Catholic Charities, St. Vincent de Paul assisting with rent, furniture, other needs
More than two months after a tornado destroyed the home she was renting, Tamyka Seymore has finally found herself slowly back on track.
For the first month, Seymore and her two sons and grandson stayed at a hotel where she works. She eventually found a home to rent in the Penrose neighborhood of St. Louis, just around the corner from St. Peter Claver Parish. Seymore lost most of the family’s belongings in the storm, and without renters’ insurance, she had to start over.
Since moving to the neighborhood, members of the parish’s St. Vincent de Paul Society conference have stepped in to help her with basic needs — food and vouchers for clothing, new mattresses and household appliances — as well as rent assistance.
“They’ve been helping me get my house back on track,” she said. “It’s just one day at a time.”
Seymore is among thousands of residents who were displaced by the EF-3 tornado that ripped through St. Louis in May. Catholic organizations, including the society and Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of St. Louis, are among several organizations that continue to help residents find new housing and fulfill some of their needs as they resettle.
The St. Vincent de Paul St. Louis Council has a disaster committee and designated disaster fund, which is being used to provide relief to affected residents through its conferences. The majority of calls are being handled by the St. Peter Claver Parish conference, with others coming through St. Josephine Bakhita Parish, director of Vincentian services Julie Komanetsky said.
Other conferences have also received calls for help from residents who have relocated to other areas. The society has communicated with conferences about disaster funds and how they can be used, including rent assistance, security deposits and vouchers to buy furniture and other household items at its thrift stores.
“I expect as tornado survivors find their next home, especially renters, that they will be moving into other parts of the area,” Komanetsky said. “What we’ve seen at (our conferences) is that they have done a lot of ‘feeding’ to begin with, helping with food and supplies, and now people are calling more with — I need help with a security deposit, or I need a bed or furniture.”
In addition to support from local organizations, the city of St. Louis has allocated $19.2 million, most of it from Rams relocation settlement funds, which will go toward rental assistance, temporary housing and home repairs for people who are uninsured or underinsured. More than 7,000 people to date have also been declared eligible for FEMA’s Individual Assistance Program, and more than $31 million has been given to uninsured homeowners and renters.
Catholic Charities continues to respond to more than 3,000 requests for assistance through its volunteer-led call center, including helping displaced residents locate temporary and permanent housing.
As residents move, Catholic Charities is looking to its parish ambassadors to help replace personal belongings, furniture and other needed items, chief community officer Brian Thouvenot said. Some are receiving case management services as well.
Finding affordable housing continues to be a challenge, Thouvenot said, especially for residents who are reluctant to leave their neighborhoods.
“The reality is it’s not working as fast as we all hoped,” Thouvenot said. “There are families still living in cars and tents on their property, and those aren’t permanent solutions. We’re doing the best we can to help families find permanent housing — something that’s not a hotel. We have been grateful for the generosity shown by the people of the archdiocese, as we have funds to work with families and provide relief.”
The Society of St. Vincent de Paul continues to host displaced tornado residents on the seventh floor of Peter &Paul Community Services’ Community Campus in north St. Louis. Nearly all of the 17 rooms have been filled with older adults, age 50 or above.
William and Bertha Darty were among the first residents to move to the floor at Peter &Paul in June. The Dartys had lived at Roosevelt Apartments in St. Louis, which sustained significant damage and was condemned.
“It scared me real time,” William, 77, said. “I’ve never experienced anything like that, and it sounded like a train coming through. So I didn’t know what was going on, the ceiling was going in. The water was flowing down the halls.”
Once the winds died down, there was a knock on their apartment door; when William opened it, he saw water flowing down the hallway like a small river. A security guard and maintenance worker carried Bertha from their seventh-floor apartment as they helped the couple safely out of the building.
The Dartys lived in their car for a few days. After a brief stay at a shelter, they moved to a hotel, which was covered by their renter’s insurance. After that ran out, they were referred to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, which got them a room at Peter &Paul Community Services’ Community Campus.
The society has partnered with HOPE (Housing Options Provided for the Elderly) to identify potential residents and case management services, Komanetsky of the society said. Some of the first residents on the floor have already been moved to more permanent housing solutions.
“We are moving people forward, which will then allow us … the time to take people and get them rehoused,” she said. “With HOPE, we are rehousing faster than we anticipated.”
The Dartys would like to return to their apartment, which they lived in for 45 years. Repairs are expected to the building, but the Dartys said they’ve been told it could take a year or more for the work to be completed.
“Sometimes you want to fall down on your knees and throw up your hands and say I give up,” William said. “Things happen unexpectedly, and you’ll never be prepared for things that you get no control over. You have to have faith and believe that you will overcome. I get most of the support from my wife. ‘Everything’s gonna be better,’ she keeps saying.”
“I told him, I’m just glad that we all got out with our lives, because it could have been worse,” Bertha, 71, said. “Material things will be there, but your life, you can’t get that back.”
