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Make a Year End Gift to the STL Vacancy Collaborative!
2021 REWIND AND PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE
It's been quite a year for the St. Louis Vacancy Collaborative and we have a lot to be proud of! In 2021 we launched or finalized several projects. A few are highlighted below:
  • Developed by members of the Data Analysis Work Group as a new online tool for understanding and tracking vacancy in St. Louis.
  • The Explorer includes an interactive map that displays properties likely to be vacant in the City, with darker shades representing a higher likelihood.
  • Data is pulled from multiple City sources, including the LRA, Building Division, Forestry & the Citizens Service Bureau
  • Users can click on a property to view a timeline of citizen service requests, code violations, permits, and City services provided like mowing and building board-ups, and then report any missing or incorrect information. Because the data are routinely and automatically updated, any new information will help the Explorer to make better predictions related to the status of a vacant property.
Strategic Code Enforcement
  • Received a Grant from the Missouri Foundation for Health to Conduct Code Enforcement Mapping
  • Hired Hester Street to coordinate community engagement and gather data including:
    • Community and City staff focus groups to hear feedback about the existing process for reporting and tracking code violations
    • Helped to coordinate 7 Community Fellows who surveyed residents of multiple neighborhoods
    • 3 Multi-stakeholder convenings to review findings and discuss possible solutions
    • Created a visualization of the process
  • Members of the Stabilization, Maintenance and Demolition Work Group have continually guided this process and are poised to explore next steps in 2022 including developing recommendations. 
Vacant Lot Toolkit
  • The Collaborative's "Community Guide to Revitalizing St. Louis' Vacant Lots" is complete and will soon be published!
  • The print version of the Vacant Lot Toolkit is undergoing final design edits for an early 2022 release. A website version has been drafted and is awaiting final visual assets from the print version.
  • The Reinvestment and Reuse Work Group is working on a companion Vacant Lot Success Checklist tool that will be published alongside the VLT to support community groups in assessing the potential success of their greening project.
Home Repair & Clear Titles
  • The Vacancy Prevention Work Group has been busy working on solutions through home repair financial assistance and proposed legislation to ease the financial burden of new and existing home owners.
  • Home Repair
    • The St. Louis Vacancy Collaborative supports the newly reconstituted Home Repair Network that is bringing together public and private actors to meet this need and ensure that the sector is pulling in the same direction. Funding for home repair should be coupled with financial support for the Home Repair Network as they work to increase efficiency and coordination between the numerous home repair providers in the region.
  • Clear Titles Legislation
    • National title underwriters take the position that all LRA owned property, and any property that has undergone a tax foreclosure in the last ten years is too risky and thus uninsurable. The result is that tens of thousands of parcels, overwhelmingly located in low-income communities of color, cannot be returned to the housing market without some sort of legal or legislative intervention.
    • The Clear Titles Working Group has drafted legislation that would help improve the insurability of title, but a Statewide-backstop, potentially through MHDC, might also help entice the insurance industry to the table. The CTWG hopes to have this legislation introduced in early 2022.
Equitable Development Scorecard
  • In November 2021 the Anti-Displacement Work Group started a subcommittee to explore the creation of an equitable development scorecard. 
  • The subcommittee has started researching best practices in other cities and has reached out locally to the staff of the Dutchtown South Community Corporation to collaborate and review their Neighborhood Plan Scorecard, part of their Development Project Application process.
  • Initial work on the creation of a template will begin in January 2022.
Neighborhood Recognition
  • The Neighborhood Engagement Work Group is currently working towards developing a framework for formal recognition of neighborhood associations that reflects best practices, stakeholder feedback, and community needs.
  • Members of the group have presented this idea to several neighborhood organizations, but have determined that the material is difficult to absorb in a short presentation with multiple audiences to address. Therefore:
  • The NEWG is now exploring the convening of focus groups for more interactive sessions.
Last, but not least, the St. Louis Vacancy Collaborative launched our 2022-2023 Work Plan. This will help guide our work for the next 18-months and keep our 6 work groups on task to do more...check out the video recording of the Work Plan Webinar, presented in December 2021.



We couldn't do any of this without the support of the entire St. Louis City community and beyond. Please consider making a donation today as your year end gift. Let's head into 2022, looking forward to the future and continuing further down the path together as we move St. Louis from vacancy to VIBRANCY!
Donate Now

 

DON'T FORGET!

Now through December 31, your donations will be matched up to $5,000.

Thank you to our matching donors
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, and the Community Builders Network of Metro St. Louis.
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