ST. LOUIS • City officials say it would cost roughly $40 million to demolish every vacant building in the city’s inventory.
There are an estimated 25,000 vacant and abandoned properties in St. Louis overall, including buildings and lots. About 11,500 are owned by the city, the rest by private owners.
Mayor Lyda Krewson argues that’s a problem that can’t be tackled by the city alone.
“We’ve proven for about 40 years now that we cannot individually tackle vacant properties,†Krewson said.
On Friday, Krewson spoke to Post-Dispatch reporters and editorial writers about her plan to bring down the number of vacant lots and buildings in the city.
It’s been a decades-long fight — the city’s Land Reutilization Authority, or LRA, was established in 1971 to combat the growing number of abandoned properties — with few easy answers.
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Under Krewson, the city has begun coordinating with St. Louis nonprofits, legal clinics and community development organizations to fight blight, forming a team to coordinate resources.
That committee is overseen by Austin Albert, a newly hired vacancy strategy project manager under the umbrella of the LRA whose sole job it is to lead initiatives to address vacancy.
City officials are also trying to find new funding and allocate more money for tackling blight. They don’t expect much help from the state or federal government in this area, Krewson said.
Some buildings can’t be saved, and in recent years, the city hasn’t prioritized money for demolition in the city budget. But the funding is up this year to about $3.6 million, something Krewson pushed for and hopes to sustain.
“For at least the next three years ... I’m going to fight very hard every year to get $3.5-4 million in the budget for demolition,†she said.
A big boost could come in court, where the city is arguing that voters passed in April a small property tax increase meant to raise about $6 million a year to stabilize vacant properties for future rehabs.
City leaders also hope to raise private dollars to address the issue. But first, they have to demonstrate that their efforts are a worthy investment, said Patrick Brown, St. Louis’ chief resilience officer.
“We are trying to leverage the resources that are available, but part of this is our ability to communicate strategy as a city. That’s what funders want to see. ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ want to see intention, they want to see strategy before they start throwing cash at stuff,†he said.
Brown also said the city is taking steps to prevent blight by increasing code enforcement against private owners who don’t take care of their properties and working with property owners to create beneficiary deeds, so there’s a plan in place for a home if its owner dies.
Most recently, the city has held two “Clean Sweep†events to demolish LRA-owned buildings and clean up neighborhoods.
Krewson said the vacancy team will continue to explore options not just for tearing buildings down, but for making it possible to get properties into the hands of people who can renovate them, particularly in north St. Louis, where a dysfunctional housing market makes it nearly impossible to get mortgages or construction loans.
The city will also have to confront the racial disparities that put the city in the position it’s in today, Brown said.
“There’s no coincidence the majority of vacant and dilapidated housing and buildings exist in communities that have been historically African-American. So this issue over time, over decades … has been viewed through the lens that it is somebody else’s problem,†Brown said. “It’s our job to… make the case why this is critical for everybody. This is a drain on our tax base. This is a drain on our public safety resources.â€
