Back-Room Deals are Back, Baby!

Some members of the St. Louis Board of Aldermen seem to be hell-bent on excluding neighborhood residents from participating in City decisions about their neighborhoods. 

How? By scheduling and then rescheduling public hearings on important legislation during the workday, making it difficult for people to secure childcare or take a day off of work to attend. 

This became very obvious when the Aldermen attempted for the second time to pass a Homeless Bill of Rights (Board Bill 227), which was sponsored by Alderman Alisha Sonnier (7th Ward) and co-sponsored by Board President Megan Green. 

Neighborhood Voices Silenced 

Despite pledging transparency and a commitment to listening to community voices, the Board of Aldermen made it extremely difficult — if not impossible — for neighborhood leaders to express their opposition to the bill.  

• The text of the bill was unavailable until a few short hours before the hearing started.  

• Hearings were scheduled during the work day. 

• Three hearing schedule changes, in three days, which made it difficult for volunteer neighborhood leaders to take off work to testify.  

• Neighborhood leaders in attendance WERE NOT ALLOWED TO SPEAK.   

Hey! Don’t You Represent Us?

While the Aldermen excluded neighborhood leaders from the process, they did hear — a lot —  from people who work in and support the homeless industry. 

Several neighborhood leaders reported the bill’s supporters were openly hostile to the bill’s opponents, calling them NIMBYs, and worse. 

Unhoused Rights At The Expense of Neighborhoods?

This bill began its life as BB126, an omnibus bill that essentially guaranteed certain rights to unhoused people.  Including: 

• Legalized public urination and deification

• City-designated “camping” areas for the unhoused;

• A requirement that the City provide facilities and security at public encampments. 

The public outcry was swift and loud. The measure was defeated.

In abandoning her bill, Ald. Sonnier promised to bring another that would make it easier to open homeless shelters and group homes in City neighborhoods by changing the Petition and Plat process.  She was true to her word.  

What is Petition and Plat?  

Currently, developers seeking to open a homeless shelter or group home in a neighborhood zoned residential must meet with and seek petition approval from 50 percent of the neighbors adjacent to the planned facility.

Sonnier’s second attempt — BB227 — originally repealed that requirement entirely. 

However, to get enough support at the Housing, Urban Development and Zoning Committee (HUDZ), the bill was amended to require just 33 percent of affected neighbors to sign a petition of support.

Who are you calling a NIMBY?

Although several board members derisively called concerned residents NIMBYs, the truth is these citizens are neighborhood activists who fight like hell to protect the beauty, quality of life, and safety of their neighborhoods. How can we best describe these neighborhood activists? It's pretty easy. 

• They’re the people who organized the alley clean-up in their neighborhood.  

• They got a group to plant flowers in the common area and made sure the vacant lot was kept presentable.  

• They called the City eleventy-billion times when the stolen car was abandoned in front of your house.

• They are the leaders who work with the Neighborhood Services officer to help an elderly neighbor get the support they need.  

And, they object to losing their ability to have a direct say when people want to change the zoning code in their neighborhood through the Petition and Plat process.  

It got us thinking that maybe people who work in the homeless industry are unfamiliar with the reasons neighborhood leaders would be opposed to this kind of bill.  

• They are property owners and residents who have worked hard to live in the neighborhoods they call home.

• They are concerned about their property values, if a shelter were to open nearby.

• They worry about safety — for themselves, their children, and their elderly neighbors. While the homeless rarely commit crimes, they attract an element that does.

What happens next?

Thanks to hundreds of emails from City residents to the Board of Alderman urging them to vote NO on BB227, the bill went down to defeat in April. The aldermen failed to approve the bill by a vote of seven to seven with one member abstaining.

The bill’s primary sponsor, Ald. Alisha Sonnier, says that she will reintroduce the bill. She is taking counsel from homeless service advocates, negotiating parts of it with other aldermen, and pointedly excluding neighborhood activists.

If you are interested in protecting your city neighborhood, follow our newsletter. This bill may be coming before the Board of Alderman soon.

- Nancy Rice