Housing crisis threatens 150 North County families

Housing advocates and tenants of Northern Village Apartments packed the St. Louis County Council meeting Tuesday evening seeking $450,000 in emergency housing funds as residents face the possibility of losing their homes.

The testimony follows years of what tenants describe as uninhabitable conditions — including a lack of heat, mold and collapsing ceilings — at the North County complex, which houses about 150 families.

“Last year, the heat went out every weekend in the winter,” 73-year-old tenant Troy Kirby told St. Louis Public Radio. “I never knew what it was like to have heat Friday, Saturday and Sunday.”

Kirby said conditions have steadily worsened over six years, forcing him to make plumbing repairs himself. Other tenants described mice, pest infestations and collapsing ceilings.

County Executive Sam Page said property operator Mazal St. Louis has until Oct. 19 to address maintenance problems and approximately $700,000 in unpaid bills to Spire, which could result in gas service being shut off ahead of winter. Otherwise, the county would move toward condemning and vacating the property.

Mendel Fischer, a Florida resident listed as the property owner, could not be reached for comment. Page said the company also owes $780,000 in back property taxes.

Page requested $450,000 from the county’s general revenue fund for emergency and transitional housing. But council Chairwoman Rita Days questioned the proposal, calling such assistance “corporate welfare” and suggesting nonprofit organizations should help residents instead.

Tenant Morgan St. Peters called that characterization insensitive.

“When we think that we’re going to get a little bit of help from the people who we made sure we put in office because we believed that they would do what was right for us, we’re called corporate welfare,” she said.

District 5 Councilwoman Lisa Clancy supported holding a committee meeting next week to discuss the funding request.

Legal Services of Eastern Missouri attorney Lisa D’Souza said legal assistance alone cannot solve the problem, particularly given the owner’s mounting debts.

“Trying to figure out how to get the owner to pay for moves – it’s not something that will happen quickly, and people certainly need a place to live in the winter that has heat very quickly,” she said.

With the Oct. 19 deadline approaching, tenants face the possibility of displacement without the emergency assistance they say they need to find new homes.

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