St. Louis Ranks Lowest In Number of Homeless
People
USA Today Does City by City Comparison
By any measure the City of St. Louis has achieved
some incredible results in addressing homelessness during the
administration of Mayor Francis G. Slay. St. Louis is now recognized
nationally as having one of the most progressive and successful
approaches to ending homelessness in the country.
As a result, Bill Siedhoff, Director of the Department
of Human Services, was in Washington, D.C., on April 9-10 at the
invitation of Philip Mangano, Executive Director, U.S. Interagency
Council on Homelessness, to share information on the City’s success.
Siedhoff reported that the number of homeless
people in St. Louis compared to other cities was remarkably low
in that we are far below homeless census counts in other communities.
Based on comparative figures, St. Louis has one of the lowest
rates of homelessness in the country standing at 0.37% with a
total count of 1,322 people. That compares favorably when you
consider that Atlanta has over 5 times as many homeless people
with a total of 6,832 constituting a homeless rate of 1.4%. Washington,
D.C., is another example with a total of 5,518 homeless people
with a rate of 0.95%. Los Angeles reports that they have over
80,000 homeless people! A recent front page story in USA Today
did a similar city by city comparison which again reflected that
the City of St. Louis had the smallest number of homeless people
in the country compared to other cities.
In citing the City’s ranking, Siedhoff mentioned
the City’s success in securing resources for the provision of
permanent supportive housing by prevailing over other cities across
the country in the annual HUD McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance
competition. Since the beginning of Mayor Slay’s administration,
the City has received nearly $49 million providing funding for
518 permanent supportive housing units along with resources for
many other homeless service programs.
Since the 10-Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness
was released in 2005, St. Louis City has seen its homeless census
plummet by 30% reducing our homeless count from 1,870 to 1,322.
