Tower Grove CDC

Tower Grove Neighborhoods Community Development Corporation (TGNCDC) has over a decade of tenant screening service experience and has completed over 12,000 applications since 2014. HomeScreen™, TGNCDC’s non-discriminatory, Fair Housing-compliant tenant screening service, quickly delivers objective and thorough information to landlords looking to find and maintain good tenants. HomeScreen was specifically designed to reframe the traditional tenant screening model and to fill vacancies in an equitable way. 

We know that, for decades, systemic injustice has disproportionately affected low-income renters and people of color as they search for affordable housing. In St. Louis alone, an estimated 38% of all households could not afford the median rent before the Covid 19 pandemic hit. Unfortunately, this year, the Covid-19 pandemic and resulting economic downturn, have further accelerated the affordable housing crisis. As unemployment spiked and additional federal unemployment benefits expired, many renters fell behind on their rent.  Although the City currently has an eviction moratorium in place until November 6th, we are working now to create tools to curb a wave of evictions expected when the moratorium does expire. 

Nonprofits all over the region, including our partners at Employment Connection, have the very difficult task of finding landlords who are willing to rent their properties to people with recent evictions, who are unemployed or are low income, or have past criminal convictions. Employment Connection (EC) is a 501(c)3 founded in 1977 with a vision to break down barriers to self-sufficiency and create a safer and more inclusive community. EC helps clients with job training and has helped over 4,000 individuals find gainful employment, but they also focus on housing. Each year, EC helps 120 homeless individuals and their families find affordable housing through homeless prevention programs, rapid rehousing, and permanent supportive housing. 

HomeScreen was uniquely positioned to partner with Employment Connection as they applied for CARES Act Funding to help those at risk of losing their homes this year. HomeScreen has an existing database of over 1,000 landlords who believe in supporting our mission. Together with EC, we will make updates to our software so that HomeScreen acts as a central database of landlords interested in working with non-profit social service providers to rent to their clients most in need of housing. 

Landlords using HomeScreen will have the opportunity to list their available rental units exclusively to non-profit social service providers (SSPs) at no cost. Landlords will build a profile within their HomeScreen account so that they can fill their vacancies quickly, with an applicant and program that meets their predetermined requirements. 

SSPs will log in to their own HomeScreen accounts, browse listed apartments, review the landlord’s requirements, and reach out to schedule showings or ask additional questions. The HomeScreen database will give SSPs a modern, easy to use system to submit and to securely store apartment applications for their clients. HomeScreen will only charge the SSP for one screening per month, resulting in savings for the SSPs overtime. By tapping into our large network of existing landlords and leveraging the technology we have in place, we expect this tool to be available to use by January 2021.

Revenue generated through HomeScreen is used to support community development activities and is directly invested back into the City of Saint Louis. TGNCDC is a real estate-focused community development corporation that has facilitated 100s of redevelopment projects with a focus on eliminating blight, created 78 affordable rental units (owned and managed) in the last 6 years, supported infrastructure projects, delivered landlord/rehabber training seminars and advocated for energy efficiency programs for low-income renters. 

For more information, please contact Ella Gross, Tenant Screening Manager at ella@towergrovecdc.org

To celebrate Energy Efficiency Day, TGNCDC wants to showcase an energy efficiency improvement project we are wrapping up at a 4 family on Bamberger.  The project started in 2019 with an energy assessment by Ameren, which resulted in recommendations for improving the building’s energy performance and rebates available from the utility company for each measure.  Next TGNCDC applied for and was awarded a grant from US Bank Foundation specifically to help cover costs of this project. 

The energy improvements include new central air conditioning and furnace motors, replacing all lighting with LED bulbs, faucet and shower aerators, programmable thermostats, filling all holes and cracks on ductwork with mastic, and replacing windows with energy star thermal windows.  The project cost was estimated at just over $31,000.  Ameren rebates are expected to be $11,000 and the US Bank grant will cover the remaining $20,000.  TGNCDC is covering staff time to manage and implement the project, along with benchmarking the building energy use before and after the improvements.

Energy savings are estimated at $1,575 annually, which will be savings for our tenants.  Further this project will improve the indoor air quality, enhance tenant comfort by reducing drafts, reduce maintenance calls, and reduce the carbon footprint of the building. 

We appreciate Ameren and US Bank for making this project possible!

If you missed the 5/26/20202, Landlord & Rehabber Training, Best Practices to Stabilize a Rental Business. We recorded the session – so you can still watch the presentation until June 10th.

When you click this link, it generates an automated email which requires our team to approve your access to the recording.  Click now, so you can watch the program at your leisure.  After June 10th the recording will not be available. Click here to request access to the recording: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YI-ZcTxY7zwTmTrKUrlRG-LGz3uBnoo2/view?usp=sharing

Please complete our 10 question survey after watching the recorded program.  Tracking participation and survey results is required by our funder.  It enables us to offer the programs for free and plan programming to meet your needs based on the survey results. Here is the survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/M3T3PXP

Here is the agenda and handouts: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1_uinYFc2dGNFl-1hUhfvgehKveJaNLKH?usp=sharing

This activity is funded by a HUD Community Development Block Grant via the St. Louis Community Development Administration and coordinated by Tower Grove Neighborhoods CDC, North Newstead Association, and The Vacancy Collaborative.

Our dear board member and friend, Floyd Wight, passed away April 26, 2020 at his home in the Southwest Garden neighborhood. He will be missed as a fierce advocate of City living and attracting investment into our neighborhoods. He was a leader, gentle and kind. Floyd believed in our TGNCDC/neighborhood redevelopment work to the core as it was an extension of his passion; helping people and neighborhoods thrive. We all have fond memories of Floyd, who was never shy to voice his opinion, and he will be greatly missed by all who were lucky enough to have him in their lives. His impact will never be forgotten and his legacy will live on in our work. Below is a photo of Floyd receiving the Community Builders Award for Excellence in Resident Leadership. Here is his obituary with more information: https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/stltoday/obituary.aspx?n=floyd-k-wright&pid=196092639 

Please keep Floyd's loved ones in your thoughts and prayers.

Please take a few minutes to review our recently completed 5 year strategic report. Dozens of area stakeholders helped create our framework and vision plan that defines clear objectives for our strategic plan work over the last 5 years. We’re proud of our accomplishments and look forward to what the future brings! Thanks for your ongoing support of Tower Grove Grove Neighborhoods Community Development Corporation. Enjoy!

3719 Bamberger Before

3719 Bamberger After

While we’ve taken a more active role in developing property over the last five years, development facilitation is in our genes.  In the proceeding decades, the origins of our CDC was a one person operation with limited funding. Our neighborhood stabilization work relied heavily on marketing vacant and abandoned properties to reputable developers by highlighting market strengths, attractive housing stock, people/community and location. We also educated developers on the cost to construct, sales prices/comps, tax abatement opportunities, and the State and Federal Historic Preservation Tax Credit programs.  While our assets, income, and staff has grown significantly in the past 5 years, "we don't need to own every building on the block," our Board President, Janice Drake, often says.  3719 Bamberger was long vacant and owned by an out of state ‘investor.’  We offered our traditional assistance but the owner didn't do anything over several years.  After being discouraged by the lack of progress, TGNCDC bought the property.  By that time, the building was in disrepair and our board was tasked with deciding between demo of the property over safety concerns or investing in the building to stabilize it.  They choose to invest.  We rebuilt 60% of the front facade and added a TPO roof with a cost of over $20,000.  

Once we completed the improvements, TGNCDC marketed the property to investors who have successful developments in the immediate area.   Jeff Sutton, from Bloomsdale Investments, LLC, took on the project and promised a beautiful renovation.  While the project took longer than he expected, he delivered!  The building is two 2 bedroom units with beautiful finishes.  He invested over $165,000 in the renovation, after the 35,000 we invested (purchase and improvements), and his son did some of the work himself. 

Historic buildings are expensive to renovate, require skilled labor and experienced developers then take months to complete. 3719 Bamberger is a successful, in part, because of our initial investment and the real estate market in the area justifying the additional investment to complete the rehab. No tax abatement was used and no historic preservation tax credits were available in this part of the neighborhood.  Rents will be in the $800-900 range per unit. Below are some photos of the property before and after. Thanks for reading.

TGNCDC Board President, Janice Drake and Developer Jeff Sutton

On Feb. 26, TGNCDC’s Dana Gray, participated in the Midwest Energy Solutions Conference as a panelist for the plenary session: Community Perspectives on Energy Efficiency. TGNCDC serves as the voice of the affordable multifamily housing sector in negotiations with utilities, ensuring energy efficiency programs are designed to meet the needs of rental property owners and tenants can benefit from the utility’s programs.  The discussion focused on trusted community organizations bringing energy efficiency programs to residents.