And those initial repairs — covering perhaps 250 homes — are not full rebuilds, but stabilization. The work will be limited to making homes “safe, sanitary and functional”: plugging the leaks, removing the mold, getting at least one bathroom working and the lights, air conditioning and water going.
Officials said the plan is for full-scale repairs to begin in mid-2027.
After outlining the plan at a north St. Louis town hall Tuesday night, Julian Nicks, director of the city’s Recovery Office, acknowledged the limits.
The city’s goal, he said, is to stabilize as many homes as possible so they can be fully restored as more funding becomes available.
“We want every house within your block to have a path for families to move back in,” Nicks said.
Still, his presentation underscored the biggest challenge the city faces as it nears the anniversary mark of a storm that has displaced thousands of households: It’s not clear when damaged homes will be fully restored — or how many will be.
The uncertainty is already shaping debate at City Hall.
Alderman Rasheen Aldridge, of downtown, said the 2027 timeline should spur more discussion on directing more of the $250 million Rams settlement toward storm recovery when aldermen reconvene for their new session in April.
“Hopefully, we can work together on funding to get some of these repairs done sooner,” he said.
Alderman Matt Devoti, of the Hill, was of similar mind.
“If the priority is to keep folks in the city,” he said, “we need to help as many as we can, and we must do it as promptly as possible.”
The need for large-scale aid has been clear since the tornado struck.
The storm damaged thousands of buildings in some of the poorest neighborhoods in the region, where homeowners often lacked insurance to cover the damage. Within a couple of months, the nonprofit Action St. Louis had tallied roughly 4,300 households in need of some kind of repair.
During the initial response to the storm, the city moved money to get tarps and boards up on damaged buildings and get moving on a few dozen repairs.
This winter, the city budgeted millions of dollars to open up apartments, hotel rooms and shelter beds to people whose homes weren't safe.
But now, with the weather warming, many residents who applied for home repairs are on a waitlist.
At a recent meeting of the Recovery Office’s community advisory committee, officials spoke frankly about the gap. Laura Ginn , a longtime staffer at the city’s development arm, said the cost of meeting all requests for repair could run the city between $150 million and $400 million — well above the $15 million or so appropriated as of late last month.
“So we all know the sobering reality of where we are right now,” she said.
But securing that level of funding remains uncertain.
City leaders have struggled for years to reach consensus on how to spend the Rams settlement. It wasn't until the tornado last year that they agreed to spend interest earned on the funds, which went to initial disaster response costs.
Federal recovery block grant funding could bring hundreds of millions more dollars, but city officials have said the money may not arrive until next year.
Meanwhile, private donations on the scale needed to close the gap have yet to materialize.
Aldermanic President Megan Green said her understanding is that potential donors are waiting on City Hall.
“They want to see the city put some skin in the game,” she said.
At the town hall Tuesday, Spencer told a restive audience that she's well aware of the funding gap, and working on it.
“We are working on a plan to spend the Rams dollars,” she said, “and a good chunk of that is going to go into supporting our north side neighborhoods.”
She said the city has also begun seeking more than $1 billion in federal disaster redevelopment funding.
“That's not to say we're going to get that,” she said, “but you better believe we're going to be fighting to get as much as we can.”
As the crowd dispersed Tuesday night, Hassan Shabazz, a 71-year-old retiree waiting for help with repairs on his home in Lewis Place, said he understood the delays. He said it’s no surprise that it will take time to get more money out of the federal bureaucracy, especially with President Donald Trump weighing big changes to disaster programs.
“The mayor and her staff, they got a big task,” he said. “People just got to have patience.”
But Sylvia Grisby, 65, said she’s running out.
After nine months of waiting for help repairing a home on Carter Avenue, she was one of those put on the waitlist in recent weeks.
“It’s not making sense to me,” she said. “It seems like nothing is being done.”
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