The Bridge and St. Patrick Center and the Horizon Club, they are inadequate to meet the needs of the large numbers of homeless in the City of St. Louis. If this were not so, we would not see the significant numbers of people congregating outside at The Bridge, St. Patrick Center, NLEC, parks and other public spaces in the evening while awaiting shelter or the excessive numbers of people who have no choice but to stay at the overcrowded NLEC space. There are also great efforts being made to provide for permanent housing for the homeless but these efforts take time and demand that a way be provided for those who do not yet have access to these programs.
We believe that making efforts to address the inadequate resources for the homeless would be a more prudent use of resources and energy than closing New Life Evangelistic Center. Any attempt to close down or limit access to NLEC will not only waste valuable resources in legal confrontations and public demonstrations, it will also frustrate and amplify an already serious problem by reducing the number of shelter beds available. It is also clear to us that forcing 150 to 180 individuals out onto the streets will make the issues that frustrate downtown neighbors far worse than what is currently being experienced and petitioned against.
We ask for your thoughtful consideration and rejection of what we see as a short-sighted petition. Instead, we invite the City, downtown residents and downtown businesses to work with us and with the homeless, themselves, to better identify and provide needed resources. In this way we will be addressing the true issue before us and looking for a way that everyone in our City will win.
Sincerely,
Teka Childress, St. Louis, MO
Wilfred J. Krenn, St. Louis, MO
Whitney Priebe, St. Louis, MO
(On behalf of Members of St. Louis Winter Outreach)Share · Wednesday at 4:07pm near Saint Louis
- Chris Rice and 7 others like this.
- Susan Cunningham This is a very well-written, non-threatening letter. Kudos to those who put it together. I will get signatures on whatever petition you all put together. Tina will contact me.Wednesday at 6:06pm