蜜芽传媒

ST. LOUIS 鈥� There was always going to be tension in the creation of .

The nonprofit was formed in 2021 with the best of intentions: to improve the distribution of federal money to agencies that help homeless people get off the street and into housing. But in short order, the nonprofit鈥檚 creation would become one of those all-too-frequent 蜜芽传媒 cautionary tales, with infighting and divisions threatening progress.

Nonprofit leaders for years had complained that the flow of money from the federal government to the city, and then to the agencies doing most of the work, was slowed by bureaucracy and occasionally politics.

The Continuum of Care, an umbrella organization picked by the Department of Housing and Urban Development to oversee planning for homeless services in 蜜芽传媒, decided to act. Its leaders created a new nonprofit, House Everyone STL, with the goal of having that agency replace the city as the middleman for federal money.

The plan was modeled after successful moves in other cities 鈥� such as Houston and Dallas 鈥� where homeless services were reorganized, getting all the agencies and civic leaders on the same page.

The woman who helped lead the charge for a new 鈥渉ousing first鈥� model in those two cities came to 蜜芽传媒 about a year after the creation of House Everyone STL. Mandy Chapman Semple was brought here to help push for unity among the various agencies that serve the unhoused.

Change can be painful, Semple said at a fall 2022 speech at the Foundry.

鈥淚n every community, you have to find out what is the center of gravity that can bring the entire community together,鈥� she said.

蜜芽传媒 is not Houston or Dallas, or even Denver or Salt Lake City or San Francisco. The local homeless population 鈥� about 1,200 people, according to last year鈥檚 count 鈥� is nowhere near the problem it is in other American cities. But like many things in 蜜芽传媒, fractionalization 鈥� by governments and nonprofits 鈥� compounds the issue.

A few months after Semple鈥檚 speech, some leaders in the homeless nonprofit world thought they were on the way to finding that center of gravity. The Continuum of Care had issued requests for proposal for a new 鈥渃ollaborative applicant.鈥� That鈥檚 the official name for an entity that puts together the annual proposal to HUD to secure $14 million in federal funding. The city of 蜜芽传媒, which had always served that role, submitted a bid to serve as the applicant. So did the upstart nonprofit, created for that very purpose. And the board of Continuum of Care indeed voted to give the bid to House Everyone STL.

It was a new day in homeless services in 蜜芽传媒.

Until it wasn鈥檛.

In September 2023, HUD sent a letter with some bad news for the Continuum of Care. Because House Everyone STL had been created by the very leaders that awarded the new bid 鈥� including chairman Anthony D鈥橝gostino, the CEO of Peter and Paul Community Services 鈥� the transaction was rife with conflicts of interest. HUD wouldn鈥檛 approve the move.

It was back to the drawing board. Both the Continuum of Care and House Everyone STL adjusted their boards and created new charter documents and conflict of interest policies. But the two agencies started to go in different directions.

鈥淒ifferent people have had different opinions about how this process should unfold,鈥� says Tim Huffman, president of the House Everyone STL board. 鈥淚t鈥檚 like playing a board game when you can鈥檛 read the rules and you can鈥檛 see the board.鈥�

House Everyone STL 鈥� led by Huffman and new executive director Samanatha Stangl 鈥� believed it needed to be truly independent to bring together nonprofits, business leaders and government agencies for a plan to put more unhoused people in homes.

But some Continuum of Care leaders 鈥� including D鈥橝gostino, board member Shanna Nieweg and incoming chairman Toni Wade 鈥� wanted the new nonprofit to be under the control of their group.

The dispute played out at public meetings and in a series of tense emails. One of the messages was sent by Wade on Nov. 22, 2023 to the board of House Everyone STL; the email notably wasn鈥檛 copied to Stangl, the executive director.

鈥淥ver the past six months, we鈥檝e noticed a misalignment between our boards,鈥� Wade wrote.

She was the vice chairman of the Continuum of Care at the time. A month later, she would become the chairman, even while being under investigation by the city for past billing issues.

Wade wrote that House Everyone STL was failing to 鈥渄efer鈥� to the Continuum of Care, and that the new nonprofit didn鈥檛 understand its role.

The email, obtained by the Post-Dispatch in a Sunshine Law request, didn鈥檛 go over well. Board members of both organizations were offended that Wade sent such as strong missive, and city leaders noticed it as well. A few days later, Adam Pearson, the city鈥檚 Department of Human Services director, alerted HUD to the issue.

鈥淭oni expresses several grievances here with (House Everyone STL),鈥� Pearson wrote, 鈥渟ome of which indicate to me that she still does not fully appreciate conflict of interest.鈥�

Pearson explained that House Everyone STL had taken steps to minimize any conflicts of interest on its board and tried to collaborate with other groups.

鈥淭hese changes, among others, are not welcomed by Toni Wade,鈥� Pearson wrote.

In December, with much of the Continuum of Care membership not privy to the underlying tension, the organization elected Wade as the new chairman. It also chose House Everyone STL as both the new support agency for the Continuum of Care and as the collaborative applicant, replacing the city.

It was short-lived progress. By February, with tension growing, House Everyone STL pulled away from its relationship with the Continuum of Care, even as Stangl and her board continued to collaborate with the city and other nonprofits. For now, the city will continue to be the agency the develops the regional plan to spend the HUD money.

鈥淥ur neutrality is critical to our ability to work with all partners and coalesce around proves strategies that are not influenced by potentially funded agencies,鈥� Stangl told me in an interview.

That view of the role of House Everyone STL 鈥� if it is ever to become that 鈥渃enter of gravity鈥� it was intended to be 鈥� is shared by some longtime members of the Continuum of Care.

鈥淵ou鈥檝e got to have an independent body where no board members are vested in any individual grant,鈥� says Tom Mangogna, CEO of Magdala House, one of the larger homeless services providers in the region.

So what is the future of the Continuum of Care and its relationship to House Everyone STL?

Right now, it doesn鈥檛 look good. But that hasn鈥檛 stopped House Everyone STL from forging relationships with business and civic leaders and many of the nonprofits that do the nitty-gritty work of battling homelessness.

Huffman chooses to be hopeful. 鈥淚 truly believe that we鈥檒l get there in the end,鈥� he says. 鈥淛ustice is what love looks like in public, and love takes time.鈥�

Stangl and Pearson have talked about building the sorts of relationships 鈥� in 蜜芽传媒 County and surrounding counties 鈥� that have long been difficult in this region. Both also continue to talk to Semple and her firm about the possibility of helping everyone in 蜜芽传媒 get on the same page.

House Everyone STL is no longer the agency that was envisioned by its founders. But it might have become something better and moved 蜜芽传媒 closer to finding its center of gravity.