ST. LOUIS – Financial relief may soon be on the way for people who lost their homes in the St. Louis tornado in the form of rental assistance or a reduction in property taxes.
Lisa Covington’s family has lived in north St. Louis for decades.
“Practically every place my family has been in, visited, touched, has been destroyed,” she said.
On Tuesday, the St. Louis Board of Aldermen heard two bills aimed at helping families like Covington’s. One bill would expand the city’s already-existing Impacted Tenants Fund.
“When we passed his legislation about a year and a half ago, didn’t expect this disaster what happened. So, we’re amending that language,” Ward 14 Alderman Rasheen Aldridge Jr. said.
If passed, people who have been displaced by the tornado could apply for one-month of rental assistance. A second bill could give residential owners a reduction in property taxes. Certainly much-needed relief for people with nowhere to go.
However, Covington said more is still needed. Not only was her home leveled by the tornado, her business across the street was also hit. She said if the neighborhood is going to survive, she and other businessowners will need help, too.
“They have to get to the store. We have a lot of people that we’ve helped out,” Covington said. “Some people who didn’t have the money or didn’t have anything at the time, we helped them out, like the elderly.”
With a special session taking place at the state capitol and a federal disaster request on President Donald Trump’s desk, a lot of resources are being debated this week. Covington hopes folks like her are not overlooked.
“It won’t be a neighborhood. These people and us have lived in this area for eternity and to get it just taken away and nobody help us, help these kids and help these people, no, that’s not fair,” she said.