ST. LOUIS — A plan to make it easier to open homeless shelters came up one vote short at the Board of Aldermen on Friday.
The bill in question would have reduced the number of resident signatures required before a shelter could open.
Supporters said that would have made it easier for nonprofits to open shelters in a city with a critical shortage of services for some of its most vulnerable people.
Opponents said the plan would offend neighborhoods and create more problems than it would solve.
“This is the stupidest bill I’ve ever seen in my life,” said Alderman Joe Vollmer, of the Hill.
The decision was a frustrating near-miss for left-wing lawmakers and activists, who had hoped a new, more progressive board elected last year would shift the status quo on one of the city’s thorniest issues. Instead, the issue re-affirmed the progressive coalition’s limits when it comes to homelessness.
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The bill was intended to tackle a problem advocates for the homeless have been complaining about for years: There aren’t enough good shelter beds in the city for all of the people who need them.
Advocates say a big reason why is because the city requires anyone looking to open a new shelter to gather signatures on a petition from a majority of the registered voters or property owners within 500 feet where they plan to operate.
And that’s been a tough sell in many neighborhoods: Less than 15 percent of those who have tried to open shelters or similar institutions in the last fifteen years have succeeded.
Alderwoman Alisha Sonnier, of Tower Grove East, and Aldermanic President Megan Green tried to eliminate the petition requirement entirely last fall, but their proposal collapsed amid a wave of opposition from neighborhoods, business owners and even some aldermen who campaigned as progressives with Green's support.
The bill before the board Friday was intended to be more palatable: It would still require signature collection, but operators would only need approval from 33 percent of their area. And Sonnier said she took pains to ensure neighbors’ concerns could be heard after the petition process, requiring extra public hearings throughout the shelter’s first year of operations where city officials could examine its impact on its neighborhood.
“For folks that don’t want a shelter, this gives you more opportunities to say no,” Sonnier said.
Several aldermen expressed support for the measure and Sonnier’s willingness to compromise on her original plan.
“This creates a pathway for a need that continues to escalate in all of our communities,” said Alderwoman Shameem Clark Hubbard, of the West End.
“Thank you,” said Alderman Rasheen Aldridge, of Downtown, “for what you’re trying to do for one of our most vulnerable communities.”
But others, like Vollmer and Alderman Sharon Tyus, of Kingsway East, loudly denounced the bill. Vollmer cast the plan as un-American and said it was anti-democratic to allow only a third of people around a prospective shelter to grant initial approval.
Tyus said weakening the petition requirement would be a slap in the face to taxpaying homeowners in her north side ward.
“This would further exacerbate the group of people leaving the city,” she said.
Alderman Michael Browning, one of the aldermen who ran as a progressive last year, said he was more sympathetic. But he worried that technical issues in the bill could wind up causing more problems instead of fixing them. He said city staff had similar reservations.
And he said the bill missed an opportunity to differentiate between different kinds of shelters: It should be easier, he said, to open small shelters that can blend into a neighborhood than it is to open larger shelters that can’t. Instead, he said, the bill creates one standard for everyone.
Sonnier said the proposal would be back because people need it. She said the people who need shelter include women fleeing domestic violence and military veterans struggling with mental health, and that they deserve better. She said it also included her as a child, when her mother was fleeing violence at home.
She said the board can’t just work for property owners and the well-to-do.
“Democracy is failing if it doesn’t help the most marginalized among us,” she said.
The vote on the bill was 7-7. Voting no were Vollmer, Tyus, Browning, and aldermen Anne Schweitzer, of Boulevard Heights, Tom Oldenburg, of St. Louis Hills, Bret Narayan, of Dogtown, and Pam Boyd, of Walnut Park West.
Alderwoman Cara Spencer, of Marine Villa, voted present. She said she appreciated Sonnier’s work on the bill, but said people in her neighborhoods still have unanswered questions about the plan.