Homeless camp is growing at St. Louis City Hall. At least 25 tents now in plaza. (2024)

ST. LOUIS — A prominent homeless encampment outside City Hall here is growing.

Late last week, there were 14 tents in the grass near the Market Street doors. But on Thursday morning, there were at least 25.

And by lunchtime, Christopher Perry, 42, and Milton Turner, 58, were standing up another one for the next person in need.

Perry said he didn’t know why more people were coming or how long they would stay. And he didn’t much care. Some people, he said, would eventually get help. Others would leave.

“This is just another step toward me and people achieving some type of stability,” he said.

Nevertheless, the growth of the encampment, part of which sits under Mayor Tishaura O. Jones’ window, has drawn new attention to the city’s struggle to find shelter for the homeless here. And it has created another eyesore in a downtown already struggling with big empty buildings and crime concerns: Trash litters the grounds. Some areas stink of urine. Some people use drugs and sit slumped over in stupors — all outside the seat of city government.

On Wednesday, TV cameras showed up and twisted the knife, getting a tourist to ask why the city didn’t move the people into some downtown’s vacant buildings. And, on Thursday, paramedics were called to attend to a man who had slid off a step and was unresponsive.

Nick Dunne, a spokesman for the mayor, said the city still has no immediate plans to move anyone, at least not by force. City case managers are continuing to reach out to the campers to try and get them help one by one.

He acknowledged the effort has been an uphill battle: The city got five people into housing last week, only to see more people come to take their place.

Dunne reiterated his boss’s concerns that the city is sheltering more than its fair share of the region’s homeless. Some people are coming here from outside the city, and outside the state.

“That puts a strain on resources allocated for people who are from here,” he said.

He also expressed concern about the Rev. Larry Rice, the prominent homeless advocate, directing people to City Hall. One of Rice’s longtime lieutenants said last week that he told an Arizona couple about the City Hall encampment after police told the couple they couldn’t camp on the riverfront. Campers say Rice has donated many of the tents at the encampment.

“When more tents are introduced overnight, that makes it more difficult to help people who are already there,” Dunne said.

Rice, for his part, said he has donated tents to people in need. But he said the camp is a problem of the city’s own creation: Officials forced him to close his shelter on Locust Street in 2017 after neighbors said it was a nuisance, taking hundreds of shelter beds offline. And the city’s zoning rules make it nearly impossible for others to open up.

Homeless people are rising up to protest the lack of adequate shelter and resources, Rice said. “What’s been in the dark is coming into the light,” he said.

Some at the Board of Aldermen may be taking action. Aldermanic President Megan Green has been pushing plans to make it easier to open shelters in the city and direct the city to set up controlled encampments where it would provide showers, toilets, access to social services and 24-hour security.

Legislation could be introduced at the Board of Aldermen as soon as Friday morning.