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St. Patrick Center Opens Low Barrier, 24/7 Safe Haven | St. Louis Metro News | St. Louis

Published

2 years ago

January 27, 2023

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click to enlarge Courtesy of Kevin Lashley The exterior of Grace House, which opened this week off Hadley Street in north St. Louis.

A new 24-hour safe haven offering wrap-around services for people experiencing homelessness in St. Louis has opened in the city’s Old North neighborhood.

The safe haven, called Grace House, is the first of its kind in St. Louis, according to St. Patrick Center. Grace House will stay open year-round and provide services to whoever needs them, says Anthony D’Agostino, CEO of St. Patrick Center.

“We tried to create a safe haven for St. Louis that could get people off the streets and provide safety for people who can’t go to traditional shelters,” D’Agostino tells the RFT.

Grace House will prioritize the chronically homeless and connect them to permanent housing. Safe havens act as 24/7, low-barrier alternatives to traditional shelters and often serve homeless individuals who have been banned or removed from other programs for the unhoused. About a dozen staff members work at Grace House to connect people to support services, including mental-health or substance-abuse counseling.

Grace House was a long time coming. The Board of Aldermen set aside $16 million in American Rescue Plan funds for homeless services in August 2021, with about $1.3 million appropriated for a safe haven.

Since then, city officials have considered at least two third-party agencies to open a safe haven after issuing a request for proposals. The city later backed out of negotiations after determining the providers could not meet certain requirements for safe havens, such as maintaining 24-hour operations.

D’Agostino says St. Patrick Center is currently finalizing contract details after the city chose the nonprofit to run the safe haven last fall. A search for a place to put Grace House that met all federal requirements began soon after.

Now that a location has been secured, says Yusef Scoggin, director of human services for St. Louis, the city is “working diligently with [St. Patrick Center] to ensure we can employ best practices and provide low-barrier services to the hard-to-reach unhoused neighbors with severe mental illness and substance use disorders that a safe haven is meant to serve.”

click to enlarge Courtesy of Kevin Lashley A lounge area inside Grace House

The city has long lacked shelter space during winter weather, Alderwoman Christine Ingrassia says.

Ingrassia, an outspoken supporter of St. Louis’s unhoused community, says she’s been frustrated with how long it’s taken the city to use the federal funding set aside for a safe haven.

“It’s overdue, but I’m grateful it’s happening,” Ingrassia tells the RFT.

A permanent safe haven hasn’t operated in St. Louis for the past several years — not since the closing of The Horizon Club, a 24-hour center for homeless people with developmental disabilities, D’Agostino says. The center closed in 2016.

Twenty-five to 40 people can stay at Grace House at a time, according to D’Agostino. Stays include three meals a day, along with access to computers and telephones. There’s no time limit on how long someone could stay there, but the goal is to get clients out of shelters and into permanent housing.

Compared to shelters, safe havens cost two to three times more money to run, D’Agostino says, so he understands why there’s been such a deficit of safe havens in St. Louis. But St. Patrick Center pushed to open one this winter “because we didn’t see anyone else doing it.”

Without city support, Grace House will cost over $100,000 a month to operate.

“It’s not sustainable for us to create that kind of deficit spending, which we’re currently doing… We’re working in good faith with the city and have no reason to think this isn’t going to work out,” D’Agostino says.

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Fenton Man Charged in Sword Attack on Roommate

Published

7 months ago

May 22, 2024

Natural Bridge

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A warrant is out for a Fenton man’s arrest after he allegedly attacked his roommate with a sword.

Police say that on Sunday, Angelus Scott spoke openly about “slicing his roommate’s head” before he grabbed a sword, raised it up and then swung it down at the roommate.

The roommate grabbed Scott’s hand in time to prevent injury. When police arrived at the scene, they found the weapon used in the assault.

The sword in question was a katana, which is a Japanese sword recognizable for its curved blade.

This isn’t the first time a samurai-style sword has been used to violent effect in St. Louis. In 2018, a man hearing voices slaughtered his ex-boyfriend with a samurai sword. His mother said he suffered from schizoaffective disorder.

As for Scott, 35, the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office was charged yesterday with two felonies, assault first degree and armed criminal action. The warrant for his arrest says he is to be held on $200,000 bond.

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Caught on Video, Sheriff Says He’s Ready to ‘Turn It All Over’ to Deputy

Published

7 months ago

May 22, 2024

Natural Bridge

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Video of St. Louis Sheriff Vernon Betts taken by a former deputy suggests that the sheriff has a successor in mind to hand the reins of the department over to, even as Betts is in an increasingly heated campaign for reelection.

“I ain’t here for all this rigmarole,” Betts says in the video while seated behind his desk at the Carnahan Courthouse. “The Lord sent me here to turn this department around and I’m doing the best I can and I think I’ve done a good job. I’ve got about eight months and I’m going to qualify for my fourth pension.”

He goes on, “Right now I can walk up out of here and live happily ever after and forget about all this…and live like a king.”

The sheriff then says his wife has been in Atlanta looking at houses and that the other deputy in the room, Donald Hawkins, is someone Betts has been training “to turn it all over to him.”

Asked about the video, Betts tells the RFT, “My future plans are to win reelection on August 6th by a wide margin and to continue my mission as the top elected law enforcement official to make St. Louis safer and stronger. Serving the people of St. Louis with integrity, honor and professional law enforcement qualifications is a sacred responsibility, and I intend to complete that mission.”

The video of Betts was taken by Barbara Chavers, who retired from the sheriff’s office in 2016 after 24 years of service. Chavers now works security at Schnucks at Grand and Gravois. Betts’ brother Howard works security there, too.

Chavers tells the RFT that she was summoned to Betts’ office last week after Betts’ brother made the sheriff aware that she was supporting Montgomery. It was no secret: Chavers had filmed a Facebook live video in which she said she was supporting Betts’ opponent Alfred Montgomery in the election this fall. “Make the judges safe,” she says in the video, standing in front of a large Montgomery sign on Gravois Avenue. “They need a sheriff who is going to make their courtrooms safe.”

In his office, even as Chavers made clear she was filming him, Betts told Chavers he was “flabbergasted” and “stunned” she was supporting Montgomery.

“I don’t know what I did that would make you go against the preacher man,” he says, referring to himself. He then refers to Montgomery as “ungodly.”

Betts goes on to say that not long ago, he was walking in his neighborhood on St. Louis Avenue near 20th Street when suddenly Montgomery pulled up in his car and, according to Betts, shouted, “You motherfucker, you this, you that. You’re taking my signs down.”

Montgomery tells the RFT that he’s never interacted with Betts outside of candidate forums and neighborhood meetings.

“I don’t think anyone with good sense would do something like that to a sitting sheriff,” Montgomery says.

Montgomery has had campaign signs missing and on at least two occasions has obtained video of people tearing them down. (Chavers notes that the sign that she filmed her original Facebook video in front of is itself now missing.)

One man who lives near Columbus Square says that he recently put out two Montgomery signs, which later went missing. “If they keep taking them, I’ll keep putting them up,” he said.

Betts says he has nothing to do with the missing signs. In the video Chavers filmed in Betts’ office, Betts says that his campaign isn’t in a spot where it needs to resort to tearing down opponents’ signs.

“If you sit here long enough, a man is getting ready to come across the street from City Hall bringing me $500, today,” Betts says. “I’m getting that kind of support. I don’t need to tear down signs.”

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St. Louis to Develop First Citywide Transportation Plan in Decades

Published

7 months ago

May 21, 2024

Natural Bridge

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The City of St. Louis is working to develop its first citywide mobility plan in decades, Mayor Tishaura Jones’ office announced Tuesday. This plan seeks to make it easier for everyone — drivers, pedestrians, bikers and public transit users — to safely commute within the city.

The plan will bring together other city projects like the Brickline Greenway, Future64, the MetroLink Green Line, and more, “while establishing new priorities for a safer, more efficient and better-maintained transportation network across the City,” according to the release.

The key elements in the plan will be public engagement, the development of a safety action plan, future infrastructure priorities and transportation network mapping, according to Jones’ office.

The overarching goals are to create a vision for citywide mobility, plan a mixture of short and long-term mobility projects and to develop improved communication tools with the public to receive transportation updates. In recent years, both people who use public transit and cyclists have been outspoken about the difficulties — and dangers — of navigating St. Louis streets, citing both cuts to public transit and traffic violence.

To garner public input and participation for the plan, Jones’ office said there will be community meetings, focus groups and a survey for residents to share their concerns. The city will also be establishing a Community Advisory Committee. Those interested in learning more should check out at tmp-stl.com/

“Everyone deserves to feel safe when getting around St. Louis, whether they’re driving, biking, walking or taking public transit,” Jones said in a news release. “Creating a comprehensive transportation and mobility plan allows us to make intentional and strategic investments so that moving around St. Louis for jobs, education, and entertainment becomes easier, safer and more enjoyable.”

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