By Tent Mission STL: March 24, 2023:
“We are at the St. Louis Riverfront. They are once again going to bulldoze an unhoused community. These are all folks who were displaced from the last riverfront eviction on March 10. They were all forced to move on this muddy beach area. The city has quite a line up over here: the cars, the cops, the bulldozers waiting to tear peoples stuff down after two days of rain.
What you won’t see is case workers, social workers. I wonder how much this costs the city. That is the tiny section in front of the flood wall where people have been forced to move after they gated off the spot with the rain-cover over here.
No case managers, no St. Patrick’s Center, no one offering shelter; shelters are full. Supposedly everyone from here was housed during the last eviction, so it’s shocking that there are still people back there…not actually! They didn’t house anyone.
Folks back there, on the beach section, had no idea this was coming today. There’s no notice to vacate back here. There are no city officials coming by to try to get them into a shelter. Most people are not on the housing list back here.
This really came out of the blue, and people are very stressed about where to go right now. There has been a few protesters blocking the bulldozers since 9:00 AM this morning. We will continue to show up and provide “intentional interference” when the state threatens our neighbors with outright violence through evictions and intimidation tactics. All power to the people. By Tent Mission STL
By the end of the day, the city backed off its initial plans to evict the people and the police, the dump trucks, and the bulldozers quietly went away. As of right now, the encampment community is still there.
Read some comments on Tent Mission STL’s social media:
Nancy said, “They provided some with a 1 day hotel last time and immediately started reporting that they were all house. More STL B.S. They also promised to keep belongings safe and secure but abandoned them in a unsecured unprotected parking lot. The city is full of sh*t! ”
Chandler, “Every eviction is an extrajudicial attempted murder. It’s just that simple.”
Kim, “Maybe another stadium or tax incentives for a hotel and Cortex would help!”
Ramona, “It’s eviction season in St. Louis. The city has bulldozed or attempted to bulldoze three unhoused encampments in the last week or so. This was led by the city’s first Black woman mayor Tishaura Jones. The same mayor who ran on the promise that she would support the unhoused community. The same mayor who was appointed by HUD to a national committee of mayors to use new ARPA funding to address homelessness. That mayor. Is doing this. She’ll be up for reelection in two years. Please bookmark this so that you can remember how she did not keep her promise to support the unhoused community.
Unhoused, “Yeah connected with resources just like dialing 211 when you’re homeless those resources don’t do anything I’ve been on the streets I’ve been to those shelters. I’ve seen how many beds that that are empty every single night because a homeless person cannot just walk up to a shelter and say I need a bed. No. You have to go to St Patrick’s center or some other place and jump through all these hoops and give them all this information. You have to jump through the bureaucratic loopholes and give them your social security number so they can then submit that to the state for funding. Let that sink in people”
