Tower Grove CDC

This weekend, the Metropolitan St. Louis Equal Housing and Opportunity Council (EHOC) is putting on a two-day event to help City Residents* apply for rental assistance. 

• When? Friday August 20th from 10am - 6pm and Saturday August 21st from 10am - 2pm

• Where? Gym of St. Louis Community College Forest Park, 5600 Oakland Ave, Saint Louis, MO 63110. 

• Why? To help renters who have fallen behind on rent due to Covid-19 obtain direct payments to pay debt to landlords

Pre-registration is required to attend. 

If you have questions about how to register or what to bring to the event, contact EHOC at 314-441-5660 or clipsey@ehoc-stl.org.

*If you are a Saint Louis County resident, check out the ongoing assistance programs through the St. Louis County Library

Although rental assistance has been a large portion of the funding released through the CARES Act and American Rescue Plan, municipalities have had difficulty getting the funds to those most in need. Earlier this month, Mayor Tishaura Jones administered an executive order allowing funds to go directly to renters to then pay to their landlords, hoping to relieve some of the administrative burden that has held up the funds to this point. The event this weekend will be the first event of its kind since this change has been made, and hopes to expedite and streamline the process for getting relief to renters at-risk of eviction. 

The City of Saint Louis has extended its eviction moratorium until October 3rd, creating a deadline to get the rental assistance funds out the door and into the pockets of landlords who are owed. By allowing direct-to-renter assistance, the funding should help some of the 3,000 people who currently have evictions pending on the docket in the City of Saint Louis pay their back rent and keep up to date with payments going forward. 

We been focused on helping those most at-risk of losing their homes since the pandemic hit. Through CARES Act Funding we created ARCH by HomeScreen: At-risk Renters’ Connection to Housing. 

ARCH connects local nonprofit agencies, working with those who face eviction, with HomeScreen’s network of landlords. The landlords participating in ARCH by HomeScreen recognize the affects the pandemic - not to mention historic housing laws - has had on low to moderate income renters and disproportionately renters of color. 

ARCH by HomeScreen landlords and want to be a part of the solution by providing safe and stable housing to those who have a barrier to housing, like late payments or balances owed to a past landlord. In order to meet the needs of our community, we are actively recruiting more landlords to participate in the free program. 

Landlords who have not rented to a person with a housing barrier may be hesitant to join the program, but with ARCH by HomeScreen, all of the renters will be supported by one of our trusted nonprofit partners. In addition, ARCH still allows landlords to screen applicants coming from the ARCH platform and ultimately approve or deny the applicants once the screening is complete. Each nonprofit program is different and offers varying types of financial and other support depending on the clients they serve. We are looking for a wide variety of landlords and properties to meet the wide needs in our communities.

Please share this information with any renter in-need of assistance or any landlord looking to register for ARCH by HomeScreen. We’re all in this together!

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In February, Tower Grove Neighborhoods Community Development Corporation (TGNCDC) launched ARCH by HomeScreen. ARCH, an acronym for At-risk Renters’ Connection to Housing, is a platform that expands TGNCDC’s tenant screening platform, HomeScreen, to nonprofit organizations searching for rental properties for their clients. At its core, ARCH is an apartment listing service and since launching, we have onboarded 60 landlords and 76 nonprofit users from 28 nonprofit organizations. 

We recognize that the demand for affordable housing is extremely high and nonprofit agencies have a difficult time securing the supply from landlords across the region. ARCH by HomeScreen strives to facilitate and expedite the housing process by acting as the centralized database of available affordable rental units to all nonprofits. However, to that end, we recently introduced our Pre-Screening Application to the ARCH by HomeScreen platform. The Pre-Screening Application allows our nonprofit users to obtain background information on their clients, even if no available apartments are suitable at the moment. With the Pre-Screening Application, we offer a national criminal background check and national eviction record that can be used to prepare for ongoing apartment searches, obtain benefits or housing vouchers, or secure a job. We plan to work extensively with Employment Connection, which subcontracted CARES Act Funding to TGNCDC to create ARCH by HomeScreen, to provide the background checks needed for their employment programs. We believe that knowledge is power and having this information as the clients prepare for new housing is necessary. Our nonprofit users have access to this information for $25 per report. 

Revenue generated through HomeScreen and ARCH by 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 84 affordable rental units in the last five years, supported infrastructure projects, delivered landlord/rehabber training seminars, and advocated for energy efficiency programs for low-income renters. 

If any nonprofit organization is in need of this service, please contact Ella Gross at ella@towergrovecdc.org to get set up with an ARCH by HomeScreen account.

Tower Grove Neighborhoods Community Development Corporation (TGNCDC) has a mission to promote responsible development, affordable housing, and diverse character and vibrancy. One of the ways we achieve that mission is through our tenant screening program, HomeScreen, which was specifically designed to reframe the traditional tenant screening model and to fill vacancies in a nondiscriminatory way. Since launching in 2019, HomeScreen has provided progressive, data-driven tenant screening solutions for landlords and property managers who are looking to create more equitable housing within their communities. The vast majority of the nearly 5,000 applicants we have screened since launching HomeScreen are approved because of our unique approach that combines modern screening criteria, rooted in the Fair Housing Act, and landlord education of best leasing practices. 

Last year, Covid-19 highlighted the systemic issues in housing that have existed for decades. Low-income renters saw reduced income as employers were forced to decrease or eliminate their work hours or they chose to stay home to social distance or help care for children, causing many to fall behind on rent. Eviction moratoriums helped ensure people were not displaced at the height of the pandemic, but the moratoriums will not last forever. In the meantime, the virus continued to spread, the economy continued to stall, and rent and late fees continued to stack up. HomeScreen, like many, fears that there will be a massive wave of evictions when the pandemic finally comes to an end. 

When Employment Connection approached us about using HomeScreen as a tool to create a database of landlords willing to rent to tenants with barriers like evictions, we jumped on the opportunity. Through CARES Act funding we were able to make updates to the HomeScreen software that allows our over 1,000 registered landlords to participate in a new program, ARCH by HomeScreen: At-risk Renters’ Connection to Housing. 

“Employment Connection is pleased to have forged a partnership with Tower Grove Neighborhoods CDC and HomeScreen to develop and launch the new ARCH by HomeScreen database. Both Employment Connection and Tower Grove Neighborhoods CDC understand the importance of quality, affordable housing and we are confident that this new product will revolutionize the relationship between families who are seeking housing and landlords who are searching for quality tenants.”

 Sal Martinez, Chief Executive Officer, Employment Connection  

ARCH by HomeScreen gives our landlords the ability to fill their vacant units quickly with someone in need of safe and stable housing by advertising their available rental units for free to non-profit social service providers seeking housing for their clients. By participating in ARCH by HomeScreen, our landlords will work with tenants who are most at-risk of homelessness. The applicants will likely have less than perfect applications that have acted as barriers to safe, secure housing in the past. ARCH by HomeScreen requires that these applicants will have supportive services from non-profit organizations throughout the region, who are constantly trying to find landlords willing to rent their properties to applicants with barriers. ARCH by HomeScreen will give social service providers a modern, easy-to-use system to submit applicants with their clients. HomeScreen will securely store apartment applications and will only charge the nonprofit organization for one screening per month, resulting in savings for nonprofit organizations over time. Finally, ARCH by HomeScreen will build upon our existing partnership with Prosperity Connection to offer one-on-one financial coaching to all applicants to establish and create an action plan to meet their financial goals. 

ARCH by HomeScreen was created due to the accelerated crisis caused by Covid-19, but this was always the vision we imagined for HomeScreen. Evictions, criminal convictions, and other barriers to housing have had long-lasting effects on low-income renters before Covid-19. Unfortunately, we know for a fact that these barriers have a larger effect on people of color as well. We are hopeful that this tool can be used for many years in the future to reframe landlords’ thoughts on renting to applicants with barriers of any kind and to create a more equitable housing system in our communities. We would not have been in a position to seize this opportunity to make such a long-lasting impact without our custom HomeScreen software. The software, created through a grant from the Equifax Foundation in 2018, allows HomeScreen to take advantage of new opportunities as they arise, and adjust as the world changes. Thank you to the Equifax Foundation for allowing us to be in this position! 

Existing HomeScreen landlords can opt-in to ARCH by HomeScreen today from their dashboard. 

New to HomeScreen? Register as a Landlord here.

If you are a part of a non-profit organization looking to view the ARCH by HomeScreen listings, contact Ella Gross at ella@towergrovecdc.org for more information. 

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 84 affordable rental units (owned and managed) in the last 5 years, supported infrastructure projects, delivered landlord/rehabber training seminars, and advocated for energy efficiency programs for low-income renters. 

After seven years of planned, focused, and intentional community development work as a merged organization, Tower Grove Neighborhoods Community Development Corporation (TGNCDC) continues to positively impact St. Louis City and the neighborhoods of Shaw, Tower Grove South, and Southwest Garden through real estate and related services. As our board member Jillian Guenther stated at a recent board meeting, “Community Development Corporations must evolve into entrepreneurial and mission-driven business activities and not rely heavily on grants to continue the important work.” While 2020 has been challenging, TGNCDC has continued and grown our work through persistence in three defined areas:

1. HomeScreen Tenant Screening

2. Real Estate Development- For Sale and For Rent

3. Other real estate related activities such as energy efficiency work, project management/consulting, creating a community resource guide and landlord training/rehabber training seminars.

HomeScreen Tenant Screening and ARCH by HomeScreen

Year to date, TGNCDC and it’s HomeScreen Tenant Screening Program processed 2,617 applications. We have processed 25% more applications compared to 2019 and we expect to hit a 3,000 goal by the end of the year. We have also made 378 referrals to Prosperity Connection to help HomeScreen applicants access free one-on-one financial coaching.

TGNCDC received funding via CARES Act Grant to Employment Connection to create a database (ARCH by HomeScreen) for landlords to list homes for at-risk populations through our HomeScreen application. We currently have 1007 active landlords and 4751 active units in our system. The new database will be launched by December 31st. TGNCDC is working with a variety of nonprofits and landlords to ensure the database meets all stakeholder expectations. We’re very excited about what the completion of this project will mean for HomeScreen and how it will help local nonprofit social service providers secure housing for their clients.  A huge thanks to Equifax for helping fund the creation of the HomeScreen software. Without it, we would not have been in a position to receive funding for the new property listing database.

Real Estate Development

4900 Gravois- Crossroads Senior Living at Bevo Mill

Our 2020 Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) application for the Crossroads Senior living at Bevo Mill has been completed and submitted to the Missouri Housing Development Commission (MHDC) for consideration. In 2020, TGNCDC accepted a generous donation of the project site from Midwest Bank Centre and now owns 100% of the ground. The project is 53 units of senior housing including onsite support services. The existing bank location has moved across the street and TGNCDC incorporated a commercial space in the new building design for future community development operations or a small business to locate in the commercial district. We’ve made adjustments to our project that will help the competitiveness of the application. We also received support letters from all the area stakeholders including East West Gateway. LIHTC awards will be announced in December 2020.

Here is an article from STLTODAY about the project.

3639-41 Hydraulic Ave Affordable Housing Development

3639 41 Hydraulic at 95% complete

One of our most impressive projects to date, 3639 41 Hydraulic was a long vacant drug house with squatters. With the owner abandoning the building, Bank of America foreclosed and became an important partner to approve our purchase of the property for $10,000. We thank them for their belief in our organization. Over years of decline, the building needed over $30,000 in masonry work and piering. This renovation also included new mechanicals, wall repair, a new roof, new decks, new doors, updated baths and updated kitchens, and more! TGNCDC spent in excess of $160,000 on the renovation. In addition to Bank of America, TIAA Bank and PNC bank helped with grants to eliminate the property as vacant and to stabilize it to prevent further quality of life issues for neighbors and the neighborhood. In addition to the community development revitalization work that the newly enhanced building brings to the block, it also created 4 new affordable apartment units that are rent for $575 per month. Thanks to First Bank for financing the project.

Saint Louis Market President for Bank of America, Marilyn Bush, stated, ”What a transformation! You’re doing incredible work for our neighborhoods. I’m grateful for all you’re doing to create positive change and so glad that we’re connected.”

Other Activities

Energy Efficiency Project at 3732 34 Bamberger Avenue

The 3732-34 Bamberger 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 the 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 result in 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!

Nuisance Property Lawsuits

In 2018, TGNCDC coauthored “A Guide to addressing and eliminating vacancy in the City of Saint Louis” with SLU Law Clinic. A part of the guide highlights Nuisance Property Lawsuits as an additional tool to pressure property owners to sell or renovate long-vacant properties. Over the last several years, this tool has proven to be one of the best ways to create positive change.

From Peter Hoffman at Legal Services of Eastern MO:

Community development organizations like TGNCDC have special legal tools under Missouri law to help address vacant nuisance properties. TGNCDC is at the forefront of using those legal tools through their partnership with Legal Services of Eastern Missouri's Neighborhood Vacancy Initiative. In 2019, TGNCDC was the first organization in the St. Louis area to successfully use Missouri's Abandoned Housing Act as a revitalization tool - redeveloping the long vacant and deteriorating property at 3964 Parker Avenue (shown above).

Legal Services also assisted the Tower Grove Heights Neighborhood Association to compel an absentee property owner to make repairs on a long-vacant eyesore on Humphrey Avenue.
Currently, TGNCDC and Legal Services are collaborating to tackle six more vacant nuisance properties on Arsenal, Hydraulic, Alfred, DeTonty, Potomac, and Chippewa.
"In some ways, our Tower Grove cases are some of our most challenging. Because the values in the neighborhood are pretty good, Tower Grove is fortunate to not have as many vacant nuisance properties as other neighborhoods - but when the property is deteriorating, we're often sorting through a mess of title problems or dealing with land speculators and absentee shell corporations who only exist on paper. But that's why these legal tools exist - to allow groups like TGNCDC to get these issues in front of a Judge and ask for relief. Through this partnership we're able to find these really troubled properties and set them on a path to be productive and safe again." - Peter Hoffman, Managing Attorney, Legal Services of Eastern Missouri.

Saint Joseph Housing Initiative
”Saint Joseph Housing Initiative (SJHI) is a new nonprofit organization with a mission is to create vibrant communities through affordable quality housing where low and moderate income families can thrive, prosper and build wealth.” TGNCDC is a partner with Saint Joseph Housing Initiative to assist with identifying and negotiating properties to develop, creating proformas, determining market feasibility, project management, consulting, and general cheerleading. TGNCDC has assisted with the development of six renovation projects over the last 18 months. As our core service areas have improved, TGNCDC is starting to identify other areas where our expertise and available capital can be deployed. Our relationship with SJHI has opened our eyes to the need for housing related activities in Dutchtown and surrounding neighborhoods.

Check out the promotional video!

Development Facilitation

3719 Bamberger Before

3719 Bamberger After

One great example of our development facilitation work is 3719 Bamberger. Our neighborhood stabilization work relied heavily on marketing vacant and abandoned properties to reputable developers by highlighting market strengths, attractive housing stock, the people, the community, and the location. We also educate developers on the cost to construct, sales prices/comps, tax abatement opportunities, and the State and Federal Historic Preservation Tax Credit programs.  3719 Bamberger was long vacant and owned by an out of state “investor.” After being discouraged by the lack of progress, TGNCDC bought the property.  We rebuilt 60% of the front façade 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.  3719 Bamberger is 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.

Other addresses we are assisting with are:
4525 Flad- Burned out vacant property
4603 Cleveland- Long vacant LRA owned land
2817 and 2821 S. Kingshighway Vacant

4525 Flad Ave.

LandLord and Rehabber Training

Landlord Training In Person Seminar

Landlord Training by ZOOM

For the Northside and South Side collaborative programming, we had 475 total attendees for the two in-person & seven Zoom sessions. North Newstead and the Vacancy Collaborative were each paid to help develop the programs and to facilitate the events. These seminars are paid for through a small grant from the Community Development Administration and are FREE training sessions open to all landlords, property managers, developers, and interested parties. Look out for our 2021 schedule coming out soon!

2020 Schedule

Tues Jan 28
Missouri Landlord/ Tenant Law

Tues Feb 25
Creating a Performa and Finance Options When Comps Are Unavailable

Tues Mar 24
Best Practices to Stabilize a Rental Business

Tues Apr 28
Key Elements to Identify a Rehab Opportunity and Evaluate Costs

Tues Jun 23
New Construction on a Vacant Lot

Tues Jul 28
Scope of Work Development and Working With Contactors

Tues Aug 25
Does My Project Need a Permit?

Tues Sept 22
Missouri and Federal Tax Credits and Tax Abatement

Tues Oct 22
Nuisance Abatement and Evictions

Deferred Maintenance Improvements

3635 Hydraulic Masonry Work- During

3635 Hydraulic Masonry Work- After

Tower Grove Neighborhoods CDC spent a great deal of time in 2020 addressing deferred maintenance items including multiple apartment renovations, new roofs, new fences, exterior and interior painting, masonry work, landscaping, and mechanical upgrades to our affordable rental portfolio. In total, we’ve spent well over $100,000 in general maintenance repairs to our rental properties in 2020. This work will ensure the buildings are properly maintained going forward and relieve pressure on future leaders to pay for needed repairs.

InvestSTL Collaboration

CURE Racial Equity Training Group Photo

In 2018, TGNCDC, Dutchtown South Community Corporation, Lutheran Development Group, and DeSales Community Development created and committed to a memorandum of understanding around defining, with each of our expertise, actions for implementing important parts of the Gravois Jefferson Neighborhood plan. In 2020, all four entities and other stakeholders participated in CURE racial equity training and action plan development for future goals. One activity we believe is of great importance is an Acquisition Fund to provide real estate investment and development opportunities to minority investors and contractors while removing them from some of the worst actors in the neighborhoods. We look forward to seeing what we can accomplish together!

Covid -19 Response
TGNCDC, through our relationship with Prosperity Connection and Red Dough, provided $32,100 in rental subsidy relief to about 20% of our tenants residing in our 82 unit affordable housing rental portfolio. We also assisted landlords in our HomeScreen tenant screening program with 29 referrals for $39,917 in additional rent subsidies to help tenants stay in their homes and get back to work. Finally, TGNCDC provided $775 in food gift certificates to 15 tenants ($50 to 1-3 person households and $75 to a 5 person household) for emergency grocery purchases. And we are supporting 11 tenants with applying for and receiving CARES ACT rental funding. Most of those applications are pending.

Malissa Cleary, Tenant at 3728 Bamberger:

“The red dough rent loan (became forgivable) was one of the only ways I was able to pay rent at the beginning of the pandemic. It gave me peace of mind during a very unsecure time, as my employer is a small business and was unable to pay us for a month and a half. “

Jezebel Voule Tenant at 3600A Bamberger

“When I applied for the emergency rent loan I had already used what little savings I had to get by. So whether or not the loan was approved for forgiveness I was in need of rent either way. An act of desperation many Americans as well as the world also found themselves in. When the opportunity presented itself that I could go back to work that is when I really appreciated the loan because it gave me an opportunity to catch up in life (on a monetary level) than being a sinking ship for the rest of the year. Thank you so much for the rent loan forgiveness! “

Conclusion

Nonprofit and successful community development work doesn’t happen without a committed board of directors. We thank them for their time and effort to help St. Louis City neighborhoods. In 2020, we lost one of the greats! 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. 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. Our board has agreed to name our conference room the “Floyd Wright Community Room” where his contributions to community development will always be remembered.

“Success is the result of perfection, hard work, learning from failure, loyalty, and persistence,” stated Colin Powell. Thanks to our dedicated staff for working through a difficult year. TGNCDC will continue to invest back into neighborhoods and support neighborhood revitalization for years to come!

Thanks for reading.

Floyd Wright- TGNCDC Founding Board Member and Long Time SW Garden Neighborhood Association leader

On October 27, the last Landlord and Rehabber Training of 2020 was hosted jointly by TGNCDC, North Newstead, and the Vacancy Collaborative.  Nuisance Abatement and Eviction was the session topic. Speakers shared alternatives to eviction, provided an overview of the City's problem properties unit, explained the eviction process, and outlined the eviction moratorium due to COVID-19. You can request access to the video at this link until Nov 10th, review the handouts, and fill out a post-video survey for a chance to win a $50 gift card, sponsored by TGNCDC.

If your tenants are behind in rent due to Covid-19, help them complete the CARES Act application for rent assistance.  Be proactive!  There is supplemental information required for the application that only the landlord can provide. Rental assistance payments are sent directly to the landlord.  Here are Covid-19 Resources for Housing Providers and Renters.

The Landlord & Rehabber training series is funded by a HUD Community Development Block Grant via the St. Louis Community Development Administration.

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.