ST. LOUIS — As a homeless encampment continues to grow outside of St. Louis City Hall there are new calls for city leaders to take action.
It's estimated that there are roughly 1,500 people experiencing homelessness in the City of St. Louis.
As the homeless camp outside city hall continues to grow, DeAndre Commons admits it’s become an all too common site in the city.
“It’s just mind-boggling that it’s at the front door of city hall,” DeAndre Commons said. “In any encampment, the mood is down because the unhoused population already feels like a forgotten population. To be posted up outside the city is just ridiculous.”
Commons has spent the last 15 years going into homeless camps trying to provide medical help to people in need such as Sherresse Anita-Jackson.
“I didn’t choose to be out here,” Anita-Jackson said.
She’s been living on the streets for the past several months and is staying outside of city hall to send a message.
“I didn’t choose to be out here,” Anita-Jackson said. “It’s basically because of liars and thieves. The biggest crooks are the politicians. The money isn’t being used for what it should be.”
The St. Louis Board of Aldermen is looking at ways to provide solutions to homelessness. Board President Megan Green confirmed that Monday morning leaders will announce the introduction of legislation to support homeless residents in the city.
“That would create a homeless bill of rights and also a zoning change to make it easier to open shelters in the city,” Board of Aldermen President Megan Green said.
“They’ve given out tents, but that doesn’t fix the problem,” Anita-Jackson said. “You’re still out here.”
“One of the challenges we have at the moment is there is not enough shelter space,” Green said.
In the short term, the city is going to continue to rely on professional help from people like Commons.
“I don’t know what the outcome of this is going to be,” Commons said. “I pray for the best, but prepare for the worst.”
Until a fix is in place, Anita-Jackson said she’s going to stay outside of city hall to send a message.
“These people aren’t the problem,” said Anita-Jackson. "The problem is they don’t have anywhere to go, so what are you going to do?”
New legislation is expected to be introduced as early as next week to try and provide more flexibility for the city to provide resources to the unhoused, but even Green admitted that we're going to continue to see these encampments until it's passed.