St. Louis officials expect to the city to start demolishing homes damaged by the deadly May tornado in January, but they are awaiting FEMA funding to move forward.
On Oct. 21, the city's Recovery Office launched the STLRecovers Outreach Center at the Urban League Women's Business Center in north St. Louis to help residents whose homes were damaged or destroyed by the tornado apply for private property assistance. The free program allows residents to apply for demolition and major debris removal from their property. People can also request assistance with home stabilization and repairs.
The recovery center is collecting applications and verifying titles before moving to site assessments, but it can only do so much without funding, said Julian Nicks, St. Louis' chief recovery officer.
"The part that comes after that is the state, and the state ultimately owns the contract … the broader FEMA dollars are held by the state — none of those dollars, none of that program, is managed by the city," Nicks said. "We are moving at full speed, from a city perspective, to get those properties and those work packets developed, but the timeline by which that work and demo and debris removal will start is a state-level planning and decision effort."
The Federal Emergency Management Agency and Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley's office did not respond to a request for comment on the status of FEMA funding.
The city estimates that approximately 2,000 properties will need to be demolished or have major debris removed from them. They estimate that about 3,000 buildings will need repairs, including privately owned buildings. So far, city officials have received over 600 applications, with more than half of them currently under review.
Once the application is in the system, residents can check the status through their account or visit the recovery center at Natural Bridge and North Newstead avenues.
"Debris and demolition at scale probably won't happen from a state perspective until probably January, and then we're hoping to scale our repair program actively now," Nicks said. "We will hopefully be adding more capacity to that team, and people will hopefully start seeing faster responses come December."
To apply for the private property assistance program, visit the recovery outreach center between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and between between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Saturday. Or contact the center at 1-833-925-0977. The application is also available online.
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