City says ‘poor health conditions’ force it to close homeless camps | Metro

ST. LOUIS — Advocacy groups are looking at next steps for the residents of four St. Louis homeless encampments ordered by the city to close.

Organizers said they planned to go to the encampments over the weekend to ask the residents how they would like to proceed.

“Ultimately, we’re going to do whatever they want,” said Alex Cohen, co-founder of Tent Mission STL.

The city on Thursday evening posted flyers at tent encampments by the riverfront and under the Interstate 44 overpass near Cole Street, warning residents that they must vacate within 10 days.

In a statement provided by the mayor’s office Friday, interim Public Safety Director Dan Isom said the city had received “reports of poor health conditions” and “numerous calls for service” in the riverfront area, both related to the encampment and the surrounding community.

Isom said the city estimates that about 25 people in total were staying at the encampments that received notices.

The city did not respond to a question about whether there is enough shelter space in the city, should all of the occupants choose to go to shelters, but Isom said the city is “evaluating all of our available options.”

The encampments include one near the riverfront where around 20 people have been staying. Though the city has offered to find temporary housing, some have said they don’t want to stay in homeless shelters. And advocates say there’s not enough room in shelters anyways.

Shelters, said Ramona Curtis, founder of UnhousedSTL, are “not going to be a real solution for this community.”

“It’s just really going to be about us scrambling to get them somewhere else, temporarily,” she said.

Organizers are gathering supplies such as tents, food and water in case they need to help people relocate. Cities move encampments all the time, leaving the homeless residents “dispersed but not disappeared,” Curtis said.

“The same thing will keep happening,” Cohen said.