After the May 16th Tornado, volunteers flooded North St. Louis neighborhoods from Fountain Park to College Hill. However the city and state did not. Dozens of police posted up at an Aldi and other corporation parking lots to defend them from "looting" that never happened as thousands of volunteers brought in aid and began the hard work of cleanup and recovery. The city, state, and FEMA were not present and were not contributing at all to efforts for weeks. Since those early days, through the pressure of a coalition of community organizations and community leaders, we've gotten FEMA and the City to begin showing up, providing far too little, far too late in the game. Meanwhile we've talked to residents being bullied by slumlords, investors trying to scoop up properties in hopes of a wave of gentrification, and persistent efforts by the city to pull back their aid.

Meanwhile, the city directed 41 million additional funding towards policing, the state just gave a 1.5 billion dollar subsidy to billionaire owned Kansas City sports teams, and the Trump administration just passed the so called "Big Beautiful Bill" that represents the largest transfer of wealth from the working class to the wealthy in our history, putting over 150 billion in additional military spending and over 40 billion to build detention camps to lock up our neighbors. Clearly, the money necessary to meet the people's needs is available, but it is being directed by and for the corporations and the wealthy.

In response, the people of Fountain Park and surrounding areas have formed the organization North City United to represent their interests in relief from this tornado, the attacks on the community by investors, and the Delmar Divide, and has agreed on the following demands from the government:

• Distribution centers in affected areas for free water, food, and clothing
• Free temporary housing in hotels provided to those who have lost their homes
• Enact utility freezes and Rent/Mortgage Moratorium
• Provide federal Aid and full insurance payouts directly to every resident of affected areas.
• A REAL rebuilding of these devastated communities that attempts to redress decades of harm and divestments by the city that got us here. FEMA funds should go directly to affected residents in north saint louis to enable this process, destigmatize the community
• Alderpeople should pass a bill to ban property purchases that would enable gentrification and ban permits for new development with the exception of building affordable housing for current residents or rebuilding existing homes. 
• The mayor should direct the police to refuse to comply with eviction orders. 
• Full independent investigation into why the sirens did not go off despite multi-millions in investment and testing the day before. 
• Free mobile health clinics to be set up in hard-hit communities to treat urgent injuries and check for potential long-term complications and help with mental health for residents and the unhoused.
• RAMS settlement should be immediately used to provide funds for people to connect power to their homes and slow further deterioration. 
• Substance use programming.
• Create a program to care for the unhoused

The city and North City United itself with it's coalition partners have made progress on some of these demands, but we demand the city do what is necessary to help residents rebuild and end the Delmar Divide, and not back down from the progress we've made or the help they're providing.

Please add in comment whether you are in St. Louis City or County.