In March 1959, the city served eviction notices. The residents filed suit, challenging the city’s claim to the land. That August, after about half the families had moved out, city building inspectors arrived to condemn the shacks and begin forcing the people out. Clusters of squatter communities remained into the 1960s. In the spring of 2012, two growing river communities called Hopeville and Sparta along the north riverfront were home to more than 80 poor and displaced persons that had just survived winter. However, after some violent incidents in the camps and complaints from guests on the upper floors of the $300-per-night Four Seasons Hotel, St. Louis city officials decided to tear down the shelters and find housing for all who requested support. The
There were some very significant historic and economic changes that slowly eroded social support for the poor, overwhelming the churches and philanthropists who had been caring for those who lacked family support. The United States was still a very broken country after the Civil War, and de facto slavery still existed throughout much of the South. Children and grandchildren of former slaves had taken to farming and supporting larger farmers as low-wage workers. However, the development of the steam-powered tractor and the eventual industrialization of agriculture pushed these rural poor off their tenant farms and into growing urban centers where the urban white and immigrant poor already struggled with high
“During the Great Depression, more than 5,000 homeless settled on a stretch of the Mississippi River in downtown St. Louis, living in shacks of crate wood, scraps of sheet metal and canvas.” existence of these river camps was certainly a sign of the times, but social support for the poor, although limited, was not absent. The city of St. Louis Department of Health & Human Services does a commendable job of providing daytime facilities through partnerships with community organizations. However, the resources that exist are not rapidly moving people out of homelessness because the root causes of poverty are not being addressed. As a community, St. Louis has proven itself to be very generous, but barriers to jobs, housing and education, and unequal access to community resources will continue to fill the shelters of this city until we take ownership of the problem by pushing for more direct local dollars via the Affordable Housing Trust Fund to building adequate affordable housing solutions. Increased funding could build more shelters and permanent support housing through the Shelter Plus Care model, and are sorely needed. However, for those hardy souls who prefer selfsufficiency and would rather shelter themselves, options are limited. The quiet overnight downtown St. Louis business district allows for folks to sleep on steam grills and under building vents, and the choice to band together into camps along the north riverfront — very close to where the original longshoreman lived and Hoovervilles had stood just 75 years before — is a stark reminder that poverty has always been and continues to be with us. The fact is being poor in St. Louis today means to have an abundance of community resources at one’s disposal but few opportunities for self-sufficient employment options ,and very little quality affordable housing.
unemployment . It was a recipe for disaster. Beginning in the 1880s, the growing city of St. Louis took on the challenge of housing the influx of German, Italian, Polish and Irish immigrants through the construction of large private homes and small shotgun dwellings thanks to the existence of large clay mines in the city. The city grew quickly thanks to low-cost brick building materials and talented European craftsmanship. This was a huge period in history for St. Louis with ornate brick structures springing up all over a city that was very much counting on growth. The 1904 World’s Fair showcased the city to visitors from around the globe, and there was a lot of hope that St. Louis would continue to grow — and it did. Unfortunately, the Terminal Railroad Association dispute with the St. Louis Merchants Exchange around a tariff on coal trains crossing the Mississippi River resulted in several industries locating in Illinois rather than Missouri. The steelmaking town Happy Landing Hooverville - February,1938 (Post-Dispatch)
This wasn’t always the case. volume 12:1 whatsupstl.com
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