For more information, contact:
Jenny Connelly-Bowen
Community Builders Network of Metro St. Louis
314-730-5449
jenny@communitybuildersstl.org
St. Louis gets an “F” in affordable housing for Black households, renters, and people with the lowest incomes, says new St. Louis Affordable Housing Report Card
ST. LOUIS – November 8, 2021 – The new St. Louis Affordable Housing Report Card, released today on affordablestl.com, reminds us that St. Louis is a tale of two cities. For some, such as households earning over the region’s median income, our area is rich in naturally affordable housing. But for everyone else, including Black households and most renters, affordable housing is hard to find. Affordable housing is not only a social and economic issue, but also a racial justice imperative.
The St. Louis Affordable Housing Report Card was created as an accessible, easy-to-use tool for community organizations, housing advocates, regional decision-makers, and residents in St. Louis City and County who want to see growth in and more equitable use of affordable housing resources.
Thanks to generous support from the Deaconess Foundation, the Report Card was commissioned by the Community Builders Network of Metro St. Louis (CBN) for the Affordable Housing Trust Fund (AHTF) Coalition. URBNRX served as the lead consultant on the project with support from Osiyo Design + Engagement.
Jenny Connelly-Bowen, Executive Director with CBN, emphasizes that it is critical to review the Affordable Housing Report Card’s findings in the context of systemic racism. “While a lack of quality and affordable housing for lower income residents affects people of all races and ethnicities in our region, we cannot release this Report Card without acknowledging St. Louis’ specific history and the pervasive effects of racial segregation,” she says. “Many disparities in our region’s affordable housing landscape are the legacy of systemic racism.”
Race has sculpted St. Louis’ social geography and physical infrastructure, dividing Black and white families both physically and economically. This “geography of inequity” was created intentionally over many decades by those in power and reinforced, sometimes unintentionally, by systems and infrastructure. Policies that encouraged white flight, housing discrimination against Black residents, and preferential lending led to racial segregation that negatively impacts Black St. Louisans to this day.
St. Louis continues to be one of the most segregated metropolitan areas in our nation. Wealth, health and longer life expectancy, employment opportunities, and political power are pooled in majority white neighborhoods. Black neighborhoods are rich in culture and experience, yet riddled with substandard housing, vacant properties, illegal dumping, lead pollution, and other negative social determinants of health.
Cristina Garmendia, Principal and Founder at URBNRX, shares, “Over the course of the past year, we have worked together with the St. Louis community of affordable housing advocates to identify meaningful measures of success and to discover where our data and evaluation infrastructure currently falls short. The Report Card summarizes both the ‘state of housing data’ and our recommendations for how our region can strengthen accountability for achieving their affordable housing goals.” She adds, “The model developed to estimate unmet affordable housing demand was a major undertaking, with a methodology carefully reviewed by Coalition members, City housing consultants, and County staff.”
Thanks to generous support from FLOURISH St. Louis, over the coming months, Blackrock Consulting will be conducting Report Card engagement sessions in targeted geographies experiencing the greatest levels of infant mortality, which are nearly all predominantly Black neighborhoods. “The Affordable Housing Report Card gives us the data as housing advocates, residents, and policymakers to make concrete demands and realistic goals that meet the needs of our most impacted communities,” says Sunni Hutton, Director with Blackrock Consulting. “There's still more ongoing data needed, but this report, like many others before it, only confirms the plight of Black folks and Black families in our region. And now there's no more excuses—as a region we must invest in our most impacted, transform inequitable systems, and let the most impacted lead.”
Report Card organizers hope that it starts conversations, gives community leaders the tools they need to make their own recommendations, and provides policymakers and elected officials with data they can use to better understand housing needs and track progress.
To learn more, please visit affordablestl.com.
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About the Community Builders Network and Affordable Housing Trust Fund Coalition:
The Community Builders Network of Metro St. Louis (CBN) is a coalition of community building organizations, including community-based nonprofits, lenders, private developers, philanthropic organizations, and government actors. CBN exists to support, connect, and celebrate the St. Louis region’s community builders in three primary ways:
Strong Organizations - CBN’s organizational capacity building programs support our members and their partners so they can do their best work.
Supportive Systems - CBN’s civic capacity building programs build bridges across places, sectors, and silos and advocate for policies that strengthen our civic muscle.
Sharing Stories - CBN’s public awareness building programs spread the word about what it takes to make our neighborhoods great places to live—and why strong communities matter.
CBN has been facilitating the Affordable Housing Trust Fund (AHTF) Coalition since its founding in 2018. The AHTF Coalition convenes stakeholders from many sectors who actively support increased funding and a greater role for the AHTF in the City of St. Louis and St. Louis County. Members of the AHTF Coalition have lifted up the immense need for affordable housing in St. Louis, but acknowledged that our region doesn't fully understand the scope of this need. In commissioning this Report Card, the Coalition was particularly motivated by data from East-West Gateway Council of Governments that showed 75% of low-income Black households are housing cost-burdened (paying more than 30% of their income on housing), compared with 62% of low-income white households.
To learn more about the Affordable Housing Trust Fund Coalition, visit communitybuildersstl.org/affordable-housing-trust-fund-coalition.
To learn more about CBN, visit communitybuildersstl.org.
About URBNRX:
URBNRX is a research consulting practice that provides data and research support to leaders and organizations that seek to:
Make more equitable decisions that takes into account disparate impact
Develop more comprehensive strategy that addresses gaps and blindspots
Practice accountability in a way that builds the foundation for innovation
To learn more about URBNRX, visit urbnredux.com.
About Osiyo Design + Engagement:
A traditional Cherokee greeting, Osiyo means “it is well” or “hello.” From developing branding that makes a statement, planning events that build community ties, to forming coalitions that engage around policy change, Osiyo Design + Engagement creates meaningful connections, moments, and messages.
To learn more about Osiyo Design + Engagement, visit osiyodesign.com.
