ST. LOUIS — A controversial homeless shelter is working to rebuild its facility on the edge of downtown, a new step in the group’s long-standing fight to reopen the building.
The New Life Evangelistic Center has drawn up plans and obtained a city building permit for a worship space, free store and office. The Rev. Larry Rice, facility director, said he intends the building, at 1411 Locust Street, to be a place where people can come during the daytime and receive bus passes, job counseling and other assistance.
“We’re opening it as a place of refuge during the day,†Rice said.
Rice was forced to close the shelter in 2017 after years of sparring with the city, which said the facility operated over capacity and violated building codes. He has since made repeated attempts to reopen the building, and public and private sector groups have pushed back. His latest effort is still in its early stages and is sure to face opposition: Already one downtown developer said he plans to appeal the permit.
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Matt O’Leary, president of the board of directors of the Downtown West Neighborhood Improvement Association, said some constituents in the neighborhood don’t believe the permit was appropriately issued, and he expects they will file an appeal with the city Board of Building Appeals.
Lawsuits, letters
The New Life Evangelistic Center now operates out of Overland. Rice says he’s kept the heat on at the former shelter downtown and has tried to prevent it from deteriorating.
The Locust Street building, a former YWCA facility, is a brick structure with a large, white cross on its eastern exterior wall. It’s a block from the downtown thoroughfare of Washington Avenue and across the street from the charter high school Confluence Preparatory Academy.
New Life opened the shelter in 1976 and initially operated it under a 32-bed hotel permit, which at that time in the city was equivalent to an occupancy permit for a homeless shelter.
In 2013, a group of surrounding property owners petitioned the city Board of Public Service to revoke the site’s license, alleging that it brought loitering, public urination and drug dealing, among other things.
In late 2014 the city board ruled the shelter a nuisance and said it must make improvements or close. The shelter was chronically filled beyond capacity, reportedly housing 300 people at times, despite its 32-bed license. New Life countered with a lawsuit.
A federal judge dismissed the case in the autumn of 2015, and the next year, the city’s building division issued a cease-and-desist letter for operating without an occupancy permit. New Life appealed to the city.
The board of building appeals in January 2017 unanimously denied the appeal. New Life sued again.
In the spring of 2017, city officials issued a cease-and-desist notice, and the shelter was finally emptied. Rice has been trying to reopen the space ever since, and even got as far as receiving a building permit once before, but that was appealed.
‘We want to cooperate’
Even if New Life’s efforts progress this year, the new building permit is just a first step. Raising enough money for the project will be a “major endeavor,†Rice said.
And New Life will need to secure an occupancy permit.
Rice said his grandson, “a fresh face,†will head up the project.
“He’s determined to build relationships with people in the neighborhood … willing to go to meetings that I didn’t go to in the past,†Larry Rice said. “Willing to take all of their concerns and try to process them.â€
Pastor Chris Aaron Rice said he started working for New Life in early 2019. He managed the organization’s day shelter in Springfield for a couple of years and moved back to the ºüÀêÊÓƵ area in 2021.
The city has called out New Life in the past for declining to join ºüÀêÊÓƵ’ Continuum of Care, a network of homeless service providers. He said New Life has begun participating in the Continuum of Care meetings in recent months.
“We’re not an aggressive force. We’re trying to work alongside the downtown ºüÀêÊÓƵ area,†Chris Aaron Rice said. “I’d like people to really understand that we want to cooperate, we want to work alongside others. We see a need, and we’ve seen a need continue to grow since 1411 Locust was shut down.â€