ST. LOUIS — Two South Side homeowners are suing the city to demand the removal of a homeless couple squatting on the sidewalk and tree lawn outside their home.
Steven McClanahan and Richard Baumhoff say they are under siege: The squatters are aggressive and scream at them, and the smell of excrement emanates from their makeshift tent. They can no longer sit outside on their front porch in peace. And every time they ask the city for help, they are rebuffed.
“Whose side is the city administration on?†asked Bevis Schock, the homeowners’ lawyer. “The taxpayer, the hard worker, the citizen?â€
A man in the tent declined comment on Tuesday, and no one answered the door at the house.
The lawsuit, filed Friday, marks an escalation in a long-simmering neighborhood drama. For several years, the homeless couple has moved from spot to spot in the southern reaches of Tower Grove South, neighbors said. And in the past couple of years, their setup at the corner of Spring Avenue and Chippewa Street has irritated residents and exasperated aldermen. They say they’re trying to help, but the couple has refused to accept offers to shelter elsewhere.
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Nick Dunne, a spokesperson for Mayor Tishaura O. Jones, said the same thing Tuesday. The city, he said, has been working for a decade to connect the homeless couple with services and shelter.
“But they have to accept those services,†he said. “We cannot force them.â€
He said the last time the city tried to force the matter, under a previous administration, the couple just set up down the street. “We’re trying to do this in a way that keeps them from coming back,†Dunne said.
McClanahan and Baumhoff say it’s time to try again.
The tent, they say, has become a bona fide public nuisance: The homeless couple uses the storm sewer as a toilet. The man, whose name they do not know, bathes outside and exposes himself. And the tent blocks part of the sidewalk.
McClanahan and Baumhoff say it’s a private nuisance, too: They’re afraid of the homeless couple because of past confrontations. They only enter their house through the back door to avoid further upset.
And they can’t move, because no one wants to buy their house with the tent outside.
Schock, the plaintiffs’ attorney, said the city has shown it can successfully remove homeless people from public property when it wants, too. It cleared a tent encampment outside City Hall this past fall and then fenced it off to the public.
“This can be done,†Schock said. “That is a fact that will be very powerful in this case.â€
A neighbor who’s seen the drama play out for years was more circumspect.
Poncho Duckett, who said he’s lived in the area for more than a decade, agreed with McClanahan and Baumhoff that the city needs to move the couple. It’s not safe or sanitary for them to be living in a tent there, he said.
“For the good of the community, they should be moved,†he said.
But he said they’ve been in the area for years now, perhaps a decade. If the city tries to move them, he said, some lawyer will take up the couple’s cause.
“You know how that works,†he said.