ST. LOUIS — On Friday, a new bill advanced that would ban some homeless camps in the City of St. Louis.
Alderman Thomas Oldenburg presented Board Bill 14 after months of encampments popping up in the River Des Peres area in south St. Louis, the Riverfront downtown, and areas near I-55.
Board Bill 14 reads:
The proposed bill would prohibit tents or similar shelters regardless of the materials in their construction or whether temporary or permanent, within public rights or way or in a manner that would impede the use or maintenance or a public right of way. The bill defines “public right of way” as: Any portion of a street, alley, sidewalk, pedestrian or bicycle path, easement, body of water, drainage works such as River Des Peres, and any other property that is owned, controlled, or maintained by the City of St. Louis.
St. Louis Alderman Bill Stephens knows there's a problem in his ward near the River Des Peres.
His ward encompasses 90% of Boulevard Heights and Princeton Heights.
Alderman Stephens isn't fully on board with the bill but knows something needs to be done.
"Here at the Board of Aldermen, we believe the homelessness needs to be addressed, we disagree on how it needs to be addressed. I hope this spurs the city to reckon with what it is doing right and wrong in serving all of our citizens, including our unhoused," Stephens said.
Advocacy organizations are also doing everything they can to assist.
At the St. Patrick's Center, Senior Director of Immediate Support Megan Poole said they've seen a bump in needed support.
"Our outreach team has been going to the riverfront twice a week, our shower and nutrition program has been delivering meals every week for a year to the Riverfront in particular," Poole said.
They've added on to their outreach team expanding it from four to six.
They build relationships with the unhoused.
However, when encampments are moved, it can create a setback since the team loses contact with them.
"We have to remain in contact so they can stay on the housing list, to be able to make those steps for supporting documents, to get food stamps, and if we lose contact, we make 10 steps back than the steps forward we need to be making," Poole said.
For now, they are doing as much as they can.
But Poole said more needs to be done.
"There's a lack of affordable housing in this city. To get folks into shelter, it's really hard there is not enough shelter beds and there aren't enough type of shelters. It’d be great to have more low barrier options for folks who need it where there a ton of rules they have to follow," Poole said.
As far as the bill, it still needs to go up for debate and it needs to go through its third reading.
There are still several checkpoints it needs to go through before anything is finalized.