Residents, survivors tell St. Louis committee: don’t put tiny homes on toxic Workhouse site

Dozens of survivors, advocates and neighborhood residents told the St. Louis City Public Safety Committee on the Workhouse parcel’s future that the mayor’s plan to place temporary tiny homes on the former jail site would re-create harms the city promised to end.

“I am calling on the mayor, Tishaura Jones, … to fund and implement the memorial community resource hub that has transitional housing built into it,” said Inez Bordeaux, deputy director of community collaborations at ArchCity Defenders and a campaign organizer and survivor. “Stand with us, and don’t let this happen.”

The testimony centered on three recurring points: speakers said the city’s own environmental review found arsenic, lead, benzene and other contaminants in the soil; many survivors and committee members said the Reenvisioning the Workhouse steering committee recommended an off-site memorial community resource hub and reparations; and…