Okay.

We will call today's housing urban development and zoning committee meeting to order.

Madam Clark, please call the role.

Call the woman swiper.

Present.

Vice Chair Sonia.

Here.

Present.

Present.

Present.

Chair Clark Cover.

Here.

We have six present.

We have core.

Okay with that.

I'll accept a motion to approve the minutes from Tuesday, January 20th, 2026.

Second.

Moved.

Second.

Thank you.

It was moved by Vice Chair Snyang and seconded by all the woman keys that we approve the minutes from January 20th, 2026.

Madam Clark, please call the role.

Call the woman swiper.

Hi.

Hi.

Vice Chair Sonya.

Okay.

Alderman Browning.

All right.

Alterman Aldridge.

All right.

Chair Clark Cover.

We have six items.

Okay.

We successfully approve the minutes from Tuesday, January 20th, 2026.

I just want to take a moment to thank everyone for the flexibility today to make sure that we um were still accessible and accommodating not only our speakers, but most importantly, the staff that makes this happen, STO TV with being able to move not only our time, but also our platform to Zoom.

So thank you all for everyone who did everything they could to make sure this meeting is still happening.

And for the public that's watching, if you have streets or areas that are of concern that need to be addressed by our streets department, we've been instructed that if you let us know, we can send them directly to uh the mayor's winter weather command center um to try to get them on a list to be able to be addressed.

So please do not hesitate to call and reach out to your autoperson or to um the streets department to um add those areas to the list.

With that, I'll turn it over to Vice Chair Sany for committee uh discussions, community builders network presentation on community development corporations.

Thank you, madam chair, members of the committee.

Um again, I would just echo the chairwoman's comment about the staff's flexibility today.

I know the roads are still really icy and snowy out there, so I'm really glad we were able to pivot to this format.

Um, today I have invited the community builders network, which is a coalition of different community development corporations and adjacent organizations who do work.

I know many of us on this committee are familiar with the work that community development corporations do, and they do so many things it's really hard to name, but they do tons of programming to support communities, they do affordable housing development, they do property management.

Um they I mean they're involved in so many things.

And so today I've just invited them to come before us to speak to us about what they do and also a lot of the struggles and challenges that they're facing.

Um as we know, we have a federal administration that is doing a lot of cuts, and one of the things that they're really cutting are funding for these sorts of organizations, in addition to the fact that our relationship as a city is very different than what they have in other uh cities.

In other cities, there are uh the community, you know, uh community development corporations are kind of built as a part of their overall system of their housing system.

And so I've just invited them to come before us today to tell us about their work, talk to us about some of the challenges they're facing and give us an update on like their status and their conditions.

And so with that, madam chair, I would um just we would just need to swear in the speakers that I have today to give this presentation to us.

Okay, if all the speakers can uh turn your cameras on and raise your right hands, we'll do it all at once so we can keep going with the uh is everyone swear to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

Yes, all right, please proceed.

Good morning, Has Quinny.

Thank you again for this opportunity to come before you to speak and to think of all our safety as we uh you know come back from this what recent rec uh winter storm.

Um my name is Linda and I'm the executive director of the community builders network.

We're really excited to be here today to kind of share more about the work that CDCs have been doing on the ground in past decades as we look at stabilizing our neighborhoods.

Um we are all here because we all love St.

Louis.

Um we're here and we're committed to the hard working of rebuilding rebuilding back our city and neighborhoods, and we're excited to be able to share more about the history of CDCs and the needs in the coming years.

Um most importantly, today's presentation will be led by CBN's mission members, the CDCs who are doing the difficult everyday work on the ground.

These are the leaders who are bringing uh firsthand experience from the neighborhoods that they serve, and we'll speak directly to what is working, what's at risk, and what support is needed to ensure communities are able to recover, rebuild, and thrive.

Next slide, please.

So a little um overview of what we'll be covering today.

Uh first will ground us in what defines a community development corporation, uh, what makes a nonprofit a CDC and why that designation matters.

Uh, we'll then highlight the local impact of legacy CDCs here in St.

Louis and how they have actually shaped some of the neighborhoods that you know personally um over the years.

Um there, we're gonna focus the role of CDCs, um, they have what roles they have played in disaster response and recovery, drawing from recent experience like COVID-19 and the May 16th tornado.

We'll close by looking at the the current state of CDCs today and the challenges they face and what's needed to ensure that they can continue to lead recovery and rebuilding here in the city.

Next slide, please.

So, first off, who is the community builders' network, right?

So the community builders network, we're a coalition of more than 70 different community building organizations across St.

Louis.

Our members believe that strong inclusive neighborhoods are the foundation of a better St.

Louis.

CBN exists to support, connect, and elevate the organizations and leaders who make neighborhood level change possible, particularly in communities where they're the most impacted by long-term systemic disinvestment.

We advocate with a shared voice on critical issues affecting our region, but most importantly, we create space for CDCs to lead, collaborate, and speak directly about their experiences.

Today's presentation reflects that mission, centering the voices and expertise of CDCs who are doing that work every single day.

So with that, I would like to pass the mic over to Constance.

Good afternoon, everybody.

My name is Constance.

I am with the North Newstead Association.

I know a lot of folks at the HUDS Committee.

So thank you so much for having us today.

Um, before we jump in, we want to talk about what makes a CDC a CDC.

Um, as you can see, um, CDCs are place-based nonprofits that promote and support community revitalization efforts.

I hope that some of the names on the left side of the screen look familiar to you, as these are CDCs that have been operating in St.

Louis for a very long time doing very important work, many of them, which will uh you'll hear from today.

Um, as you think of the CDCs that are listed on that left side, you'll notice that no uh CDCs are unique in that we serve a very specific geographic area.

We focus on serving low to moderate income residents, um, both tenants and homeowners and existing community members within our service rootprint.

Um, a lot of our residents are also participating on our board, which makes us very unique, either on our board, our governance, or on a community advisory council.

Um, and also uh CDCs in general are run by dedicated staff or volunteers.

Um, as you can see on the map in front of you, um CDCs currently self-declared, um, covered and service about two-thirds of the city.

That includes 40 plus neighborhoods.

And currently, that is um 12 out of the 14 wards in the city.

So that's every single ward except for ward two and ward four.

So um uh Alder Woman Schweitzer, you're in Ward One.

Uh, you have several CDCs that cover your area.

Um Alderman Cohn, you have ward three, which has CDCs in your area, same thing as uh for Vice Chair Sonier, um, Alderman Browning, Vice uh Vice Chair Clark Hubbard, Laura uh Alderwoman Keys and Alderman Aldridge as well.

Several CDCs cover those sections of the city that um where good work is happening.

Um, all of us are working in the same direction.

Um, the buckets of the activities that we all work in are essential community development work, such as affordable housing development, vacant property rehab, neighborhood revitalization, community programs, and public space improvements.

Um, you probably have seen examples of these things um in your neighborhoods, but also through past um funding opportunities where you will approve program dollars um for our CDCs in order to carry out these programs.

Currently, there are approximately 11 operating CDCs in the city.

Of those 11, you can see that the 2023 stats of their impact is still pretty impressive for 11 organizations.

Some of the ones that I want to call out are that we were operating commercial and economic stability.

So in 2023 alone, CBN's members of 11 organizations supported 197 small businesses.

We also are working in community investment.

So not necessarily just one building, but as a community as a whole.

We stored it and cleaned and maintained 104 vacant lots.

We repaired 198 homes for existing homeowners.

So that so the effect of our work goes on not only through the direct programs that we have, but also in the community additional community work that we do.

CDCs are unique because we're rooted in community.

The community serves on the R leadership boards or multidisciplinary in our approach.

So it's not just one program we do, but we identify those opportunities where affordable housing meets opportunities for tenants to be involved in communities.

The multi, not multidisciplinary approach is what really sets CDCs apart and the ability for us to do the work that we do.

CDCs also are able to leverage a lot of money into community for every single public dollar that enters into a community.

CDCs are able to leverage that one dollar of public funding into about 12 to 13 dollars nationally on average.

So CDCs have not only an importance in the fact that they stored a lot of community programs and affordable housing, but when it comes to community funding into our neighborhoods, they play an essential role as well in terms of amplifying what that actually looks like.

But CDCs, I can go on and on about uh their local impact, but we let's hear directly from some of our practitioners themselves.

So today we don't have all the time in the world.

So we're just going to be featuring a handful of St.

Louis's legacy CDCs.

Good afternoon, committee.

Can everyone hear me okay?

All right.

Uh first of all, thank you to the committee for having us here today.

Uh we just want to take a little bit of time and really talk about uh park central development, but also CDCs and really why CDCs matter.

Um, one of the things that I think is pretty clear, and I know everyone has relationships within the city, but one of the things that is so important about CDCs is that CDCs, uh, to Constance's point earlier, we are the people who are on the ground day in, day out.

Um, and we are a part of really what should be the implementation of really priorities that the city has.

Uh, there are quite a few legacy CDCs within the city of St.

Louis, uh, and we do do incredible work.

I want to talk a little bit about uh Park Central Development and just some of the work that we do, a little bit about Park Central.

Park Central is actually the uh culmination of three legacy CDCs that initially started in the 17th ward of the city.

Uh in 2017, uh, when I became executive director, roughly that's going on nine years ago, uh, we decided we were going to take a different approach where we were no longer going to be ward-based, which operated on political boundaries, but really to be able to operate across these various neighborhoods that we touch.

Park Central operates currently now in 15 different neighborhoods.

Uh, we really have three tenants that we focus on.

We just uh finish strategic planning and uh a lot of the things that we're traditionally known for, of course, is our community engagement, neighborhood planning and services, uh, infrastructure projects and improvements, administration of commercial and special taxing districts, as well as technical assistance to facilitate private investment into the community.

Uh, from our um strategic plan, what we've done is we focused in on really three areas that we're gonna focus in on within our 15 neighborhoods that we service.

And that's really commercial corridor and business development, residential development and rehabilitation, as well as anti-displacement and community wealth building, which is extremely important.

Uh, what I want to do next really just kind of take you into some of the impact that we've had.

If we could just go to really the next slide that we've that we've had really over the last five years of just really our impact uh from two uh from 2024 and 2025, Park Central, we touched 66,000 residents through our direct services and special events, as most people know.

Uh, they know us for uh events like Grove Fest, the Central West A Jazz and Blues Festival, and many other things that attract people to uh neighborhoods that we uh that we service.

And this is uh really a part of really kind of our placemaking, but we also do other events as well.

Another thing that I do want to really talk about is uh the 300 plus hours of community engagement and development assistance uh north of Delmore.

I know a lot of people know us for the work that we do uh traditionally south of Delmore, but we actually service 15 neighborhoods and really roughly about 60% of our resources that we have actually go north of Delmore.

So we're in the neighborhoods to help uh neighborhoods not only be organized, but also when uh someone's looking to do some type of development when development is happening to a neighborhood, what we try to do is to make sure that the neighborhood can participate.

So we're facilitating development review committees, we're going in, meeting with the neighborhood so that they can have informed conversations with the neighborhood, excuse me, with these developers, but we also work to make sure that uh in this assistance that we give them, that they can be organized and have some of the tools that they need.

Want to talk a little bit about the uh 2025 uh, excuse me, our five-year impact we've had from 2020 to 2025.

During that time, we've serviced over 1700 residents with unique services uh in the neighborhoods just north of Delmar.

Uh, and this is just that number that I wanted to put.

We've actually invested $2 million into anti-displacement assistance.

And that's everything from our RETAF program, our senior maintenance program, which provides uh grass cutting as well as snow removal on a day like today.

Um, you know, that's really important to be able to get out of uh, which is something that I do have to say, you know, just because we are here, uh, that program is actually no longer funded, uh, which we know we've been working with seniors on the ground to be able to provide that.

So on a day like today, we know that there are over 100 residents uh who we want to be able to service, who we have done assessments of their home, their needs that are there, and we're not able to service them.

You know, so that's just something I did want to say.

But we've also done over 200 uh thousand dollars in home repairs to about 143 homes.

And that's part of making sure that as development begins to happen, that one, uh, we're in a position that we help residents not only A, stay in their home, but then B, participate in the process of gaining wealth uh as their property value goes up.

That's a very important lesson that we learned from the early days in Forest Park Southeast that we're beginning to try to make sure that we can help uh this Delmar corridor and the neighborhoods north of Delmore also be a part as revitalization comes.

Uh, we also help over 450 businesses in that five-year period through technical assistance.

Uh, we've given a million dollars that we re raised and grant assistance to over 150 businesses.

Uh, our economic impact roughly in the develop uh uh in 2024, we've had an economic impact of 240 million dollars.

And of that, 150 million dollars uh sales through the districts that we manage.

So one of the things that becomes our added value uh as I wrap up is that there's no person in the city of St.

Louis that's on staff in the entire city that actually gets paid to do place-based community development uh on commercial corridors in these areas.

So this is something that CDCs do.

Uh it's not something we get support from, but it is something that we do do.

Uh, I roughly raise 350,000 a year just to fund this particular work, uh, which has an economic value uh to the city.

So those are just some of the things that we wanted to talk about.

And lastly, uh there is a map that's on your screen.

Uh, we don't just touch um the areas that we work in.

If you look throughout that map, you can see us going from the north corner uh all the way south to uh the southern corner of the city.

But if you look in that central corridor area south of Delmar, north of Delmar, you can see what having a CDC does, and it helps to bridge that divide.

And this is something that we need tremendous support on because if we're we are not there, there isn't an entity that's on the ground that will be that will actually have not only the know-how, the uh the support, the ecosystem in order to do this.

Uh otherwise, you're always starting over, like we always see with some type of new organization, uh, someone that's having to constantly go and uh relearn the neighborhood again.

So you never get those economies of scale over time.

So uh thank you for just uh letting me talk a little bit about our impact and just to give you a quick visual of Park Central's impact in that space.

Next up is North Nested Association.

Many of you guys know North East Association.

We've been around since 1993.

This month is actually our 33rd birthday of being around serving North St.

Louis City.

Um, our vision as an organization is to rebuild a north, a thriving North St.

Louis made up of engaged residents living in healed and safe communities with economic opportunity for all.

Um, we do this by reinvesting in our affordable housing portfolio.

We connect youth that we work with in our within our portfolio and that's around the community to different employment opportunities, including cutting the grass around the properties that they serve.

They get paid for it and then they learn also how to care for the space in which they're living.

We expand our tenant supportive services program so that we are working with our tenants on a day-to-day basis and catching problems before they become problem in order to encourage folks to give more back to their community.

We also work to decarb our properties.

So we worked with Amran and upgraded all of our HVAC units because as because we don't see ourselves as just landlords.

We see ourselves as as the public health officials also for our tenants to make sure that the external lungs in which they are living in is also a healthy environment.

We also really support the seniors within our communities through our age in place programs, whether that is a home repair program or supporting the active older adults, things that help build generational wealth within our communities and prevent vacancy.

We also advocate on behalf of our communities.

So through our work at North Newstead, we also amplify it out to everything else that we're trying to do to elevate the voice of the folks that we're working with.

Currently we have 23 different neighborhoods within our service area.

They're listed over there and also shown on the map in front of you.

But what we're most proud of is that a majority of North Newstead's board members actually comes from the communities that we serve.

You can see pictures of our board members on the screen in front of you.

You see familiar faces like Ms.

Everett, Ms.

Shirley Everett, and Miss Brenda Nelson who live up at No Fallon.

And they've been on our board for a very long time.

But their leadership and their input into our programs is phenomenal and it is so important to guiding our work as we move forward.

I can read out all the stats on this page, but that would be overwhelming.

So I will let you guys look at those stats on your own.

Instead, I'm going to focus on the pictures that you see in front of you.

There are quite a few stories that I can tell just by just by the slide alone, as they say a picture is worth a thousand words.

If you look on the bottom left hand side, you can see a picture of some seniors with a caulk gun and then a staircase.

So the staircase is actually a picture of a stairmaster chair slide that one of our seniors had in her house.

She had applied for our home repair program and wanted to get a replacement.

But when we found went in the house and found the assessment, done did the assessment, we found out that there was a senior who's living on her first floor.

She couldn't go up to her second floor bedroom just because the battery in that chair did not work anymore.

So with $20 through our home repair program, we were able to replace the battery, and now the senior is able to get up and down those stairs, live in her own bedroom, and really take advantage of the large, beautiful home she has in O'Fallon.

So something as small as that has allowed her to really age in place and also continue her community leadership in that community.

But also as a home repair service provider for the last 10 plus years, we know that waiting on home repair lists takes a very, very long time.

As a founding member member of the home repair network, that is something that we're we're trying to tackle, but that is uh much more difficult than trying to just wake up and say that we're going to tackle it.

So in the meantime, um, North Newstead also works actively with active older adults.

Um, as you can see from the infographic, we serve over a hundred seniors that attend weekly Zoom calls with us.

That is a weekly Zoom call, and then we meet with them monthly just to gather.

And we've been doing this since the pandemic to make sure that our most socially isolated aren't socially isolated because we need them to continue their leadership in community.

Um, so as a part of our way to combat how long these wait lists for home repair takes, we actually host annual um weatherization training sessions with our seniors so that they learn how to load a cocking gun, how to use a cocking gun and how do you what do you do with it once you have that loaded up?

So now we have seniors who know how to caulk their own windows, how to seal up little cracks and do a lot of those tiny weatherization things that you don't necessarily need to hire an expert for, but at least they feel comfortable doing it.

And if they don't feel comfortable doing it, at least they have second a second pair of eyes to look at, because that's another thing that we hear a lot from community is that there are contractors who go into seniors' homes and do a mediocre job or just scam seniors out of their dollars.

So instead, we're teaching them how to be experts.

So if they can't do it themselves, at least they can verify that the work that they're paying for is actually work that should it is worth their investment.

So that's one snippet of the stories that North Newstead is involved in.

Um I would like to call out Kevin and Casey on the bottom right corner, that is our home repair staff.

And actually just the staff of North Newstead.

If you know us, you know that we're small but mighty.

But Casey and Kevin really give it their all and make it the heart of the work that they do.

I'll hand it off to our colleagues over at DeSales.

Thanks, Constance.

Hi, everyone.

I am Becky Reinhart with DeSales Community Development.

We are another community development corporation serving neighborhoods in St.

Louis City.

And we are celebrating our 50th anniversary this year, founded in 1976 to serve the area that today is pretty much the Fox Park, Fox Park, Tower Grove East, Benton Park West area.

So we get to spend a lot of time with our dear Seventh Ward Alder Woman, Alicia Sunnier.

And I don't want to echo too much of what my colleagues have already said, like North Newstead, like Park Central, and like all of our community development peers, we take a holistic approach to neighborhood well-being.

And like all of our colleagues, our approach has been formed around and guided by the specific needs at the point in time where we are operating within our neighborhood.

So for DeSales, what that has looked like throughout our 50-year history is that is that in Fox Park, where our office is located, really, as we looked at the challenges that the neighborhood was facing in the 1980s and early 90s, absentee-owned multifamily rental housing was a primary challenge.

That was the thing that nobody else was going to come into the neighborhood and fix.

And so the community development corporation decided it's going to have to be us.

At that time, there was a brand new tool in the toolbox for community development.

Missouri had just become the first state to create a state low-income housing tax credit.

And DeSales became, I believe, the first organization in St.

Louis to utilize the state and federal low-income housing tax credit for rental housing production.

Now, fast forward 50 years or from that time, 30 plus years, we have developed around 250 units of affordable housing based around our historic service area.

We are now also a property management company because 20 years ago we determined nobody's going to be able to manage this affordable rental portfolio better than we can as the owners and with a mission-driven approach.

So we formed Fox Grove Management in 2005 and have really honed that expertise around regulated affordable housing as a tool for community development, because while building buildings and providing services, our community development, property management is equally an essential part of community development.

So, you know, in addition to all this, of course, we provide programs and services for residents of the housing that we operate as well as the neighborhood at large, using every tool we can to bring community together, things like partnering with Cardinals Care for the Redbird Rookies program in Fox Park, activating community spaces that are part of the properties that we operate.

And then if you'll turn to the next slide, I also wanted to be sure to emphasize the important, the critical role that place-based community development organizations like those on this call play in combating the serious problem, as we're all aware of of vacant and abandoned property across St.

Louis City.

So when we're at DeSales, when we are addressing a community development challenge through affordable housing development, we are not only creating avenues for safe, stable, and affordable homes for low and moderate income families, but we are also taking that opportunity to have the maximum impact to lift up that community by addressing not only vacant properties, but going for what are the what are the vacant properties that are causing the most severe and significant challenges for this neighborhood and how can we use all the tools in our toolbox to address those.

So one example would be, you know, a little outside of our historic service area.

Um we became involved in the northern part of Carondolette in the third ward about a decade 15 years ago when Alderman Cohn recognized that there was a faith-based nonprofit housing organization going out of business that was about to leave several properties without an owner, without a manager.

And now, fast forward to today, it has become the seed for a 78-unit affordable and mixed use development that will really anchor the Virginia Avenue corridor in the Carondolette neighborhood and with it address for vacant and problem serious problem properties that have become been no end of headache for the neighborhood.

So addressing this in a way that is going to have maximum impact from a community and economic development standpoint, from a standpoint of providing safe and affordable housing and also addressing the serious public safety and health concern of vacant and abandoned properties.

And I think next after me is going to be Mike Burns, who we've had the privilege of working with for probably about as long as we've been doing property management, providing those services for Northside Community Housing.

Thank you very much, Becky.

And yes, that is true.

My name is Michael Burns.

I'm the president of Northside Community Housing.

I apologize for my background noise.

I'm doing daddy duty at the University of Missouri St.

Louis, dropping off my daughter in this icy weather we have today.

Northside Community Housing has actually been in existence for about 50 years under our parent company, which was Northside Community Center, which is now known as Northside Youth and Senior Services.

As a 5013 uh C3, we've been in operation uh independently uh since 2003.

So going on about 23 years.

Over that time, we've developed and rehabbed about uh a little over 300 new and uh rehabbed homes, uh, single families, multifamilies, which is which includes two families and four families and six families uh throughout North St.

Louis.

Also, we've stabilized about five blocks uh east of North Sarah to create a 75-unit single family homes, uh, which is some of our developments, which includes um uh NCC2 as well as uh St.

Ferdinand Homes, St.

Ferdinand Homes 2, uh, which we developed in 2019.

Uh as our slide says, we were one of the first uh low-income housing tax credit programs in the state of Missouri.

Uh and that program is uh still in existence.

We've uh had about 40% of those homes are currently eligible uh to purchase, and we've actually uh sold quite a few homes.

And as I speak, we actually have one of those homes under contract right now.

And we sold another one just before Christmas.

Uh we've completed a lot of uh minor home repairs, uh, over 40 uh with homeowners.

Uh, and also we've provided a lot of administrative and physical support.

So because we've collaborated with uh community organizations.

If you're familiar with an organization, uh, especially with the tornado that just took place uh for the veal.

We worked as for the vehicle's physical agent uh uh just before they became a 501c3.

So we're helping to birth uh organizations in our community as well.

Uh just wanted to say that uh uh you know, as an organization uh that's been doing this work in the area.

We also collaborate with other agencies.

Uh over the years, I've worked with North Newstead, where I've actually oversaw some of their rehab work and gave the old cable for inspectors.

Um, we worked in collaboration with the Sales Fox Grove, as I mentioned, as being property managers or the chairman of North Sides Board is a member of Park Central.

So you can see that there has been collaboration throughout these uh nonprofit organizations as well.

I'll turn it back over to Constance and she'll take it uh to the next slide.

Thank you, everybody, for sharing information about your organizations.

Um, but there's there's one thing that I've learned over the last eight years at North Newstead, and it that is that the disasters do strike.

Um, and when they do, when we have a strong CDC infrastructure ready to respond, it is integral for the community for us to meet the community needs at that time and also allows us to have quick deployment of the relief efforts so that the city can pivot on whatever they're doing in order to meet those needs.

From COVID-19 to affordable housing to the May 16th tornado, um CBN's network of CDCs continues to support um communities through our quick deployment.

Um CDCs respond quickly because we are already in community.

One of the reasons why we are able to respond well and quickly is because we already have the connections with the people in the community, whether it's people who have resources already or people who are um in need, so we can get things over to folks directly and very quickly.

Another reason is that um organizations like North New City and other CDCs have existing grants and existing programs.

So when disaster strikes, whether it's COVID-19 or the May 16th tornado, we're able to shift our programs really quickly.

Um, during the COVID-19 pandemic, um, for example, CDCs quickly pivoted our programming, um, use some of them using grant dollars that we already had in order to provide emergency food in order to become community distribution centers for PPE and other essentials.

And also also many of us um leveraged our ability and our social workers and our counselors with that were already on staff to provide us um financial resources for housing stability.

Following the May 16th tornado, even though some of us, um and you'll hear about this later, experienced some devastating aftermath of the tornado itself.

Um, the Northside CDCs still stepped in and pivoted our programs in order to meet those needs.

So that came in the form of emergency food donations, coordinating all those resources and getting them out to community.

It was coordinating and making sure that the network itself and our staff were ready to rehouse people and work within our existing network to make sure that people were had a roof over their head as soon as possible.

Um, many of us continue to use our beautification contracts to do community relief efforts, whether that was clearing debris or um attracting volunteers, help to that work.

So no matter what, when disasters strike, when there's a strong CDC infrastructure to meet that need, it buys the city some time as the city's pivoting as CDCs step in for immediate response.

Um, I want to call out on that slide on the right-hand side, um, the top photo is the picture of North Newstead's office after the May 16th tornado.

We were lucky that we only got a window blown in.

So we had things tossed around the office.

Um, but it was as simple as just popping our plexiglass window back into place and moving on, locking up the office and moving on.

Um, and across the street, uh, we have two different trash cans that we have on our corner.

And you can see that the hundreds of pounds concrete trash can was flipped upside down.

I wasn't able to move that back into place.

Um some stronger guys came through later on, but they and then they were able to do that.

But North Newstead was one of those examples of of um of CDCs that were affected by the tornado.

And the tornado um set us back in truth, it set us back decades in terms of the work that we've been trying to do in North St.

Louis.

As you can see in the image in front of you, this is an overlay map of the path of the tornado over the existing CDCs um in North St.

Louis area.

So that tore, as you guys know, it tore right through North St.

Louis City.

Um, CBN's network immediately responded to community needs and one another's needs, and that is something that is truly um valuable as part of being a network.

Um within minutes of the tornado passing the city, I started getting phone calls.

I started getting texts from my colleagues on the north side on the south side saying, hey, do you need TARPS?

Do you need volunteers?

What do you need and where do you want me to be?

So the fact that we have an existing network within ourselves that is able to respond is is invaluable to the infrastructure of community development as it stands.

And that that help continues today.

We still we are still getting help from our friends over in the South side, and that is incredible.

Um, the immediate damage to North to North Newstead Association, um, our staff was able to respond by five o'clock on May 16th, immediately after the storm passed.

Our staff, which was all over the region at that time, drove right into North St.

Louis City.

You'll hear about that a little bit more later.

But at this time, what we know is that we have nine moderately severely damaged buildings, um, but there's some level of damage across the whole portfolio of 138 units of affordable housing.

We had 16 families immediately displaced.

Um, some of them we were able to rehouse again in some vacant units, but most of them are still looking for a place to stay, a permanent place to stay.

And I still get phone calls every week from past tenants to ask me if if their old unit is ready because they would love to move back.

Um, but the reality is no, uh, we are still waiting for a lot of those dollars, including from insurance to even answer those questions.

100% of our portfolio is impacted.

So over the last 33 years of work, 138 units of affordable housing developed.

It is a lot of weight to hold that 100% of our portfolio has been damaged.

Um the last the two months after the storm, our staff was working all the time, overtime, any time when there was a need, they were out there.

We spent over a hundred, um 300 overtime staff hours responding to community needs.

We expended over $13,000 in reserves that we don't have in order to meet those needs.

Um currently, what the insurance company is telling us is that we have about $4.5 million in damages.

The payout from that is probably close to 2.2 million.

Um, so really just thinking about what the replacement value and how much insurance is willing to pay, even for organizations like North News that has an infrastructure of people that can help advocate for it on behalf of insurance.

It is going to be nothing compared to the actual extent of damage that we have experienced.

But the great thing is that we have a network that can help us um immediately after the storm, North Newstead tapped into every single volunteer group that we've had, and we've developed relationships over the past 10 years plus since I've been at North Newstead.

So we were able to attract almost 200 volunteers that showed up day after day and provided over a thousand hours of volunteer hours just to North Newstead and our tenants and our immediate area.

So things are dire, but we have a strong network and a strong network of volunteers and people who are around us to make sure that we survive.

I'll pass it over to Michael.

Uh thank you, Constance.

And uh Northside, of course, was impacted because we were in the direct uh direction of the tornado.

So we're uh we're in it into millions.

I can't even tell you the exact uh millions a mile because that is still being assessed.

But I can tell you that we didn't get help from SEMA, we didn't get help from FEMA, and we're not getting help from the SBA.

But over the years, Northside has had to survive based on developer fees, uh, incentive management fees, um, loans and grants.

Uh, but I will say back here with the uh the slide, about 48 of our units were uh damaged uh and they're still in need of repair.

We've got about 25 apartments that were just totally destroyed.

I mean, looking like a doll house uh from the side.

If they even were standing, uh so they're totally uninhabitable.

As well as the fact that some of our commercial space uh on uh Martin Luther King and um Marcus, which is the Dick Gregory development, also uh sustained quite a bit of damage uh to the front and the and the interior of the building.

Uh so we're constantly uh working to raise those dollars in order to be able to uh move forward on uh getting those back in shape.

And we're still negotiating with the adjusters of those insurance companies.

So it's taken a long time, it's a long drawn-out process.

Uh and as you know, years ago, uh when I first got into this business uh working with uh CDC's uh CDBG funds, community block brand dollars were what was used to support it.

And that came directly from the city of St.

Louis.

We don't have those dollars anymore.

Those things ended around uh the early 90s.

So uh futuristically, uh our organizations are in need of a base uh type of dollar, uh still researching to see where those monies can come from.

Uh, but we're here for the long haul.

We're still gonna be here to do the work, uh, and we're just gonna do the best we can to continue to support the communities that we live in or lived in and continue to uh uh cherish.

So thank you.

And then go back to Costus.

And as I hinted before, some of our non-Northside friends, but semi-Northside friends did uh step in and help us all pass it over to Abdul.

Yeah, I think one of the things too, you know, that's always talk about Park Central.

We we really bridge the gap uh between North and South.

Um, our core neighborhoods in North City uh or the West End, um Academy Sherman Park, Fountain Park in the Vanderbender neighborhood, which of course uh took the wreck um hit.

You know, I I think about the day uh when when this when the tornado hit on May 16th, um, you know, we had got a call that you know uh the tornado is hitting, it's coming, and immediately um I'm getting texts and calls.

Hey, this is uh, you know, things are happening.

Hey, uh trees are down in Fountain Park.

All of these things are are happening.

And uh people joke because I know within our commercial districts, we use our golf cart to do a lot of the cleanup, a lot of getting around um when that happened.

I immediately got on um the golf cart and I'm beginning to just cross over Delmar from the Central West End.

I'm driving through.

And um I um immediately just see the trees down and um who do I run to walking?

It's all on the car covered.

And she's walking in heels.

And we get to Fountain Park, and the minute we uh we get there, we see the destruction that's just happened.

And, you know, we talk about, you know, not knowing at the time that uh there was a loss of life with Miss Patricia, but being able to be in the neighborhood, having the trust of then was Pastor Perkins and I know some of the other members in of Centennial Christian Church, but just being there uh to be able to actually literally sit and let them have some type of comfort on that golf cart.

Uh, we're moving things uh with the golf cart trees.

We're going down the street uh on uh Raymond, um, cutting trees down, myself and Farrakhan, Chicago.

And um, but when I look at immediately, one of the big things that uh our CDC was able to step in and help was really was initially food.

We're sitting there, and the first thing that happened, I'm in Academy, and I'm sitting next to Artwoman Clark Cupard.

Uh, you also have other members of the neighborhood.

Uh, Miss Sherry Bailey was there, uh, Rhonda Jones was there.

And what are we going to do?

There's a no electricity people need food.

Uh, I immediately sent a call and a text over to my board.

Hey, this has happened.

There's an immediate need.

Uh, we contrary to Fabribelief Park Central, we do not have a lot of money.

That's what I was tell people.

But we immediately allocated um our reserves, which you know wasn't a lot, but we took 20,000 for meals.

And that meals uh, we really immediately call it over to Rick Lewis uh over at Grace Meeting 3 to say, hey, Rick, um, we need to be able to feed a thousand people, at least for the next week.

We don't know what's going on, but at least at least that, so you know, our organization, you know, was uh has invested over just a hundred thousand dollars uh in staff time, about 100,000 of that was about 40,000 in our cash, which, you know, that is the salaries that that's our reserve for which we pay our salaries, but it was worth it.

Uh our organization was able to provide over 20,000 meals uh with 3,000 of those meals coming in too uh uh coming in the first 48 hours.

This is before the world uh central kitchen comes in.

And because of that work that we did with Grace Mead and Three uh with other people on the ground, we're making calls.

Hey, how do we feed people?

We get a call with the World Central Kitchen and said, hey, we can do some meals.

Well, at that point in time, you know, they were able to step in.

But as Constance said, we're able to buy time.

Uh, even the year before there were floods in Fountain Park, you know, our organization stepped up and we helped uh 20 homeowners uh be able to really do some remediation uh in their basements uh to get uh to get the house from flooding and kind of cut out some of that drywall that was rotted, you know, so their homes is not filled with with mold.

So I think that the having CDCs on the ground are just so important with responding because we do know disasters will all will always happen.

But as a part of having this place-based community development infrastructure, it's important to have CDCs that when disasters happen, you can immediately put resources into them because that way we're not um always having to start over.

Uh, perfect example, uh, the people's response did uh an incredible job to the city.

Um there was no reason that North Newstead should not have been there immediately because they're on the ground.

It helps to expand what other people have, and it helps to be able to coordinate.

Uh, because from a long-term recovery standpoint, the CDCs that stay on the ground will be the ones that will be there once some of that funding has ended and you're able to always uh capitalize and really kind of get a multiplier of the dollars that are invested.

So uh the slides are on the screen what we've uh what we, you know, some of the small things we did for the tornado, but the bigger piece is having CDCs as a part of the recovery is so important.

Perfect tangent.

Uh Abdul, CDCs play a vital role in recovery, especially in the areas most impacted by tornado as it set us back decades in our work.

And it's more important than ever that we protect and support the mission of a thriving North St.

Louis city where everybody has the opportunity to live, thrive, and play.

CDC's responded.

Now it's time for us to help rebuild.

Um, some of us have already started on doing that.

Many of the CDCs um CBN's network has already begun working on the most recent vacant unit turns opportunity that came up with CDA.

A handful of us also have additional vacant units available to turn if the cap were higher for that specific um funding.

Tower Grove CDC has leveraged their home screen program to rapidly rehouse tornado affected household with both public and private landlords.

Many of our CDCs continue to provide home repairs, even though we know through our current experience that the needs have exponentially grown since the tornado across our network.

There are also several of us with affordable housing projects that have been awarded that have publicly been funded and are through pre-development, but are just truly stalled because of increased costs and commercial and construction costs.

Looking forward, CDCs are especially needed in the tornado impacted communities to ensure that existing residents can continue to stay.

And then so that CDCs continue to take the risk necessary to implement implement the newly adopted neighborhood plans and to make sure that we're there to help rebuild back, as Becky was mentioned before.

Thanks, Constance.

We can go to the next slide.

There we go.

Thank you.

So as many may be aware, prior to 2014, the norm was that community development corporations were receiving general operating dollars through CDBG.

Since then, that is no longer the case.

And as nonprofits, we're scrappy.

We kind of pride ourselves on our scrappiness, which may not be the most healthy attitude, but we have bootstrapped it through these past 11 years.

For de sales, what that has looked like is being really reliant on our revenue generating activities, housing development, property management, rent collection, to pay the bills.

But in the meantime, for all of us, we've faced increasing pressures from multiple sides, as Constance mentioned, rapidly rising construction costs, also rising labor costs, that is affecting our ability to deliver the level of maintenance and preventative maintenance work that we want to be able to do as property owners.

Changes in the philanthropic landscape and particularly accelerated since the pandemic sharp increases in the cost of doing business with a stagnation or decline in revenue.

All of us on this call, we prioritize affordable housing, socially responsible housing for us that operate in the low-income housing tax credit space and other affordable programs.

Even if we wanted to, we couldn't raise the rent and collect the rent out of our budget challenges.

And then on top of that, when it comes to doing development projects, there is a decrease in appetite for risk among our investors and equity partners, and they're looking to have very strong balance sheets with the partners they choose to work with.

Operating from our place of scrappiness doesn't always foot the bill.

So that is slowing down the pipeline of affordable housing development alongside those increasing construction costs costs that Constance mentioned.

So the risk there is that truly critical dollars and relief efforts that are poised to be a strong force for rebuilding will not be leveraged the maximum capacity.

That we manage and those that we own, upwards of 1,800, in addition to the loss of those units that are currently in the pipeline.

For de sales, that looks like around 500 units that we know currently have awarded and in pre-development to preserve or build new throughout St.

Louis City.

So it's a very serious risk.

We are all, I think, feeling the same pinch in in various ways.

Um and our concern is that for the work that St.

Louis um so seriously needs, um, not only in recovery to this most recent um crisis of the um May 16th tornado, but also our long-standing challenges with with vacancy um with disinvestment, um, that the players that we've relied on for the past um 30, 40, 50 years, um, you know, may not be there to to lead the effort in a way that is grounded in community, um, commun neighborhood leadership and um long-term trusted presence in our neighborhoods.

And that uh it brings us uh to near the end.

Um, I think I'm passing it back to Linda, but back to you, Constance.

Okay, sorry about that.

So I know what we said to you all um sounds incredibly hard.

Um, but and we ask ourselves this question every day, and you guys probably ask yourselves, why do you do what we do every day?

And our answer is probably the same as you guys um on the HUDS committee, and that was that we do it for St.

Louis and its people.

Um I hope that today's presentation demonstrates the role that CDCs have played um in partnership with the city to solve the city's most urgent issues, um affordable housing, community revitalization, um, and taking the risky but worthy investments um that are necessary for St.

Louis to move forward.

If I leave you with nothing else today, I'm gonna actually leave you with those stories and the words of Miss Rita, Miss Yavett, um, North Newsets long-term tenants, um, our long-term board member, Miss Nelson, and then our um our North Nestead Association team um in a video captured by our practicum student um earlier last year.

Let me know if you cannot hear an organization self-deployed by five o'clock on May 16th, um, and we were out um checking with our tenants.

Um we had staff who were calling all of our tenants immediately after the tornado passed, trying to get in touch with folks, knowing that folks didn't have access to cell service and other things like that.

Two of our staff members just started driving all of our properties within the community.

This is check-in on tenants, making sure that everybody was okay, or if they weren't, um, just getting an assessment of where people stood and what type of resources we need to start getting people connected with them.

My name is Kevin Green.

I am the maintenance guy for North Newstead.

I do all the internal maintenance property repairs and the minor home repair program as well.

I participate in that.

We responded full force.

Uh, we had a lot of property damage from the tornado.

We had a lot of families misplaced from a tornado.

So with the help of dream builders and a few other cortex and volunteers came along.

We managed to clean up our properties, relocate our tenants into uh stable living conditions, and uh we got a great team here.

It's just a good thing to be a part of the new state association.

Um they immediately um paying to the Quadna Complex to see what resources we needed.

Um they gave us valuable information on where we can go to get help.

We're not only helping those days five tenants, but they were helping the whole community, which I was very impressed with.

My name is Brendan Helsin.

I've been a board member for about 14, 15 years.

All that North News Association has been doing even before this tornado has been one of elevating and restoring uh North St.

Louis.

St.

Louis is small, but it's big.

Um, and there's not enough to me, organizations like Northeast did that do it for the people and not for the politics.

Um, you know, they want to see the community in a stable situation for our children or grandchildren to come to hope at this time looks like the community coming together.

It was wonderful to see pretty much all of St.

Louis show or North St.

Louis City days after the tornado.

There's so much I can say here.

What gives me hope at this time um is really seeing how the community came together um and seeing the resiliency of everyone on the north side.

My boss gives me a lot of hope because in Casey, uh both of them are very energetic, very involved.

It's not like you know, we lost a bunch of stuff, now we're just gonna quit.

It's like, okay, what do we do next rock we rebuild, or where do we go from here?

Let's find resources and assets to keep this thing going.

Uh, because it's been here for a while, and we wanted to continue to be here.

So great team.

Team workers to everything here.

So that's my passion of being work.

It gives me a lot of a lot of hope because I see a community coming together.

Like they have never never done before, at least in my lifetime for what I have seen.

With the help that I have been given.

And with the help that I know others have been given.

It gives me a lot of hope.

A lot of hope.

Um it's not gonna be an easy recovery, but I do see recovery inside.

Well, it gives me hope.

God save my back.

100%.

And hopefully everything in North St.

Louis comes back the way that we're looking for.

Yes.

I'm not gonna add anything else to that.

I'll pass it to Linda.

Thank you, Constance.

And for all the panelists today, um, I heard uh that was present for all the stories.

Um, as we close today, I want to just name what is at stake.

You know, our neighbors and our neighborhoods are hurting.

CDCs are not just programs.

Um, these are the people who are on in the community doing the work, right?

They show up for crisis during the disaster and long after recovery begins.

You know, as we are thinking about St.

Louis and the need for rebuilding and how urgent it is for us to rebuild back together.

This is more than just buildings, it's about helping people stay, you know, honoring those voices in the community and really restoring hope.

Um, I love that video that North News said was able to put together because you can see you can really hear the hope and the voices of people who live there, right?

St.

Louis is a beautiful place, and we want it to stay beautiful and remain beautiful.

Um, as you hear today from all the stories on the C from the CDs on the ground, this work is hard, but it's so holistic.

You know, building back our neighborhoods is is going to take a village.

It's gonna take the work of CDCs facilitating, you know, all the voices and the manpower and the passion in our community.

Um, it's gonna take all of us to rebuild back together, and CDCs have had a long history of doing that.

Um, and with that, you know, I you know, we look forward to you know your questions and continue this conversation.

Thank you so much again for the time you have taken today to learn more about CDCs and how the work of CDCs can continue um as we look to rebuild together.

Thank you.

Well, taking a deep breath.

First of all, thank you all uh so much.

That the um the way this platform has now been changed into this, and now it will create a tool to spread this information.

I mean, I can't imagine if any questions one would have after that thorough presentation and then being able to hear directly from the people that have benefited from you all's work and being a witness.

Listen, it kind of gave me chills when Abdul started talking about when he picked me up on May 16 because I was literally he's not looking.

And it kind of is re-traumatizing when you think about it because even two is about 200 almost 260 days here, and to think um about how constant said it set us back decades in the one day, and then to think about again just that day and what we saw on that first day, and now I can still look up 256 days and see some of the areas of some of the things looking the same.

It's just it's very sobering, but I love us and and videos and the work that you all do is inspiring and encouraging.

Um I took a lot of notes, but no real questions.

Um, just want to echo um echo the unique governance and the dedication and the passion that's only CDCs live and only CDCs can offer, and the critical role that you all do play in the um what was said here frequently, the place-based intentional development.

Again, these are things that only CDCs can do.

So I don't take that for granted.

I don't take for granted that even when I got down here in 2019.

I just say it publicly Park Central was like a gift um to the then 26th Lord.

We didn't have any in place, um, active in place in the 26th board.

And because of some of the work and the bridging that um Park Central wanted to do, I didn't know Abdul at all.

Alderman Rhode introduced us, and then he's been just a blessing to that, not only Academy Sharma Park, but of course the West End community specifically in the former 26 and the 10th words, where I know the work that Mr.

Burns and now and Constance and all of you all have done because I've seen it again with my own eyes.

And Mr.

Burns, I tickled a little bit when you talked about the Dow Houses because you know it made me think of our beloved former Alderman Sam Moore.

That was his flight every almost every week down here on the floor.

He would raise those pictures and say these North Side Dow houses, and this is what it looks like.

So continuing to champion that through the wins and the losses, again, uh I um I don't take it for granted the work that you all do.

I guess the only question that I would have, and you don't know I have to answer now, we can answer it later.

Um, but clearly funding is an issue.

But if there was one or two things um that that we could do and offer um for you all, that's what I would want to know.

I'm gonna open again.

I don't you don't have to answer that off the fly because I know wholeness and and and and and the work and everything is different and all of the different CDCs.

Knowing our support is um is valuable in itself, but we also are action about action down here.

So we want to know what else you can do, right?

So I open it up to my colleagues first, and then if you want to follow up with those um answers um after they speak, that'll be perfect.

Um is Alderman Cohn on right.

We'll go ahead and okay.

We'll move to Alderman Swiss.

Uh, thank you, madam chairwoman, members of the committee.

Uh, thank you to all of you for coming and presenting to us today.

That was incredible amount of information and clearly an incredible amount of work.

There are CDCs working in Ward One, as was pointed out at the very beginning of the presentation.

And though that work has been just instrumental in in my neighborhoods, and I'm always looking for more people who want to come help.

I know uh Lutheran Development Group, Tower Grove CDC or two that have more recently been doing work in the ward.

I actually am scheduled to uh be at one of the houses later this afternoon to look at uh a property that uh Lutheran Development had worked on.

So um I'm all ears for how I can be uh of assistance to you all and I uh try to be available whenever anyone reaches out.

So thank you again for coming to present and for all the work you're doing for our city.

It is certainly seen and felt, uh, more importantly, and I really appreciate it.

Thank you.

Absolutely.

Automan Keys.

Thank you, madam chair.

Um, yeah, this was really a wonderful presentation.

I I think that you guys need to take this show on the road where you know, people who may not necessarily always, you know, tune in that that they're able to see this presentation.

Maybe, you know, if it could be put on Facebook, uh what's the other um next door?

Um, and I mean the the meeting itself, um, so that uh the the public at large who may not even know what a CDC is, um get a real picture of what you guys bring to the table, what you you have done uh in community for us.

I want to give a a shout out to to Constance, um, who is who is a constant uh in in our community and all of the wonderful uh work that she's done.

It's an honor uh to be able to work with you directly here in the elevated 11th ward.

And uh I look forward to more of that.

And I look forward to working with with all the others.

Abdul, I've done some work with him.

Uh uh, Mr.

Burns.

Uh we need to work, we need you look at me, we need to work together on something here in the elevated 11th ward.

So, but thank you all so much for the wonderful presentation and information that you have uh provided here.

I love the video uh uh Constance, but but I could expect no less uh from you.

Um, and so I applaud all of you for your work.

Thank you.

Yeah, shout out to Constance.

She when I see her on panels and all kinds of different places, it's just her energy is always on 1000.

And I love that's the that's the immeasurable um passion and dedication.

And I didn't know it was your Jesus year.

You said 33 years in this work.

So that that really says something as well.

Uh Alder Woman Browning.

I'm sorry, Alderman Browning.

Thank you, Chair Howard.

Uh I uh just want to say thank you to everyone.

Um Constance, Becky, uh, you know, um Michael, Abdul, Linda.

Oh, you know, I see all of you constantly out there doing fantastic work, and I know our city is so much better for it.

Uh I do have one question, I uh maybe a couple questions.

Um I think it's Mr.

Burns.

You you talked about how you were not able to get funds from FEMA or SBA.

Um can you speak a little bit more to that and what the issue was, why there weren't funds available for some like home repair or some of the damage that was done to some of the uh properties that you manage.

I'm sorry, Alderman, I didn't get the first part of your statement.

Oh, you I think you had said that you did not receive assistance from FEMA uh or uh the small business uh administration, and I was wondering it what the issue was with the properties you manage that you were not eligible for those funds.

Uh, just curious.

I I know it's been an issue for a lot of people getting those funds, but I was just wondering what the situation on your end was.

SEMA was pretty uh sorry.

Oh, Mr.

Burns, I think he froze or cut out.

FEMA was uh pretty much related.

You have you know multiple.

Okay, can you hear me now?

Am I okay now?

Yes.

Okay, I'm okay.

Yes.

Yes.

Okay.

Now uh FEMA uh uh told us that they were actually for individual homeowners and not for multifamily uh developments.

So we didn't qualify under that program.

Uh they marched us over to SBA because we went to that tent that was uh outside of Sumner.

Excuse me.

Went to Sumner uh and they took us to the SBA, and SBA said, well, we could take the application here or you can do it online.

So I chose to go back to the office and do it online, and I started that application process on August the 11th of last year.

And this morning, I was told by the SBA that we did not uh receive an SBA loan.

The reason was because they said we did not have enough income in order to uh take care of the loan amount, but they never told us what the loan amount was.

They they had us going through this application process since August, and we spent a lot of time doing uh requesting providing information that they requested during all of these weeks and and all of these months, only to find out, like I said this morning, that they're not gonna give us the money based on the fact that they say that we don't have enough income.

Kind of like what Becky said.

We we pride ourselves on being scrappy.

We can stay alive, uh, but when it comes to looking good with your balance sheet, there are a lot of people.

I think Mike, uh we lost Mike, but I can echo the same uh sentiment for North Newston in our experience with um FEMA and SBA as well.

Can't accuse me of not being able to pay.

I've been a real estate broker for 40 over certain interest, but not when you don't give me what the total loan amount will be.

Well, thank you, Mr.

Burns.

I really appreciate uh that answer.

It's it helps us understand a little more about uh what you're facing, and it's not a unique situation that I've heard from people that um FEMA will turn them down, they'll go to SBA, SBA will say essentially that yeah, you don't have the income.

Well, it's like of course you don't have the income.

You're an affordable housing developer.

Uh you you run lean.

And so um I I think it's just speaks to the difficulty that a lot of people are facing right now.

Again, I I think it's incredible what you do with what you have.

Uh and I I want to just see how we can help support you all in the future.

Um it obviously is an invaluable resource to our city, and we know that there are thousands of units at risk uh when we see funding cuts and and a lack of support like this.

So um again, I just want to echo my thanks to all of you and and the work that you're doing.

And you can imagine what uh laymen go through, people that just own homes or are in rental situations.

If I who have the experience have difficulty in getting the money, just imagine what people that have no experience in this area are going through.

And that's who we serve.

That's an excellent point.

Uh I'm glad you made it because I think there's some people out there who are wondering why things look the way they still do.

And it is partly because it is like a full-time job to try to repair your home after major damage.

You have to be your own contractor, your own business manager, your own accountant.

And it is uh not something that I think I'm equipped for.

And I'm a educated, you know, person who has had more privilege in my life than I can count.

And I don't know how a lot of people are going to um be able to handle that without without assistance from from folks like yourselves who are a little more familiar with that landscape.

And I um I know the need is great, and it is going to continue to be great for a while, but I also know that we have some excellent people in this city.

The fact that we know all of you by name.

Uh you know, um I work with Abdul.

Uh, we meet monthly and we talk about our neighborhoods and how we can move them forward.

I know that you're feeder on the ground.

You're meeting with these people constantly and you're doing the real work that connects our city together.

Uh it's something that I think is invaluable.

And so your work with us is also important that we also continue to coordinate and continue to see what we can do to make it easier.

Um again, these these challenges we're facing right now are not unique, but I think what is unique is the people here in St.

Louis who are doing this work.

Um it's it's something that I'm just I can't express enough gratitude for uh except to say that um we'll continue to be right beside you and and keep doing this work to try to make sure that we can house our people and we can move our city forward.

Thank you, Alderman Brownie.

Alderman Aldrich.

Thank you, madam chair, uh members of the HUD committee, and also thank you, uh Vice Chair Sanye for bringing this important conversation forward to the HUDs committee.

Um, I think all my colleagues, I'll just, you know, be saying the same thing, but at least we go on record.

The work that you all do is extremely important.

Um, Abdul, been knowing you for a long time.

Even before in this role, you have continued to do uh this work that you're doing.

And I think this role has really elevated your passion for housing and especially trying to figure out how do we make housing more affordable and in development to benefit the whole city in a way.

And in Constance and Michael, um, you know, I think like many of said Constance, you everywhere.

I mean, all y'all are everywhere.

Um, everyone from the community builders network is everywhere.

Always advocating and speaking up.

Uh, Michael would love the work that you're doing over in the veil area, area that's not only been impacted by the tornado, but especially an area um like Northside or North Newstead, you know, is really focusing in on these underserved uh areas that really need the help.

What I love about uh Yacht Network is y'all are booths on the ground.

So I was talking with somebody maybe a few weeks ago about you know the difference of having a developer and having um groups like you all that are actually not probably in the the big incentives or not getting the the big capital, but yeah, or actually in the community and yeah, I understand the development and things that's needed in the neighborhood, you know, the work that um um Sound and everyone is doing that you all is doing is just extremely important.

So I just want to say thank you.

Uh like my colleagues said, if it's any way that we could be a help, uh please let us know.

I know back in the day we used to have uh was it block grant money.

I hope one day we get back to that um to be able to support the work that you all are doing.

Um, but um just want to thank you.

It was such uh informative uh presentation.

I hope people that are watching, uh, please go back and look at this.

And like Aldo McKee said, if you guys got a little snippet of that a video um that you could send to us that we can also share with our network, please do so um because the work is so important.

So thank you all for being here today.

Absolutely, absolutely.

And I I encourage us to share the snippet as a preview and encourage people to watch the whole meeting, like Alder Woman Keys.

They have so much information and it visibly and hearing again the testimonies will make the difference.

Thank you, Alderman Sagay, uh, for your foresight to even bring this conversation, this discussion to us uh here at the HUDS meeting.

Uh, did you have any questions, comments?

I don't have any comments.

I would really echo what everyone has said.

Um I'm so grateful for the work that the CDCs do.

I've long been appreciative of them.

There's been many times where I've had honestly some housing crisis situations in the seventh ward, and it's been organizations like the sales that can step in.

They also are regularly at the neighborhood meetings, they know the the residents, they understand just kind of a historical context.

And it is really important to me to bring them before us.

One, because now this is on record.

And so I think as we continue to do the work, we now have this presentation.

We can share this with folks in other spaces when our residents have questions about things.

I look forward to us having some conversations about really supporting CDCs in our budget in an official way.

Because right now, you know, I think kind of as alluded to in the presentation, some of them are hurting, and particularly the ones that are in the North Side impacted tornado areas.

And I think that it would be a disaster to ever lose them, but I think it would be an absolutely devastating disaster to lose them right now.

We're talking about rebuilding our city, and they are one of the few entities that have a nonprofit interest.

They are genuinely there to build and connect and provide anchor and consistent resources to communities.

So I'm just really grateful for the work that you all do from the vacancy to the home repair to the um to the management.

And just I know you guys have a lot of things you can be doing.

So I just also want to thank every single one of you, Constance, Abdul, Mr.

Burns, Becky.

You know, I know you guys have a lot going on, and I appreciate you for taking the time to come before us today and to work together.

I love that your presentation highlights that you all work together because in St.

Louis, sometimes the S for silos.

And I think it's amazing for us to see in real time that you all are a part of a network and how interconnected your programming is.

And thus, if something was to happen to one of you all, it impacts the rest of the CDCs and ultimately the rest of the city.

So I'm just really appreciative of you all for coming between us and of my colleagues.

And I'm even touched to hear the story of Shameen walking in her heels on the day of the tornado and being able to get a ride in the golf car with Abdul, you know, those are things you cannot buy that.

And there are not many people doing work in our communities that have those types of roots and can reference those types of stories.

Having actual residents, a part of your board, you know, a part of your story, shaping your programming.

That's not something that I know of any other um entity, you know, that's not common in the development space.

So I'm just want you all to know, and I think we could probably say collector that you have supporters in us, you have advocates in us.

We look forward to this developing and um having more conversations about how we can support you all.

And I would just, you know, raise to my colleagues that I think we've got to really think innovatively about prioritizing them for support because there are some serious risk between the tornado and between the federal cuts.

Um, it is likely that I think these organizations, if we don't figure something out funding-wise, will not be here.

And I think you'll see a start in the north, but it will trickle to the rest of our areas and the rest of our our communities.

Thank you.

I agree with that.

And I think we it's already trickled uh South and Southeast in our city, we can see that.

So I did want to again just publicly thank um all of you all and Becky from all the way, you know, you will you know.

Oh, chairwoman, I wanted to say Auto Woman Boyd, she is she put some questions in the chat.

I don't know if she's still on the call.

Okay.

Um, I was just gonna call.

Thank you.

I was gonna say, Becky again, thank you for the the ways you gave uh during the tornado response.

And again, seeing them and showing up and still showing up.

Um, I know Grace Central and them and and the other CDCs are still showing up some in the um, especially in the Fountain Park neighborhood.

I've seen that again.

These are things I've witnessed.

I'm gonna have to say I heard about them.

One of the other things I'll say before I just open it up for any closing remarks from the CDCs.

If you want to touch on that question we had as it relates to ask, you can.

If not, we can meet later and talk later and maybe see what their structure would look like.

But I also want to know it wasn't said um verbally, but I want to say it.

Um there's a real difference in the way that CDCs are able um to deploy with immediate response because they don't have to go through the same bureaucracy and barriers that government does and the infrastructure that was talked about there is here.

We see it here.

So this is an immeasurable tool here in the city of St.

Louis that we sit we see it work other places.

Let's make sure we show how it can work um here as well.

So thank you all for all you do with that.

I'll open it up to see if anyone from the CDCs had any closing remarks.

Um, and then we'll go ahead and move back through the agenda.

Thank you, everybody.

But I do want to, oh, sorry.

Go ahead.

I do want to make a quick remark.

Um, so CBN has been around since 2011.

Um, as you know, that's about 14 years ago.

And at that time, we lost a lot of CDCs.

Um, this is this is kind of why CBN exists and continue to exist, and we have a lot of work ahead of us because CDCs continue to struggle with the general operation.

Um, like mentioned during the presentation, you know, we used to get funding from CDBG, and with that being not a core source of funding, there are ways that we're seeking um support because again, the work of CDCs has continued on for the last decade and continues to need that to new support.

So although we don't have a specific ask today, we do want you guys to think um about the role the CDCs can play as we are looking to rebuilding and revitalizing St.

Louis, especially in the neighborhoods and with community representation at the table.

So given the uniqueness of CDCs and how we're operated, right?

There's board representation that are from the community, that there is community voice.

And as we think about future programming, the future of St.

Louis, how CDCs can play and roll in that.

Thank you so much.

Thank you so much, Linda.

Always again another champion.

These like major cheerleaders here.

We have here.

Constance, I noticed that you wanted to offer some answers to the questions that Audeman Boyd had in the chat.

So please feel free to, for the record.

Yeah, I just saying the same thing as Linda.

We don't really have a direct ask today, but really wanted to open up this conversation and formally come to you all as CDCs just to present the uniqueness that that is our organization's.

I also wanted to say thank you to you all on the HUDS Committee and in the Board of Alderman.

Um there are so many of you guys that have been integral to our work and echoing what you guys said.

It's just the continued partnership between what we do is what allows us to do what we do.

So I appreciate the opportunity not only to speak um but for the continued partnership over the years.

Thank you so much.

And just um if uh if whoever was sharing the screen, if someone could share that slide that had the contact information just one more time quickly before we close out that way.

Anybody that's watching the meeting um will have that information if they had any questions for the individual CDCs.

I think it was close to the last slide.

Perfect, perfect.

All righty.

All right, thank you again all so much for your time today.

Everybody, please go back.

We ain't stopping work, but we're gonna make sure we um are safe.

So everybody please make sure they're safe and warm and families are safe and warm.

Uh, we'll move forward.

Are there is there uh any acknowledgement of any written testimony?

Okay, uh any announcements.

Okay, I'll just say for my announcement, when I said city staff earlier, I want to make sure our city staff knows that I was absolutely talking about them.

That's our amazing clerks um here at the board of aldermen and our um clerks and staff who, if not for them, we wouldn't have kept going because I wouldn't have known um to even move and call this meeting the way we did.

So shout out um and just much appreciation to many of our staff, our clerks and staff, some who are in here in the office with us now and at home.

Um we appreciate you all.

Clearly, we cannot do it without you also.

Thank you all for all the work you do.

Alderman Aldrich.

Uh ditto to everything you said, Alderwoman.

I did just want to take the moment with announcements, maybe people watching.

Tomorrow budget uh hearing at 6 p.m.

will also be virtual.

Um, just to make sure uh everyone's safe, especially we go we go very long.

We'll be talking about the Rams interest money, and we don't want people driving at night um and the slippery road.

So that meeting will also be virtual for everyone that's watching, and that link will be uh set up very soon on the board of Altimate website.

Uh well, actually, it's already on the board of the website, so people can go there and be able to click on it.

So thanks to the amazing staff for helping make that happen at STL TV.

Thank you, Adam and Aldrich.

Uh, I except the motion to excuse Alderman Cone for necessary absence.

Second person moved.

Second it was moved.

Right.

It was moved by Vice Chair Stang and stagnated by uh Alderman Browning or Alderman Alders.

Um we excuse Alderman Cone.

I know his LA, his new LA.

Welcome to the party to his welcome to the party.

I know his new LA has been on the call taking notes, though.

Thank you to uh his legislative assistant for jumping right off the porch into the business.

With that, um, I'll accept the motion to adjourn.

So moved.

Second.

It was moved by vice chair Sign Yang and seconded by Audemone Keys that we adjourn.

Um, all in favor, say aye.

All right.

We are adjourned.

Everyone have a blessed day.