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André Cataldo of Dear Genre considers his latest album, “Man in Full,” his most “tame and mature” sound. He delves into his musical journey and share tracks from his sixth album.

Missouri Independent reporter Rebecca Rivas provides the latest on sweeping legislation that recently gained preliminary approval in the Missouri Senate. It would crack down on protesters — and give new rights to cops accused of misconduct.

Andrew J. Theising discusses the new book he edited for the Florissant Valley Historical Society, which provides a close look at slavery in the north county St. Louis suburb.

Singer Javier Mendoza who performs as Hobo Cane has been writing and performing Latin music for years. The artist has written songs for Enrique Iglesias, Juan David, Ricky Martin. He has also poured his heart into rock music.

For many of us, mastering muting, unmuting and other basics of virtual work and schooling has proved to be more than enough of a challenge on top of everything else this past year. But St. Louisan Susanne Evens and her team of translators around the world have been busy in recent months tackling a different challenge: how to make large-scale international gatherings possible, and still understandable, in a virtual age.

The four contenders for mayor of St. Louis discussed crime prevention, the COVID-19 pandemic and transportation funding in one of the last virtual showdowns before the March 2 primary election.

St. Louis County Library director Kristen Sorth discusses the center's "GrandPad" initiative, where they aim to distribute about 1,500 tablets as part of their ongoing Digital Equity Initiative.

State Rep. Jo Doll of Webster Groves is the latest guest on Politically Speaking, where the freshman Democratic lawmaker talked with St. Louis Public Radio’s Jason Rosenbaum about her first few weeks in office. Doll represents Missouri’s 83rd district, which takes in portions of Richmond Heights, Webster Groves, Brentwood, Maplewood and St. Louis. In addition to being a state lawmaker, Doll is also a member of the Webster Groves Board of Education.

Some of the 46,000 Missourians ordered to pay back unemployment benefits are appealing. State representatives are moving forward on legislation to forgive the federal portion of the money, but legal groups representing people filing appeals are looking for more help.

Advocates are celebrating a new law that will end wealth-based pre-trial detention in Illinois. With Governor J.B. Pritzker's signature yesterday, the state becomes the first in the country to eliminate cash bail.

A newly launched community of 50 tiny, transitional homes, located at Jefferson and Martin Luther King Drive in St. Louis, is now nearly at capacity. We talk with Tom Mangogna of the Magdala Foundation, which is operating the village, and with tiny-home resident Florine McBride. She moved in just a couple weeks ago with her emotional control cat, Logan.

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. 

St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson used federal funding to build 50 tiny houses for the homeless in December. Some homeless advocates say the money could have been better spent on other initiatives.

As the pandemic drags on and many people settle further into a more virtual world, others are in their 11th month of continually interacting with members of the public and risking their own health to help keep people supplied with food and other necessities. In this episode, we hear from several of those workers.

Mayor Krewson recently signed a bill mandating more electric vehicle charging stations in the city. Linda Little, assistant director of the Electrical Industry Training Center, explains how the St. Louis company helped standardize the charging process nationally ten years ago.

The New York-based conceptual artist explains his project "A Counting," which aims to create a "sound portrait" of St. Louis.

PLEASE TAKE NOTICE that on Monday, March 1st, 2021, 5:30 PM, the Soulard Community Improvement District (the “District”) will hold a public meeting to consider and act upon the matters on the following tentative agenda and such other matters as may be presented at the meeting and determined to be appropriate for discussion at that […]

The Lafayette Park Conservancy and Lafayette Square neighborhood lost a longtime member and resident on December 23, 2020.  Bob Bischoff served as President of the Conservancy from 2007 to 2011.…

The post Bob Bischoff Memorial Bench – Please contribute appeared first on Lafayette Square.

Many students have not been in a classroom for roughly one-year. Some have decided to stay away during the pandemic. Others have been following decisions by school districts. Many parents and students are feeling burned out and unmotivated to continue with online lessons.

The artist Le’Ponds is known for her dreamy, almost haunting songs. The St. Louis-based singer-songwriter and guitarist tells us about her musical journey and latest projects.