DISMANTLING THE DIVIDE: St. Louis County Needs an Affordable Housing Trust Fund

By Chris Krehmeyer, President & CEO of Beyond Housing

This column was originally published in The St. Louis American.

What could be more important than investing in home?

The power of “home” can’t be overstated. The home in which we live, and the community where we grow up, drive the trajectory our lives. If we recognize this to be true for ourselves, how can we not recognize it to be true for all? How can this region, our collective home, succeed if we allow pockets of it to fail?

Sub-standard low-income housing and what it represents continues to be a part of the St. Louis County landscape—and when housing struggles, so do families, communities, and our region. Even though St. Louis County is the jobs base for our region, no significant investment has been made in affordable housing in years.

As the recent, exhaustive study “Segregation in St. Louis: Dismantling the Divide” points out, this lack of investment has taken a significant toll on our region, particularly in North St. Louis County and parts of South County. The report was produced by ArchCity Defenders, Ascend STL, Empower Missouri, the Equal Housing and Opportunity Council of Metropolitan St. Louis (EHOC), For the Sake of All, Invest STL and Team TIF. They noted that over the course of decades, homes and apartment complexes have deteriorated. They require expensive upkeep that homeowners and landlords are hesitant or simply unable to make.

At Beyond Housing, we deal with these issues every day within the 24:1 footprint, which comprises the 24 municipalities in the Normandy school district. We’ve seen the many challenges homeowners, tenants and landlords face in keeping the quality of the housing stock as strong and viable as possible, and the lack of available tools and resources to help.

It’s why we strongly agree with the organizations that issued the report: An Affordable Housing Trust Fund is absolutely critical to the overall health and wellness of St. Louis County and our region.

The City of St. Louis has had its fund for a number of years. Considering more people live in poverty in St. Louis County, a similar fund is long overdue. It’s highly doable, too. An Affordable Housing Trust Fund can easily be paid for through the reallocation of existing resources, by a small sales tax, or by placing a modest fee on every real estate closing transaction, which is the method used by St. Louis City.

It’s essential to make funds available to repair existing housing stock, as well as supporting families in need. Making funds available through an Affordable Housing Trust Fund for issues such as utilities and housing expenses helps stave off the upheaval and trauma caused by eviction and provides stability for children, schools and communities.

We also know that we can’t continue to keep the poor confined to a few small, often highly segregated areas. As the study shows, most affordable housing is located in low-employment areas and isolated from public transportation, where the vast majority of residents don’t own cars to easily commute to areas of greater employment.

Racial and economic segregation have long been part of the problem here. It’s important to allow people lower on the economic ladder to move to communities that give them access to the things they need to prosper. This region will never be as strong as we’d like it to be if we refuse to allow people who look different or make less money to live next door to us. And study after study has debunked the myth that creating low-income housing in more affluent areas brings down property values.

At Beyond Housing, we believe that allowing people to move to communities of opportunity as well as investing in poverty areas is a successful two-pronged approach.

We’ve invested close to $80 million over the last eight years—repairing, renovating and building homes within the 24:1 communities, as well as continuing to offer affordable rental housing in places like Webster Groves, Kirkwood, Maplewood and Richmond Heights.

In recent conversations with St. Louis County Executive Steve Stenger, we’ve been discussing the idea of an Affordable Housing Trust Fund. He shares my conviction that prioritizing funds for affordable housing is paramount in our community. Together, we are looking forward to working with interested parties to make it a reality.

If we’re going to thrive as a region, we need to recognize that this is the home we share, and that home matters—not just for some, but for all.

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Chris Krehmeyer is the President and CEO of Beyond Housing, a NeighborWorks America organization in St. Louis. He has served in that capacity since 1993. Chris has or currently sits on a variety of boards including Midwest Bank Centre and Midwest Bank Centre Holding Company, the United Way of Greater St. Louis Asset Building, both Washington University and the University of Missouri’s Not-For-Profit programs, and the National NeighborWorks Association Board. Chris has been an adjunct faculty member at Washington University teaching a class in social entrepreneurship. Chris is married with three children and has an undergraduate degree in Urban Studies from Washington University.

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Articles in “From the Field” represent the opinions of the author only and do not represent the views of the Community Builders Network of Metro St. Louis or the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

We invite readers to contribute to the civic conversation about community development in St. Louis by writing an op-ed for the Community Builders Exchange. Op-eds should be short (400-700 words) and provocative. If you have an idea for an op-ed, contact Todd Swanstrom at swanstromt@umsl.edu.

Chesterfield Mobile Home Park Poses Opportunity and Challenge for Community Builders

By Jim Moore

The recent publicity on the possible conversion of a mobile home park for mid-to-high income apartments raises several policy, political and practice issues re: affordable housing. The current drought in support for affordable housingsuggests a need to revisit the potential of “manufactured houses” and mobile home parks as a partial solution. A look at this case may provide some clues as to what legal, policy and practice changes are needed to make such housing acceptable to all stakeholders.

In the late 1940’s land once part of a Spanish Land Grant was developed as the Chesterfield Mobile Home Park (CMHP) in what was unincorporated St. Louis County. When the City of Chesterfield was incorporated in 1988, CMHP was grandfathered in the city’s zoning plan as a “legal, non-conforming use.” It operates today in that status. CMHP is home to over 300 people living in 135 homes. Most of the individual trailer residents are elderly or disabled living on limited incomes. A larger number of residents are families with one or more wage earners working in low wage jobs in Chesterfield’s stores and restaurants. Many of these are Hispanic. A few are independent, small business owners. There are more than 120 children in the community, most of whom attend Rockwood Schools.

In 2017 a developer approached the owner of the Mobile Home Park to buy the land to build apartment buildings. The sale was contingent upon the developer’s ability to get the land rezoned for that use. If the land was rezoned, CMHP would be closed and the occupants forced to leave. There is no other low income housing in the area, so they would lose their homes, jobs and schools for their children.

An informal committee of residents and concerned citizens successfully fought the rezoning of the property. Rezoning was denied and the developer has withdrawn. Unfortunately, the residents may have “won a battle to lose the war.” The property owners will eventually sell.   

The CMHP Resident Association is now looking at potential ways for the residents to buy the land. They are in contact with several national organizations and financiers who specialize in cooperative housing and the purchase of trailer parks for resident ownership (ROCUSA, Grounded Solutions, Community Land Trusts, and others). These efforts will be strengthened by the development of a viable plan for the mobile park which would meet the city’s expectations for improvements in the mobile park. Achieving community ownership would be a win-win-win for the residents, the current land owner, and the city and surrounding neighbors (by means of improvements to the mobile park).

HUD recognizes the utility of such housing in the current market (cf. articles in Evidence Matters and other HUD publications). Several states have also taken action to promote conversion of mobile home parks to “Resident Owned Communities,” among them New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Vermont, Rhode Island, and Oregon. All of these have “Opportunity to Purchase” law, which requires the land owner to notify intent to sell and provide a 90-day period of negotiation that requires clear notification of sale expectations and good faith negotiation with residents and others interested. As usual, Missouri lags behind. 

Local zoning laws will also need to be addressed to find what is required to make mobile home parks a welcome addition to the community housing stock. And finally, community development practioners should update their views on the parks as real communities where engagement with and mutual support among neighbors is often more easily obtained than in other environments.

If you share my concern about this critical issue and would like to get involved, here are a few ways you can help:

1. Area citizens and preservation groups are invited to provide moral and public support for the preservation of this low-income housing and to encourage both legal and zoning changes.

2. Funds are needed in the short term to assist in pre-development activities, surveys, research, organizing, and outreach to the broader community.

3. Should a Community Land Trust be needed, supporters will be needed to serve in the short or long term on the Board of the Land Trust, both to acquire the land and to assist residents in negotiating improvements with the City of Chesterfield.

4. CDCs and housing and community development nonprofit partners who are interested in working with Resident-Owned Communities USA (ROC-USA) could assist by serving as a local partner, thus enabling ROC-USA to bring their expertise and support to Missouri and Southern Illinois. Many mobile home parks in these areas are potential sources for upgraded low-income and affordable housing stock.

ROC-USA has managed 200 conversions of mobile home parks and has access to finances to make such conversions possible. But they will not enter our marketplace without a local partner.   

For more information, please contact Jim Moore at moorejd59@gmail.com.

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Jim has no experience in housing development, but began work life in community organizing in the 1960s, working his way from the street to city then state government positions in workforce development.  The second third of his career was in OD work in the private sector, returning to program and process improvement in the non-profit and government sectors to finish work life. After a 1970s experience with cooperatives in Ecuador, he takes pride in founding four service collaboratives to address employment of ex-offenders and other disadvantaged job seekers.

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Articles in “From the Field” represent the opinions of the author only and do not represent the views of the Community Builders Network of Metro St. Louis or the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

We invite readers to contribute to the civic conversation about community development in St. Louis by writing an op-ed for the Community Builders Exchange. Op-eds should be short (400-700 words) and provocative. If you have an idea for an op-ed, contact Todd Swanstrom at swanstromt@umsl.edu.

Why Cherokee Street’s Success Threatens the Status Quo

By Chris Naffziger, Writer at St. Louis Magazine

This column was originally published by St. Louis Magazine.

Cherokee Street is dangerous.

No, not in the cliché definition we see plastered all over the nightly news. It is dangerous to the status quo inSt. Louis politics. Despite very little attention from City Hall, the street has rebounded from absentee landlordship to become a thriving, multicultural community. Scanning through national coverage of St. Louis, places such as the Saint Louis Zoo, Saint Louis Art Museum, the Cardinals, and the Arch get much of the attention, and logically so, as they are large institutions with commensurate budgets. But it’s Cherokee Street that gets into the headlines despite having a fraction of the finances of those other St. Louis icons.

In addition to being ignored by City Hall, Cherokee Street has rarely been the recipient of tax abatements of the quantity lavished on the Central Corridor. I counted around 16 total tax abatements on Cherokee Street, which runs through the heart of South City. Nonetheless, despite having only minimal relief from taxes, the street thrives. I began to contemplate why this is; if tax subsidies are so necessary to spur development in the Central Corridor, then why did growth happen anyway in the Cherokee Corridor? Here are my observations, having watched the street mature over the past decade.

Individual initiative, without help or even in defiance of the political leadership in the neighborhood. Mexican Americans moved to Cherokee Street and began to open stores and restaurants, bringing life to a commercial corridor that was largely abandoned. Yet again, as has been shown over the past 250 years, this city has always been nourished with the blood of immigrants, and their contribution has been ignored for just about that length of time as well. It was Mexican Americans who built the first new buildings on Cherokee Street in decades.

Hard work, which tax incentives cannot replace. Look at the work required to renovate the Cherokee Brewery. Despite receiving no tax abatements, the Earthbound Beer team transformed a historic brewery building into a modern microbrewery. I was always amazed by the sheer amount of grunt work required, particularly the summer that I witnessed a steady stream of dirt and rock pour out of a rickety but perfectly functional conveyer belt rising from the depths below. With the help of friends (including one who singlehandedly picked up giant blocks of discarded limestone), Earthbound cleared out a historic lagering cellar filled with rubble for a century. And unlike other big-ticket developments in the Central Corridor, Earthbound is now even attracting international attention.

A sense of purpose beyond profit. I’m not arguing that businesses should not worry about being fiscally solvent. Far from it. But I’ve discovered over the years that most people can smell a person who’s only in business for the money. When I walk into a place such as Blank Space, I feel like I’m somewhere special, a place where there is community. When I walk into StL Style, I don’t just see a custom T-shirt shop; I see a place where the Vines brothers and their staff have created a business that advocates for their community. When I walk into the Hop Shop or Teatopia, I feel like I’ve entered an oasis of calm in a bustling world. When I walk into Yaqui’s Pizza, I think about how the owner once bought his class ring in the same building decades ago.

It must be terribly confusing to the bigwigs in City Hall: a thriving community without the excessive use of tax incentives. Ironically, it made me think back to my days playing Sim City and how I, along with many others, used a cheat code that gave me free money. What did I do after getting the free money? I spent it recklessly because, after all, it was free money. The problem was that I built a city too quickly for tax revenues to catch up. Eventually, my little simulated city, awash with the electronic equivalent of subsidies, ran out of money. And I couldn’t keep using the cheat code to get more money, because the game’s designers would trigger an earthquake if the cheat was used too much. I would be left high and dry, with a city that couldn’t pay for itself due to subsidized growth. And of course, that was right when my power plant blew up because it was 50 years old. I realized that the only way to win Sim City was slow, organic growth in which tax revenues matched development. It took more time, but it was ultimately more rewarding.

Sound familiar? Our city has given away close to $1 billion in tax subsidies for development that very well shouldn’t have occurred in the first place due to market demand. Or even worse, many projects would have done just fine without subsidies—and got them anyway. Just like in Sim City, you can only raise taxes so high before people start leaving. St. Louis even has its own proverbial power plant that needs to be replaced; the estimates for updating the Convention Center are in the hundreds of millions. There is no money. No, really, there is no money.

Back to the first sentence of the article: Cherokee Street is dangerous. It is dangerous to those at City Hall who insist that we were obligated to give away hundreds of millions of tax dollars or our city would see no new development. Cherokee Street proves that when individuals are left alone to work hard, experiment, and dream, real change and rebirth can occur. It must be incredibly humbling for politicians to hear that.

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Chris Naffziger writes about architecture at St. Louis Magazine. His architecture blog, St. Louis Patina, just celebrated its ten-year anniversary in May of 2017. He is an internationally published authority on the history of brewing in St. Louis, and has been investigating the Lemp Brewery recently. He has worked in several art museums, including the National Gallery of Art and the Saint Louis Art Museum.

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Articles in “From the Field” represent the opinions of the author only and do not represent the views of the Community Builders Network of Metro St. Louis or the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

We invite readers to contribute to the civic conversation about community development in St. Louis by writing an op-ed for the Community Builders Exchange. Op-eds should be short (400-700 words) and provocative. If you have an idea for an op-ed, contact Todd Swanstrom at swanstromt@umsl.edu.

Outstanding Achievement in Community Building: Stephen Acree

Congratulations to Stephen Acree, Executive Director of Rise Community Development, winner of our 2018 Award for Outstanding Achievement in Community Building!

The Outstanding Achievement in Community Building Award recognizes an individual who:

• Demonstrates a long-standing commitment to the community building sector.

• Exhibits leadership, vision, and a commitment to action and results.

• Has achieved an outstanding impact in community building policy, investment, or community change.

Stephen Acree has over 30 years of experience in community development, with a career that spans both the public and private sector. Born and raised in St. Louis, he received his undergraduate degree from The George Washington University and is a member of the Missouri Bar Association with a law degree from Washington University. Stephen has a long history of experience in facilitating complex community development financial transactions, particularly with the structured development financing needed in areas that are more difficult to develop.

Stephen joined Rise Community Development in 1999 and has been Executive Director and President since 2002. He serves on the Executive Committee of the Missouri Workforce Housing Association, of which he was the founding president. His other past roles have included being a member of the Board of Directors of the Landmarks Association of St. Louis, where he also served as the organization’s President; member of the Advisory Committee of the Public Policy Research Center at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, Fannie Mae’s Southwestern Regional Housing and Community Development Advisory Council, and Enterprise Community Partners’ Network Advisory Board; as well as Chairman of the Greater St. Louis Regional Empowerment Zone. Stephen has also spent time working in city government, serving as the Director of the City of St. Louis Community Development Agency.

Ribbon cutting for Lemay Homes, 2016

In his time at Rise, Stephen has broadened their work beyond that of CDC funder and capacity builder, financial intermediary, and neighborhood developer. Rise is helping neighborhoods undertake neighborhood planning using extensive community engagement and racial equity best practices and plays a prominent role in publicizing the importance of community development. Rise is a designated local partner of the National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership (NNIP) and has a robust data shop that has aided many local and regional initiatives. This includes CivTech St. Louis, a new civic tech and data collaborative established to carry on the civic tech work that Rise partnered in with other organizations to provide a tool that gives residents access to traffic ticket information and informs them of their rights through the YourSTLCourts.com platform.

Stephen has served on the Board of CBN from its beginning, ably filling the thankless job of Treasurer for many years. Throughout his long and storied career in community development in St. Louis, he has continually used his skills, knowledge, and experience to promote diversity, inclusion, and growth.

We hope you can join us to celebrate Stephen’s achievements and those of other community partners at our 6th Annual Awards Reception on April 26th!

Rising Star in Community Building: Amanda Colón-Smith

Congratulations to Amanda Colón-Smith, Executive Director of Dutchtown South Community Corporation, winner of our 2018 Rising Star in Community Building Award!

The Rising Star in Community Building Award recognizes an individual who:

• Demonstrates dedication to and passion for the community building sector.

• Exhibits leadership, vision, and a commitment to action and results.

• Shows promising potential to achieve outstanding impact in community building policy, investment, or community change.

Amanda Colón-Smith currently serves as the Executive Director of Dutchtown South Community Corporation (DSCC), a nonprofit dedicated to serving four neighborhoods in South St. Louis: Dutchtown, Gravois Park, Marine Villa, and Mt. Pleasant. She is a graduate of the Regional Arts Commission’s Community Arts Training program and holds a certificate from NeighborWorks America as a Certified Housing Asset Manager. She received a B.A. in Africana Studies from Cornell University and an M.S. in Special Education from City College, CUNY.

Beginning as a Program Coordinator at DSCC, Amanda managed two years of Community Development Block Grant programs in community engagement and planning, beautification, and public art. In her time at DSCC, she has built the capacity of the organization and secured its first federal grant outside of local Community Development Administration (CDA) funding. Even before taking a leadership role, Amanda secured over $310,000 in funding for housing stabilization and community facilitation activities. She has also increased office support staff by developing partnerships with the Americorps VISTA program, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the AARP Senior Community Service Employment Program.

Amanda led the design of community engagement efforts for the Gravois-Jefferson Historic Neighborhoods planning process.

In 2017, Amanda took over leadership of DSCC in a seamless and strong manner. With her steady management, she has strengthened the organization’s internal capacity in fund development, human resources, and partnerships. She led the Community Engagement strategy for the Gravois-Jefferson Historic Neighborhoods Planning process, which was just awarded funding for implementation through the St. Louis Community Foundation’s InvestSTL inaugural funding round. Amanda has also redefined what it means to be a community development corporation in St. Louis with the launch of a variety of unique, innovative initiatives, such as the EPA-funded “So Fresh, So Clean, So Creative” program. She is an unapologetic advocate for her neighborhoods and their residents and will be a powerful force in the continued growth of the community development sector in St. Louis.

We hope you can join us to celebrate Amanda’s achievements and those of other community partners at our 6th Annual Awards Reception on April 26th!

Excellence in Banking: Great Southern Bank

Congratulations to Great Southern Bank, winner of our 2018 Award for Excellence in Banking!

The Award for Excellence in Banking recognizes a bank or lending institution that:

• Gets involved beyond traditional lending in community building activities.

• Is creative in how it supports community building.

• Provides direct support to community building organizations.

• Has a strong community presence.

• Demonstrates a deep understanding of the sector and a willingness to accept more risk.

Great Southern Bank branch in Ferguson, Missouri

Great Southern Bank has been heavily invested in the redevelopment of St. Louis and offers 19 convenient locations throughout the St. Louis area, including St. Louis City, County, and St. Charles. Great Southern and its team of more than 100 associates are committed to fostering growth and long-term success because it means more success for everyone: customers, employees, shareholders, and their broader communities.

Great Southern Bank team partnering with Operation Food Search

Great Southern’s desire for a strong, thriving economy has supported numerous CBN members as they invest and prioritize their resources to positively impact local people and their communities. They have embraced the promise of a better future with robust loan portfolios in neighborhoods that have seen significant periods of disinvestment, including Penrose, O’Fallon, the Greater Ville, Dogtown, and Peabody Darst-Webbe. To be leaders in community development, Great Southern has focused on being actively involved in economic growth, neighborhood stabilization programs, revitalization programs, small business lending, affordable housing, and community service. This has included strong support and partnership with Invest STL. By joining forces with other local businesses, Great Southern has created a pathway for St. Louis to become stronger and increase its prospects for economic and population growth, providing the opportunity for residents to live in safe places with good housing and the services they need to succeed.

We hope you can join us to celebrate the achievements of Great Southern Bank and those of other community partners at our 6th Annual Awards Reception on April 26th!

Excellence in Small Business: Taft Street Restaurant & Bar

Congratulations to Taft Street Restaurant & Bar, winner of our 2018 Award for Excellence in Small Business!

The Award for Excellence in Small Business recognizes a business that:

• Acts as an anchor institution for communities through investment, by providing employment, or by remaining committed to staying in communities that need economic activity.

• Involves employees in community service with community partners.

• Provides economic growth to the region and locates in neighborhoods with revitalization plans, offering employment and drawing capital into communities.

• Provides monetary or in-kind support for community-building nonprofits.

In a review by The Riverfront Times, Taft Street Restaurant & Bar’s Bosnian cuisine is described as reflective of Bosnia’s “many diverse influences from Europe’s east, west and south. No restaurant better expresses this diversity than Taft Street Restaurant & Bar.” This cuisine includes such dishes as goat cheese fritters; kulazy, triangular beef-filled pastries; tomato-and-feta salad; spicy fish soup; and entrees featuring chicken, veal, seafood, and pasta with cream sauces. A signature off-menu dish available on request serves cevapi, a sweet beef sausage, between two big slices of lepana, Bosnian bread.

Taft Street Restaurant & Bar draws a diverse group of visitors and provides a sense of home for Bosnian friends and family. It serves as a gateway for others to learn more about Bosnian culture, a presence that is strong in the St. Louis community.

Sadik Kukic, owner of Taft Street Restaurant & Bar, is also a pillar in St. Louis’ Bosnian immigrant community. He has helped to stabilize and strengthen the Bevo Mill neighborhood since he arrived in St. Louis from Bosnia in 1993. Sadik has served as President of the Bosnian Chamber of Commerce and currently serves as Chairman of the newly formed Bevo Community Improvement District. He is an accomplished business owner and chef and can be found most days cooking at Taft Street Restaurant or preparing for catering events at his newly opened space in Bistro Banquet & Events Center (formerly Meli’s Banquet Center & Restaurant) on Gravois Avenue.

Bevo CID swag at a recent happy hour held at Taft Street Restaurant & Bar

Sadik’s hard work, combined with Taft Street Restaurant & Bar’s welcoming presence and commitment to the community, embodies CBN’s vision for St. Louis: a region where all people live in safe, economically strong, and vibrant neighborhoods and all community-based organizations are sustainable, supported, and valued.

We hope you can join us to celebrate the achievements of Taft Street Restaurant & Bar and other community partners at our 6th Annual Awards Reception on April 26th!

Excellence in the Community Building Nonprofit Sector: Mt. Sinai Development Corporation

Congratulations to Mt. Sinai Development Corporation, winner of our 2018 Award for Excellence in the Community Building Nonprofit Sector!

The Award for Excellence in the Community Building Nonprofit Sector recognizes a community-building nonprofit that:

• Demonstrates excellence in multi-year, place-based, collaborative, comprehensive community building based on strong community engagement.

• Uses data and evaluation to achieve maximum impact in their efforts.

Dennis Jackson, Executive Director of Sinai Family Life Center

Mt. Sinai Development Corporation, part of the Mt. Sinai Baptist Church in East St. Louis, has been working for decades to leverage partnerships and community strengths to increase development and opportunities for residents within their footprint. After spearheading the development of a senior residential facility right across the street from the church, Mt. Sinai added two low-income housing developments in the blocks around the church. They have worked to keep as many existing residents in their homes as possible—before, during and after construction—to help keep the community intact. They also have plans to provide support for current homeowners through a home repair and upgrade program.

Sinai Family Life Center Summer Day Camp for youth

In addition to housing developments, Mt. Sinai believes it is important to provide some of the services that residents need to thrive, such as after-school and summer programs for youth in the community. Mt. Sinai’s leaders understand that new housing doesn’t build a community or serve all of the needs of its residents, and they place a great deal of importance on meeting those needs and nurturing that community. Seeing that Mt. Sinai cannot meet all of the needs of the community alone, they partner with groups like East Side Aligned, a collaborative effort to improve the lives of children in East St. Louis, to maximize their impact. Mt. Sinai is also working with a number of banks, non-profits, and other funders to seek ways to increase investment in the area.

The community Mt. Sinai serves has come a long way in the past couple of decades. While many challenges remain, Mt. Sinai Development Corporation is ready to tackle them while improving the well-being of their residents.

We hope you can join us to celebrate the achievements of Mt. Sinai and those of other community partners at our 6th Annual Awards Reception on April 26th!

Excellence in Philanthropy: Gail Olson

Congratulations to Gail Olson, winner of our 2018 Award for Excellence in Philanthropy!

The Award for Excellence in Philanthropy recognizes an individual or organization that:

• Supports community building by bringing investment and resources to the human or physical dimensions of places.

• Supports long-term commitments to neighborhoods.

• Demonstrates creative thinking in how to support communities.

• Gets involved beyond traditional grant giving.

• Provides operational funding to community building nonprofits.

Over the past ten years, Gail Olson has focused on restoring the College Hill neighborhood in North St. Louis City. She has regularly called on her friends and colleagues to join her in supporting the community. Gail is a co-founder of the Women on Mission St. Louis giving circle, where she serves as Director of Board Recruitment. Together with friends and neighbors, Women on Mission has helped provide grants totaling $685,000 to nonprofits working in College Hill, which in turn provide programs that have touched more than 400 area families. Women on Mission recently celebrated its 10-year anniversary.

Gail has been integral to the creation of six community gardens, the provision of Christmas and Thanksgiving dinners to residents, the donation of more than 12,000 backpacks to local school children, the founding of a reading program at Bryan Hill Elementary, the purchase and installation of air conditioners and furnaces for elderly residents in College Hill, and the provision of care baskets to those in need. She has also led a grassroots effort to start a restoration nonprofit College Hill foundation that serves as a community development corporation for the community, and she serves as president of the organization.

Gail approaches her work with great care and humility. She sees a need and responds without expectation of recognition, often referring to herself as “just a volunteer.”

We hope you can join us to celebrate Gail’s achievements and those of other community partners at our 6th Annual Awards Reception on April 26th!

There Is an Alternative to Payday Lenders

By Paul Woodruff, Executive Director of Prosperity Connection

Everyone in St. Louis seems to have an opinion on payday lending. Politicians decry the industry asusurious. Consumer advocates demand that ‘predatory lenders’ be shut down. Middle- and higher-income people don’t understand why the loans cost so much, or why anyone would take one out.

Meanwhile, the consumers who use these services just want access to a short-term loan so they can pay rent, repair their car, keep the lights on, and more. Payday lenders fill that need and are accessible.

People everywhere are struggling to get by. According to the 2018 Prosperity Now Scorecard, despite low nationwide unemployment rates, nearly a quarter of all jobs in America are low-wage. For those living on a fixed income, primarily seniors and the disabled, the picture is increasingly bleak as their benefits remain flat and the underpinnings of state and federal safety nets continue to fray.

Throwing stones at the payday lending industry is easy. Building something with those stones requires thought leadership, investment, and awareness. Thankfully, St. Louis has an opportunity to turn the tide against payday lenders through existing market-based solutions.

Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) and nonprofit loan funds operate in our area to offer consumers small-dollar loans ($100 – $1,000) at more affordable rates and the opportunity to engage with financial experts who can provide free guidance on how to build credit, eliminate debt, and manage household finances. CDFIs like Justine PETERSEN and St. Louis Community Credit Union (SLCCU) give consumers a pathway to financial wellbeing through a host of affordable opportunities. Prosperity Connection, a nonprofit, established RedDough Money Center to compete directly against payday lenders by offering small-dollar loans, check cashing services, and more.

Not only have these organizations developed the right tools to help economically vulnerable people, they’ve deployed facilities and staff in areas devoid of financial services. Take for example Prosperity Connection’s Wealth Accumulation Center in Pagedale. Through their partnership with SLCCU, the 24:1 Community Land Trust, and Beyond Housing, they have opened a multi-use financial service/education center that offers the community the chance to get a lower-cost, small-dollar loan through RedDough Money Center; open a mainstream checking account with SLCCU; and connect with a financial coach through Prosperity Connection’s Excel Center.

By meeting underserved people where they live and work, as well as aligning with policies and interventions derived from the community (see, for example, the Ferguson Commission Report’s discussion of Financial Empowerment Centers in their Opportunity to Thrive section), payday lenders and other predatory organizations can be diminished over time. Families need access to affordable loans, pathways to better paying jobs, and the support of their community to get ahead.

Your opinion matters. Your actions matter more. Consider supporting CDFIs and nonprofit loan funds with your deposits, your loan needs (car, house, etc.), and your donations so that they can do more for families facing tough times. Together, we might go beyond ‘talk’ and have real impact.

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Paul Woodruff serves as the Vice President of Community Development for St. Louis Community Credit Union (SLCCU) and Executive Director of SLCCU’s affiliate non-profit, Prosperity Connection. In these capacities, he is charged with developing and overseeing the strategic direction for numerous community outreach initiatives supported by both organizations. He began his career at SLCCU in 2009 after completing his master’s in Public Administration from Saint Louis University.

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Articles in “From the Field” represent the opinions of the author only and do not represent the views of the Community Builders Network of Metro St. Louis or the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

We invite readers to contribute to the civic conversation about community development in St. Louis by writing an op-ed for the Community Builders Exchange. Op-eds should be short (400-700 words) and provocative. If you have an idea for an op-ed, contact Todd Swanstrom at swanstromt@umsl.edu.