The City of St. Louis offers a diverse, often architecturally significant housing stock in a number of single or multi-family settings. Its buildings, almost always brick, closely spaced on tree lined streets, pulled close to the curb, offer character and a sense of community that is unmatched in the region. Many of its neighborhoods offer a level of distinction found only in older eastern cities in the United States or in Europe.
In previous years, these buildings and favorable tax laws for rehabilitating older and historic structures were potent forces for stimulating a housing renovation and construction industry that had not been seen for thirty years. These housing programs, often combined with Section 8 rental housing assistance, provided assistance to families of diverse income levels. The 1986 tax reforms brought this activity to a halt.
At the same time, pervasive shifts in employment from the high wage manufacturing sector to the lower wage service industry have created high levels of unemployment and underemployment. Combined with the population's lower than average educational attainment, the reduced earning capabilities of many of the City's households have made much of the City's available housing, although among the most affordable in the nation, too expensive. Within the last ten years, the City has been faced with a flat for-sale real estate market and a population with immense unmet housing needs.
To address these concerns the City, through the Community Development Agency, has dedicated an average of $8 million a year to housing. By utilizing HOME and CDBG funds and working through various not-for-profit organizations, such as the Urban League, St. Louis Reinvestment Corporation, Neighborhood Housing Services, Catholic Commission on Housing, and Operation Impact, assistance has been provided to low and moderate income families in the form of buyers assistance , home repair and housing development. In 1996, $12 million was programmed for housing. The goal of these programs is as follows:
Housing will continue to be the focus of a re-energized Citywide Residential Development Strategy designed to strengthen neighborhoods. Adopted in September 1994, the strategy focuses on a combination of rehabilitation, new construction and aid to homeowners in targeted neighborhoods. The scope of the program is to use a mix of financial resources, both public and private, to concentrate efforts, achieving a significant neighborhood impact and facilitating neighborhood stability.
At the same time, renewed efforts are underway to help those with the most severe shelter problems - those who are homeless, living in unsatisfactory public housing, troubled with mental or physical disabilities, living with HIV/AIDS, or simply too poor to afford decent housing. While both public and private resources are insufficient, the City accepts its historic role to facilitate as much progress as possible.
Long ago the City of St. Louis incorporated as a major component of its mission to provide a range of public facilities. The City views these facilities as critical factors in the viability of its neighborhoods and the quality of life of its citizens. Today, St. Louis operates six regional parks, 71 neighborhood parks, 13 community centers which offer services for youth, seniors, child care and much more, public parking facilities, and a regional medical center. These public facilities are often the primary vehicle for neighborhood cohesiveness and neighborhood services delivery. It is essential to the long term stability of St. Louis neighborhoods that these facilities continue to able to provide these essential services.
CDBG funds have been used to provide assistance to various public facilities such as community centers, health centers, and public housing by providing much needed funding for capital improvements, such as construction of handicap ramps, physical expansion of the facilities, curbs and sidewalk construction, and interior and exterior improvements.
Nationally, more than two thirds of employed mothers, with children younger than three, work full time; 57% of children under 13 have mothers who work outside the home. Many of the working mothers are heading households today. That trend has made child care an important community agenda issue for the first time. It is nationally recognized that child care is a community's duty to raise healthy children, who are going to create a healthy future community.
Current ServicesIn the City of St. Louis, there are 298 certified child care facilities: 113 centers, 182 homes, and 3 group homes. The range of capacities falls in between 15 to 232 at the centers, 5 to 10 at the homes, and 16 to 19 at the group homes. The total capacity of all the certified child care facilities is 9,133. Five day care centers and 135 day care homes are available for children immediately after birth, and 39 centers and 28 homes accept them at the age of six weeks.
Needs and ChallengesAccording to 1990 census STF-1A and STF-3A data, there are 100,040 children under 18 in St. Louis City, and among them, 31,355 are under five. The total number of households with children is 49,176. The proportion of married couple families with children represents 46.5% (22,870), while female-headed families represent 47.8% (23,493) and male-headed families represent 5.7% (2,813).
Of the City's 91,747 families, almost 21 percent live in poverty, with female-headed households claiming the largest proportion of them. Approximately three-fourths (74.5%, or 14,061 of 18,872) of all families living in poverty are female-headed.
The above figures indicate that over half of the children are living under supervision of a single parent who is the only income generator in a household. When the parent is female, the children are more likely to be in poverty, which often demands the parents to overwork. Under the circumstances, a great majority of children are in desperate need of child care outside the home during day time as well as night time or weekends but do not have capacity to pay the market rates for the services.
The City has recognized these problems and has over an extensive period of time provided funding to child care facilities throughout the city. This funding has allowed these providers to offer infant and child care services, day care services, and after school programs to low and moderate income households.
Previous generations of St. Louisans could be proud of the legacy of their park system, with an inventory of over 80 parks of all sizes and descriptions. Today almost every St. Louis resident is within walking distance of one or more of these parks.
With St. Louis' population loss and subsequent budget cuts, deferred maintenance and repair have rendered many of these facilities, especially playgrounds, unusable. Recent trends in design of children's play structures have put safety in the forefront. New playground equipment is extremely expensive, and surfaces such as pea gravel and bark chips require on-going maintenance.
In 1977 and 1978, the federal government provided a needed infusion of funds to upgrade many of the City's parks. Many of these improvements are now in need of replacement. Help from the State of Missouri is not likely to be forthcoming. For 1994, only $410,000 was available for the entire state through the Land and Water Conservation Funds, which provides grants primarily for new facilities that relate mostly to active recreation.
The City's 13 recreation centers are heavily utilized. They represent the City's first line response to the growing number of youths from single parent or two working parent families in need of supervised activity after school or during the summer.
The City through CDBG funding has contributed to the expansion of recreation programs for our youths. These programs include, gang abatement and counseling, cultural enrichment, sports programs, and dance and arts.
Undeniably, the City of St. Louis is no longer the large manufacturing base that it was in past decades, and it has struggled at times to maintain its employment base. Still, it is the home of the metropolitan region's largest concentration of employment, the Central Business District (CBD) where there are over 100,000 jobs according to the 1990 Census Transportation Planning Package, Journey to Work data. A recent decade of "city building" has created a new CBD infrastructure that poises the City for attracting more tourists and conventions and has created more and better employment opportunities, largely in service sector-type jobs. Yet, unemployment among lower income and minority residents has persisted, creating many social tensions and neighborhood destabilization, that has ultimately led a to strains on service delivery and created nagging fiscal stress. To countervail these problems, the City strives to create employment opportunities for its residents and to attract tourism and import dollars to their new facilities.
Recent AchievementsBeginning in the 1980s, the City embarked upon a period of revitalization and redevelopment that added several million square feet of new retail and class A office space to the CBD. It created a general sense of renewal, as long deteriorating sections of the CBD were rebuilt and many neighborhoods experienced comebacks that reversed or arrested long periods of steady decline. In recent years, the rebuilding has continued with the completion of a new downtown arena, the Kiel Center, the completion of a convention center expansion, the completion of a 70,000 domed stadium, and a light rail system that will ultimately connect Scott Air Force Base in Illinois with Lambert Field, the airport hub. These developments represent a continued commitment to the City's present and future vitality, by providing substantial amounts of construction activity and employment opportunities.
Economic IndicatorsEmployment Levels and Labor Force Composition
The unemployment rate and employment levels have remained fairly constant during the 1990 to 1994 period. Unemployment has fluctuated between a range of 7.8 to 9.3%, with the 7.8% coming in 1994. Employment levels have seemed to hold steady although the rise in 1994, according to the Missouri Division of Employment Security, may be due to a change in data collection methodology. The labor force consists of those people that have reported they are seeking work and are receiving unemployment benefits. Those whose benefits have expired and/or have stopped looking for work are termed discouraged and are not included in the unemployment count. In general , despite a number of corporate downsizings, plant closures,and lay-offs, employment levels seem to have not displayed a pattern of wide fluctuation.
The Consolidated Plan builds on a record of citizen outreach that has been unsurpassed in recent years. The findings and recommendations that follow were built on about 50 meetings held during the spring of 1995 as part of the Empowerment Zone planning process, another 6 meetings were held during that summer in conjunction with the Human Development Corporation. Collectively, these meetings afforded the City the opportunity to hear from most corners of St. Louis. Many of the ideas expressed by citizens have been heard before, but over the past year, they have been expressed with a new clarity and urgency.
This Plan also builds on the recommendations of the Mayor's Neighborhood Development Strategic Planning Task Force, and the five transition team reports that it synthesized, as published in January 1994. It is worth summarizing the "guiding principles" articulated in that report, for they apply equally to this Plan.
Economic reinvestment must complement new housing activity. People want to live in relative proximity to places to shop and to work. Neighborhood viability is dependent not only on quality housing stock, but also on the neighborhood's accessibility to goods and services. Conversely, they do not want to live near land that has been partially or wholly abandoned by commercial and industrial interests.
Economic activity must be promoted at many different levels - major retail services that can bring convenience shopping back to neighborhoods from which it has disappeared; 21st century industries such as telecommunications or bio-technology which can create jobs for future generations; and assistance to small and start-up businesses run by St. Louis residents.
Public Services and Facilities are essential to the health of the City. In an affluent community, many families do not have to rely on public services. That is not the case in St. Louis where high quality, professionally run recreation, health, safety, and other services are fundamental. In the face of limited resources, these services need to be expanded and delivered in a manner that is responsive to the needs of neighborhood residents.
Progress in all of these areas is necessary. Neighborhoods that are not just stable but desirable places to live and work, can be achieved. It can't be done, however, by any one or two groups. Progress over the coming years will take partnerships between all the institutions in St.ÊLouisÊ- private businesses, non-profits, public employees at all levels of government, the volunteer community, and above all the citizens.
Attacking poverty in a concerted manner is a central goal of the City. Given the size and depth of the problem, it is a goal that cannot be achieved, certainly in the near term. The eradication of poverty will take far more, in the way of resources and commitment, than City government is able to provide by itself.
Unhappily, the U.S. Census Bureau reports that even as the nation came out of its recession, last year the number of people living in poverty (less than $14,763 for a family of four) increased. The lowest 20 percent of U.S. households saw their income decrease; those without health insurance rose to almost 40 million. Nearly 23 percent of all children lived in poverty.
The following describes many of the policies and programs designed to reduce poverty. As described in past documents, including the Comprehensive Housing Affordability Strategy and the Empowerment Zone Proposal, the goals are familiar - increasing available jobs, conveying skills to secure employment, strengthening the "safety net", and helping provide shelter, food, and other basic staples of life.
During the past year the St. Louis Community Development Agency has expended approximately $30 million in Community Development Block Grant and $4 million in HOME funds. These dollars have enabled the City to assist Community Centers, Not-For-Profits, Community Organizations and Housing Developers to improve the quality of life in St. Louis for its low and moderate income families. The following represents many of the accomplishments to date.