Board Letter to the Mayor
As the St. Louis Continuum of Care (CoC), we write to you in response to the discussion you had with the executive leadership and the subsequent press release posted yesterday regarding the disbandment of the Market Street encampments tomorrow, May 1st. The CoC has two primary concerns regarding this matter.
First, the letter from Police Chief Hayden on March 25th from the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department stated that following CDC guidelines, the police department would refrain from disbursing any encampments for the duration of the Covid-19 pandemic. There was additional discussion around the CDC guidelines regarding not disbursing existing encampments, particularly when there was not indoor shelter readily available. Whether or not executive leadership was aware, these encampments existed prior to the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. Further, based on the data inputted by CoC providers and overseen by the Department of Human Services contractor, even with the new shelter beds coming online as of tomorrow, there are not enough shelter beds to provide shelter for all unhoused individuals in the City of St. Louis.
Second, the lack of planning, forethought, and involvement with the local CoC expertise to dissolve the Market Street encampments will cause additional trauma to our unhoused population and poses new public health risks to our community during this pandemic. Without seeking timely input from homelessness services provides, your office decided upon this arbitrary date to disburse these encampments. Based on conversations with you and your staff as of yesterday, April 29th, the CoC board and the outreach community specifically, have heard no specific plans or protocols on how individuals in the encampments will be disbursed and how individuals will be prioritized for the finite amount of shelter space. By way of example, here are several basic unanswered questions posed to your office and Dr. Echols:
How will people be prioritized for the new shelter spaces?
Will people already on the prioritization list managed by the Department of Human Services be effectively bumped from the list to make room for Market Street inhabitants?
Where should unhoused people go if they choose not to go to the new available shelter spaces?
Will people in arrested if they refuse to leave the Market Street encampments?
Because of this lack of planning and communication, we are gravely concerned that the this move will generally traumatize individuals, cause people to regress in their mental illnesses, and it will diminish hard-earned trust between outreach workers and the unhoused population. There are also public health risks this action poses: (1) Without clear communication regarding entrance into the expanded shelter space, unhoused individuals may congregate at the Market Street encampments to seek housing, as well as spectators and/or protesters, making social distancing challenging; (2) Disbursed unhoused individuals may go to new encampments and intermingle with other unhoused individuals; (3) There are no wellness check providers identified for the new shelter spaces coming available tomorrow, May 1st.
Thank you for considering the CoC’s concerns. As always, the CoC’s first priority is serve our community. Please feel free to reach out to the CoC board if you would like our expert opinion on how to best disburse these camps to reduce the above raised concerns.