St. Louis civic and business leaders marked 314 Day on Thursday morning by sharing how the city is helping transform areas that have experienced acute disinvestment in the past.
They offered updates on St. Louis’ Economic Justice Action Plan, which was unveiled a year and a half ago and lays the framework for investment and building economic opportunity in Black and brown neighborhoods that have been largely overlooked.
“Economic justice is a team sport,” said Mayor Tishaura Jones. “Government cannot do this alone. When done in collaboration with our philanthropic civic and private sector partners, we can make a lasting difference for generations to come.”
The event in north St. Louis also served as an opportunity for the St. Louis Development Corporation to launch three new programs. One, called HomeSTL, aims to help eligible first-time homebuyers in the city with up to $50,000 in assistance for down payments, closing costs or other mortgage related expenses.
It would apply to families making less than 80% of the area median income, $80,350 for a family of four, and those who’ve completed a homebuyer education course.
The program isn’t quite ready to be rolled out to buyers yet, as SLDC is still looking for lenders for the program, said Lance Knuckles, SLDC’s senior vice president of strategic growth.
“We’re launching this campaign to ask for lenders to participate,” he said. “We’re seeding the work. It still requires a lender to extend credit to a consumer to be able to access homeownership.”
Knuckles outlined two other SLDC programs launched Thursday, ScaleUpSTL and MobilizeSTL. The former is aimed at providing financial support in partnership with St. Louis Community Credit Union for small businesses to grow, he said.
“It’s one thing to respond to an opportunity,” Knuckles said. “It’s another to be looking into the future and understand that you have a capital partner who can get you prepared to take on the next level of work.”
The other program launched focuses on smaller minority contractors, specifically helping them with cash flow when serving as vendors to a major employer or on a construction project, Knuckles explained. MobilizeSTL will offer bridge loans while waiting for payment to clear, he said.
“It allows contractors to move through the 30-60-39 day (payment) process, having the necessary capital to execute the work in a meaningful way without putting themselves in a cost burden position,” Knuckles said.
These new programs are among the14 SLDC has set up from the $109 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds in the organization’s stewardship, said SLDC President and CEO Neal Richardson.
“Being able to stand up 14 unique programs is no small feat and it takes partnership with the Community Development Administration and other community partners to make sure this is actually making an impact in the lives of people every day,” he said.
Jones agrees.
“I am happy to say that our Economic Justice Action Plan is no longer just a plan,” she said. “It is in action. These are programs that have not existed before in our city.”
Jones acknowledged that tangible change has been slow to see for parts of the region, with some residents eager to see progress.
“It takes time to spend federal money to build these programs in order to push this money out in the community,” she said. “The one thing we want to make sure that we do is we don’t send a penny of this money back.”
St. Louis has until 2026 to fully spend funds from ARPA, which the city recently fully allocated.
“It makes me feel great that now we can start pushing these funds out in the community to help people, to help neighborhoods and to help people thrive,” Jones said.
