ST. LOUIS — During the pandemic, there’s been a spike in people needing help paying their rent. Some people in St. Louis are too far behind and in the process of being evicted.
The city is working with local groups to help.
There are 3,000 pending eviction cases in St. Louis City just waiting to be resolved.
If you’re facing eviction, you can get help.
We spoke with Taiya Wright, of Horizon Housing Development in St. Louis.
“To get through the doors for the walk-in assistance clinic, we really just need to see that they’re located in St. Louis city, they have a pending eviction in the courts and that they've been financially impacted by COVID,” she said.
The doors are open at the Horizon Center and the Wohl Recreation Center in Sherman Park.
To get walk-in assistance, your eviction has to be documented in the court system. There are some things you can bring with you to make the process run smoothly.
“We’re going to want to see their lease agreement, a valid picture ID,” Wright said.
You should also bring proof of income and documents that show you’ve been affected financially by the pandemic.
“Furlough letter if they lost their job, pay stubs to prove that their hours are reduced,” she said.
Horizon said they’ve been helping a lot of people pay their bills this year, many for the first time.
“We’ve given out I would say it’s about $450,000 in rental/utility assistance this year since February when we got the funds,” Wright said.
The money comes from the Emergency Rental Assistance Program under the U.S. Treasury Department.
“We do pay the landlords directly,” Wright said.
Over in the Central West End, one group has been working to smooth out the conflict between renters and their landlords, and conflict-resolution requests have picked up during the pandemic.
“Landlords have no intention of putting out tenants," Meg Newell of the Conflict Resolution Center in St. Louis said. "Tenants have no interest in being homeless. We want to work together to find a solution for everyone.”
The Conflict Resolution Center said it's handled over 630 mediations over the past year or so, and helped keep more than 300 families in their homes.
But both groups say they expect to see more rent issues as the pandemic pushes on.
“Since the moratorium is back in place, we expect to see an uptick again in the need for mediation,” Meg Newell said.
“I’ve already talked to a lot of tenants who have lost their job again or their hours were reduced again,” Taiya Wright said. “The need is just going up with how the Delta variant has been progressing day by day. I think the need for assistance is going to be on the rise.”
Walk-in clinics will prioritize those facing immediate eviction. You can go to the following locations for walk-in eviction assistance:
Horizon Housing
- 3001 Arsenal, St. Louis, MO 63118
- Monday - Friday: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
- Wednesday & Thursday: Walk-ins available until 8 pm
Wohl Recreation Center
- 1515 N Kingshighway Blvd, St. Louis, MO 63113
- Monday - Saturday: 9 - noon
- Wednesday & Thursday: 9 a.m. to noon; evening clinics: 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Applicants who already have a pending application should not open another at a walk-in clinic and instead should call 2-1-1 to check on its status.