If you've worked in north St. Louis since the May 2025 tornado, you already know the recovery has been slow. New numbers from City Hall show just how slow, and what could come next.
At a Board of Aldermen hearing on spending from the city's $255 million in Rams settlement funds, about $90 million of which went to tornado recovery, the city's recovery team gave an update. St. Louis Public Radio reported on Oct. 1 that only 2% of the estimated 2,674 homes needing repair have been completed. Since the team's last update in March, 19 more repair jobs were finished.
"We are in a housing crisis in the city of St. Louis," said Julian Nicks, the city's chief recovery officer.
Why repairs are stuck
Nonemergency repairs are still stalled, the station reported. Nicks said the team is learning as it goes and running into unforeseen problems, like a preexisting shortage of moving companies to clear homes out before repairs can start.
The bigger issue is money per house. Repairs are capped at $50,000 each, and many homes need well beyond that.
Nicks said a second phase of repairs is coming, and residents waiting on larger repairs should hear from the city in October.
On the stabilization side, the city has done most of what it set out to do. Nearly all of the targeted homes have been tarped and boarded, and some roofs have been wrapped, a longer-lasting temporary fix. About 357 homes have been wrapped since March, and 84 are still waiting.
Demolition is where the pace has changed. Laura Ginn, who oversees much of the demolition and repair work in the recovery office, reported 344 demolitions completed in the past six months.
"For context, we probably had 50 demolitions done in the first nine or three months post-disaster," Nicks said. "We have done 300 in the last six months."
There's a lot left. The team's data shows between 1,000 and 1,200 homes still need to be demolished, and every demolition so far has been an emergency teardown.
The city's tornado procurement page shows the kind of work that has been put out to bid, including FEMA-eligible demolition and debris removal, water tap destruction for demolitions, home repair construction management, and a Summer 2026 Tornado Repairs and Preservation funding notice that closed Oct. 2.
The housing squeeze
Behind the construction numbers is a people problem. The city is supporting roughly 391 people whose housing was damaged or destroyed through lease payments totaling about $4.5 million, and about 525 tenants have received help through the city's Impacted Tenants Fund. The rental assistance program for tornado victims is wrapping up, with final payments going out in November.
"A massive number of people who are on support, who were in housing that was mostly paid for by family members, who are now at risk if they can't find a way back into their home, to having nowhere to go they can afford," Nicks said.
Jennifer Brinkman, the recovery team's innovation officer, said almost all of the people the program helps were paying more than 30% of their income in rent, most were paying more than 50%, and 113 have no reported income. Caseworkers are surveying them about their plans.
"We are concerned about their housing stability," Brinkman said. She added that the city "can't indefinitely fund housing at this level."
"If we hope to stabilize neighborhoods of north St. Louis, we have to start by stabilizing our people," Nicks said.
Why it matters for Contractors
North St. Louis has a huge backlog of work that isn't moving as fast as it should: more than 2,600 homes needing repair, 1,000 to 1,200 demolitions still ahead and a second phase of repairs on the way. The $50,000 cap means contractors bidding city repair work need to scope tight and know where the line is, and the moving-company shortage shows how one missing trade can hold up a whole program. Demolition, debris and utility crews have steady work ahead, and once lots are cleared, infill builders will have a lot of ground to consider. Watch the city's tornado procurement page for new bids. And keep the housing piece in mind: when aid runs out, demand for safe, repaired, affordable homes in the tornado zone is only going to grow.