蜜芽传媒

ST. LOUIS 鈥� For almost 30 years, there has been a bottleneck that chokes the process of providing services to the homeless community in 蜜芽传媒.

The biggest chunk of money to battle homelessness comes from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development through yearly grants. Under federal law, that money is supposed to be managed in cities by commissions called a Continuum of Care, made up of board members from the various social service agencies that provide services.

But in 蜜芽传媒, and many other cities, the money flows first through the city government, where bureaucracy and politics sometimes slows the delivery of the money to the people who need it. It鈥檚 why, going back multiple mayoral administrations, there have been regular disputes between nonprofit providers and the mayor鈥檚 office, arguing over money or the design of the plan to battle homelessness.

Why isn鈥檛 that shelter open? Where are the warming buses? Who is getting people off the street and into housing? When will that contract be awarded? Every year, it seems, some version of those questions fills the headlines, with bureaucrats and do-gooders pointing fingers at each other while needy people living on the streets suffer.

Anthony D鈥橝gostino hopes those days are over. Last month, the followed a national trend and for the first time made a nonprofit the middle man for the federal funds, instead of the city.

鈥淭his is more than 30 years in the making,鈥� says D鈥橝gostino, who is the chairman of the Continuum of Care. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a huge shift. I think it鈥檚 exciting for the city.鈥�

A bumpy transition might await. The city didn鈥檛 want to give up its role as the agency that applied for and distributed the funds to homeless nonprofits. The new nonprofit that won the role in a competitive bidding process, House Everyone STL, knows that for the transition to work, it needs the cooperation of the city, which still will play a major role in sheltering unhoused people and devising and implementing strategy. The office of Mayor Tishaura O. Jones declined to comment on the awarding of the funding contract to the new nonprofit.

鈥淲e need to foster a culture of collaboration,鈥� says Laurie Phillips, the new executive director of . 鈥淚 don鈥檛 want to fight with anybody.鈥�

Phillips is a former director of the St. Patrick鈥檚 Center, where, until Friday, D鈥橝gostino had the top job. He is moving to a new job as CEO of Peter & Paul Community Services, another major provider of services to unhoused people. The game of musical chairs doesn鈥檛 stop there. A former Peter & Paul employee, Adam Pearson, is taking over as the city鈥檚 director of the Department of Human Services.

Pearson comes from an agency that, like most providers of homeless services in 蜜芽传媒, was pushing for the change in how the federal money is distributed. Phillips hopes that translates to a successful working relationship between House Everyone STL as it gears up to file the application for next year鈥檚 HUD money, which should amount to around $13 million, along with another $500,000 for strategic planning.

Because the nonprofit can do something the city couldn鈥檛 do 鈥� seek more funds from private sources 鈥� Phillips hopes the new arrangement leads to better funded services that can be more responsive to the needs of unhoused people, as well as the business community.

鈥淲e need to be more flexible and we need to be better funded,鈥� Phillips says. 鈥淚 think we鈥檙e going to see a much better level of responsiveness to the needs of the community.鈥�

To that end, the nonprofit is in negotiations with Mandy Sample, a national consultant who helped reorganize homeless service plans in Houston and Dallas, to come to 蜜芽传媒 and help get all the agencies and governments working in the same direction.

鈥淓verybody has to be on the same page,鈥� Sample said last year when she came to the city to speak to homeless agency leaders.

That鈥檚 the goal with the change in who is ultimately in charge of the overarching strategy for battling homelessness in 蜜芽传媒, Phillips says.

鈥淓verything has always felt like a fire drill in the past,鈥� she says of yearly efforts to get funding from the city to the agencies doing the work on the ground. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 want it to feel like that anymore.鈥�