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Housing For Homeless Veterans Nearing Completion At 4011 Delmar

July 24, 2014 Central West End, Featured, Homeless, North City 6 Comments

I February 2010 I posted I would live at 4005 Delmar, then a vacant & boarded building, I was dreaming of it being renovated.

Boarded storefronts at sidewalk level
Boarded storefronts at sidewalk level, February 2010

The building at 4005-4011 Delmar has since attracted the attention of a developer, who also dreams:

We believe being a dreamer is every bit as important as being a do’er. In our personal and our professional lives, the members of The Vecino Group are dedicated to imagining a better world and then working to make it happen. 

I too agree it is important to dream, I’ve shared mine here for over 9 years.

Last year:

A housing developer from Springfield, Mo., has embarked on a $12.7 million project to renovate the building as 68 affordable apartments for homeless vets. The five-story building, at 4011 Delmar Boulevard, is in the city’s Vandeventer neighborhood, about three blocks from the John Cochran VA Medical Center.

Plans call for the building, named Freedom Place by the developer, to be redone as 20 studio apartments, 24 one-bedroom units, 16 two-bedroom units and eight three-bedroom units. Monthly rents are scheduled to range from $369 to $640. (stltoday)

According to city records, the building had 100 one-bedroom apartments and three “other” units. Hopefully the new mix of units will work well.

I pass by this project on the #97 MetroBus, but recently I was in the area photographing for my post on the North Sarah Apartments so I got a closer look at the progress.

New windows greatly improve the appearance
New windows greatly improve the appearance

I’m curious to see how the ground-level will be used. Will a neighborhood coffeehouse be able to open?  A small local market perhaps? The area desperately needs economic activity to create jobs for the veterans that will live here, as well as others.

Directly across the street a 1945 commercial building is vacant. With its side parking lot this could be a good market.
Directly across the street a 1945 commercial building is vacant. With its side parking lot this could be a good market for the area.
At 4035 the later commercial store front in from of a 19th century house has collapsed.
At 4035 a commercial storefront  addition in from of a 19th century house has collapsed.

Housing for these vets is huge, but we must also finds ways to rebuild the local economic base to create jobs. One local effort is Bridge Bread:

Bridge Bread is a social entrepreneurship initiative designed to provide job opportunities for guests of The Bridge. The goal of the initiative is to help disadvantaged guests engage in a financially rewarding effort that enhances self-worth, promotes dignity and enables the guests to help themselves.

It takes much more than a shelter cot to rebuild the lives of the homeless. Kudos to the people behind The Vecino Group!

— Steve Patterson

 

Currently there are "6 comments" on this Article:

  1. tonydoss says:

    the building across the street is the old Slaughter’s cleaners, it has been closed for about a year, sad because it still had plenty of loyal customers, those are actually two separate lots across the street, the building that collapsed has been reported to the city with no movement yet, collasped about 6 months ago. so nice to see something done with the apartment building, has been vacant since the late ninetys

     
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  3. rejco says:

    It’s sad the homeless veterans have to be viciously slandered as “CRAZY, ADDICTED, and ALCOHOLICS” and mandated to convert to the “Jesus Saves” & 12-Step religious AA/NA cults before being allowed to live in Freedom Place, where their every move will be monitored 24/7…NO FREEDOM for the veterans.

    Not one veterans approved to move into Freedom Place will have spent the night before ON THE STREETS; this place is not for homeless veterans.

     
    • Stacy Jurado-Miller says:

      Although the prior comment was left five months prior, I wanted to correct the information. As the developer of Freedom Place, I can say with absolute certainty that there are no religious affiliations or requirements and that the units are indeed serving formerly homeless veterans or veteran families at risk of homelessness. Some of the units are associated with PROJECT HERO, a collaboration between St. Patrick Center and the Department of Mental Health, and other units are not. But all 68 units will help to end veteran homelessness.

       
      • rejco says:

        I just call St. Patrick Center, the referral source for Freedom Place, and was told that homeless veterans will not be placed in Freedom House; it’s for veterans who went through St. Patrick Center’s MANDATORY 12-Step religious AA/NA cult DRUG & ALCOHOL TREATMENT and are in compliance with MANDATORY 12-Step religious AA/NA cult programming, and the veterans have to have an income.

        IT IS NOT FOR HOMELESS VETERANS!

         
  4. rejco says:

    If a homeless veteran only wants a living-wage jobs & placement in Freedom Place THEY WILL BE DENIED and left on the streets!

     

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