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Advocates press committee to fund right‑to‑counsel, impacted‑tenants and winter shelter services
Summary
Multiple witnesses urged the committee to provide recurring funding for tenant legal assistance, the impacted‑tenants fund, emergency shelter and winter outreach; speakers cited thousands of eviction filings and shelter turn‑aways.
A string of witnesses asked the Budget Committee to dedicate recurring local funds to housing stability and homelessness services, saying short‑term grants have proven insufficient to meet demand for evictions prevention, emergency shelter, and tenant supports.
“Right to counsel has already provided critical legal assistance to 721 individuals and the need is far greater given that approximately 5,000 evictions occurred in St. Louis last year,” said Alvania Creighton, urging a fully funded program. Multiple speakers recommended an annual appropriation near $2,000,000 to make the right‑to‑counsel program operational at scale.
Former Grace House Safe Haven director Brian Egan told the committee the city repeatedly loses beds and volunteer-run emergency capacity when short‑term funding lapses. He offered an $800,000 estimate to stand up winter emergency shelter capacity and said proven shelter operations can place people into long‑term housing at far lower public cost than repeated emergency responses.
Other public commenters asked for larger allocations to the Impacted Tenants Fund (requests ranged to $500,000 in testimony), stable funding for transitional housing and neighborhood stabilization programs, and for the city to stop relying on ad hoc volunteer winter outreach. Rachel Hurtado reviewed 2‑1‑1 referral data and said thousands of calls seeking housing help produce very few shelter referrals: “In 2024, 6,456 people called 2‑1‑1 for help with housing, and only 147 of those calls were referred to shelter,” she said, urging a general‑fund approach rather than dependence on expiring federal grants.
Speakers also urged funding for outreach and the warming bus, noting last winter’s deaths of people exposed to freezing conditions and arguing that emergency shelter and outreach funding should not be left to volunteers or temporary grants.
Ending: The committee acknowledged the requests and public testimony; members signaled the need to weigh recurring funding options for tenant protections, shelter capacity and impacted‑tenants support as they continue FY26 deliberations.
