St. Louis Magazine
Sarah Fenske | September 11, 2024
The Family Refuge Coalition has moved its first tenants into one floor of the Peter & Paul Community Campus in North City.
A once-moribund space that’s become a home for unhoused St. Louisans is now offering a landing place for a different population: some of the city’s newest residents. In April, Peter & Paul Community Services acquired the 188,000-square-foot facility in North City that the Little Sisters of the Poor vacated in 2018. They’ve been running a homeless shelter on site, as well as offering transitional housing, but there’s still room to help more people.
Enter Welcome Neighbor STL, which has carved out a niche helping refugees after their federal resettlement funds are exhausted—and mobilizing volunteers in the community eager to help. Executive Director Jessica Bueler says providers across the St. Louis area saw a need for short-term housing for immigrants and refugees living here, and after connecting with Peter & Paul CEO Anthony D’Agostino, plans came together quickly. On Monday, the newly formed Family Refuge Coalition moved its first tenants, a family of Liberians who’d been living in their car, onto the fifth floor of the Peter & Paul Community Campus. A family of Cubans followed Tuesday, with room for up to 10 more families as a 60-day pilot program continues.
Bueler proudly points out the way volunteers have begun transforming what used to be a floor of a skilled nursing care facility into rooms for families. Double rows of bunk beds provide a way for big families to stay together, with hand-made blankets donated by church groups offering a cheerful note. A cafeteria will allow families to eat together, and a children’s room offers brightly colored bins for toys. “A local Girl Scout has taken it on herself to build out that room,” she says. Like most of the items being installed, the floor’s shared washing machine and dryer was a donation.
The refugee floor is very much a work in progress—like the building as a whole. “We’ve only been here four months, and in those four months, we’ve already seen five different partners come together in this building,” D’Agostino says. “Now we have another dozen or so just through this pilot program. There’s a lot of groups working together to make it happen.”
He adds, “You know the old saying, ‘If you want to go fast, go alone, if you want to go far, go together.’ It’s like we’re doing both. We’re doing a lot fast, and then also doing it with a lot of people. And so hopefully we’re both doing it quickly and will be able to do it sustainably over a long period of time.”
Why It Matters: As housing costs rise, agencies working with refugees in St. Louis struggle to find affordable homes for bigger families, with hotel rooms as a costly last resort. The Family Refuge Coalition floor offers more family-friendly settings, with three meals a day cooked on-site by Peter & Paul. Nonprofits that work with Welcome Neighbor STL will refer refugees to the program and provide the services they need to get settled in more permanent homes.
Bueler is hoping it will lead to greater cooperation among the nonprofits that deal with immigrant populations, whether they teach English or handle legal cases or assist with housing. She says, “If we can each focus on our area of expertise, then we can really build something incredible and something unprecedented and amazing here.”
A Big Job Ahead: All but a few floors of one wing of the building sat empty for six years before Peter & Paul moved in, and it needed a fair amount of work. D’Agostino says he’s had four plumbers on site every single day they’ve been open. With five different elevators throughout the massive complex, he has elevator repairmen on speed dial. “We need $5 million yesterday,” he says, only half-joking.
Even so, he didn’t flinch when presented with the pilot program idea. “The need is so acute,” he says. “And, in many cases, these are kids.”
What’s Next: Welcome Neighbor’s initial Amazon wish list for the project was satisfied in days, but as the coalition continues to set up rooms, they’re identifying new needs. People can also make donations through the Incarnate Word Foundation or contact Welcome Neighbor to volunteer their time (volunteers must pass a background check). Bueler hopes that, by November, the pilot project will provide enough data to show the need for more permanent funding. “There’s never been a place like this that’s existed before in St. Louis,” she says.
