May Newsletter

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Vacancy Collaborative News

Solving North City blight is one of targets of ARPA funding for community leaders.

Mayor Jones held a roundtable discussion at the Tandy Community Center on Tuesday, May 10th to discuss how the $250M in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds will be spent. Sundy Whiteside, president of the St. Louis Association of Community Organizations and co-chair of the Vacancy Advisory Committee, brought up the issue of dumping in St. Louis neighborhoods.

Read the full story here.

NextSTL Blog highlights community organizations addressing Vacancy in St. Louis

The Development, Transportation, and Public Policy blog talks about the author, Mark Groth's conversation with Peter Hoffman, Managing Attorney with the Neighborhood Vacancy Initiative at Legal Services of Eastern Missouri (LSEM) and member of the St. Louis Vacancy Collaborative's Advisory Committee. The vacant industrial building in Fox Park was torn down due to toxic chemicals and the EPA was called in to help clean up. This is a good example of citizen involvement to address vacant buildings that pose health & safety risks to residents in our city.

Read the full blog post here.

Register for the next VAD Academy Training

June 15, 2022
8 AM - 3:30 PM
Virtual / FREE

The VAD Academy – short for Vacant, Abandoned, and Deteriorated Properties Training Academy – is a 100% virtual “bootcamp” for public, private, nonprofit, and community leaders whose work and communities are impacted by challenges related to VAD properties.

Center for Community Progress’ VAD Academy was created to help public, private, nonprofit, and resident leaders craft equitable, effective approaches to addressing these property challenges. From breaking down complex systems, to sharing smart strategies for resident engagement and fostering compliance, the VAD Academy aims to equip leaders to help return properties to purposeful use.

REGISTER TODAY!

St. Louis to receive $1M from EPA to tackle polluted brownfield sites

The St. Louis Development Corporation (SLDC) will receive $1 million from the EPA to clean up polluted brownfield sites, mostly in northern neighborhoods and the central corridor. A brownfield is a former industrial site where the soil may be contaminated. The EPA says that the "...priority sites are old, vacant buildings that include a former cleaning and dye operation, a former glass company, and other buildings with a history of industrial use.

You can read the full press release here.

Vacant Lot Toolkit Launched

Check out the new Vacant Lot Toolkit! This resource guide was developed as a tool for neighbors and community organizations interested in revitalizing a vacant lot in the City of St. Louis.

Click here to view and download.

Events and Resources

Landlord & Rehabber Training 2022 Session

You are invited to the May 24th, Landlord & Rehabber Training, Housing and Utility Assistance Programs. Register here: https://bit.ly/3LFVktV

After registering you will receive a confirmation email from Zoom. Save that email or copy and paste the information into your calendar. You will need that information to join the May 24th virtual workshop. The session will feature:

St. Louis City Housing Authority: Darrell Miller & LaShe Bates will review the Housing Choice Voucher program
Employment Connections: Andrea Lewis will review Covid-19 rent & utility assistance
Urban League: Craig Washington will review Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) & keeping current utility assistance programs
St. Patrick’s Center: Jonathan Belcher will review their rent & utility assistance
ARCH by HomeScreen (At-Risk Tenants Connection to Housing): Adam Drake will review the range of social service agencies engaged in ARCH, providing rent and other support services to their clients.

CBN Annual Neighborhood Celebration

Tickets are now on sale for the Community Builders Network of Metro St. Louis' 2022 Annual Neighborhood Celebration on Thursday, June 23, 2022 at the World's Fair Pavilion in Forest Park! Reserve your ticket here by April 30 to save 20% on admission!

Vacant Property Resource

Vacant Property Explorer

The Vacant Property Explorer, introduced in July 2021, is a robust tool for viewing and exploring potentially vacant properties in the City of St. Louis. This new tool displays likely and confirmed vacant properties in the City, combining data from several City departments. The new Explorer automatically updates on a monthly basis and provides more detail on the property's history, status and burden to the surrounding area.

Just click on a colored parcel on the map to learn more about that property. See something that needs updating? Once you click on the property, a popup box will appear on the left. Then just click the Report It dropdown arrow to alert the City department you wish to receive notice.

Vacancy Collaborative Recurring Events

The Vacancy Reading Group has continued meeting during COVID via zoom. All are welcome! Contact: dana.malkus@slu.edu for more information.

Working Group Meetings

Anti Displacement:
Meets on the Fourth Thursday of the Month at 5:30pm. Contact: stldisplacementwg@gmail.com for more information.
Data Analysis:
Standing Meetings TBD. Contact: Torrey @ torrey@communitybuildersstl.org for more information
Neighborhood Engagement: Meets on the First Thursday of the Month at 12:00pm. Contact: Dana @ dana.malkus@slu.edu for more information.
Reinvestment and Reuse:
Meets on the First Tuesday of the Month at 10:00am. Contact: Samantha @ samantha.lee@pocketparks.co for more information.
Stabilization, Maintenance, and Demolition:
Meets on the Fourth Wednesday of the Month at 11:00am. Contact: Laura @ ginnl@stlouis-mo.gov for more information.
Vacancy Prevention:
Meets every other Third Thursday of the Month at 4:00pm. Contact stlvacancypreventionwg@gmail.com for more information.

You are receiving this newsletter because you subscribed, attended a working group meeting, or another Vacancy Collaborative event.

What is the St. Louis Vacancy Collaborative?
The St. Louis Vacancy Collaborative (VC) is a coalition of community members, private and non-profit stakeholders, and City agencies committed to reducing vacant property in St. Louis. The VC helps to coordinate existing vacancy efforts under one umbrella and empowers the public and private sectors to work together toward solutions. We convene committees and working groups to facilitate systemic change, advance new policies, share success stories, and support neighborhood-centric solutions. Head to www.stlvacancy.com for more information.

Support

Funding to support coordination of the St. Louis Vacancy Collaborative was provided, in part, by Missouri Foundation for Health, the Missouri Department of Conservation, U.S. Bank, and many generous individual donors.

You can make a donation now if you are so inclined :)

Copyright © 2022 Vacancy Collaborative, All rights reserved.

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