Sidewalk squatters move up the road after tarp encampment torn down
ST. LOUIS – A Sudanese couple who moved from their sidewalk encampment in south St. Louis last week has re-emerged at a new location.
A city crew demolished the couple’s dwelling made from tarps and shopping carts at the corner of South Spring Avenue and Chippewa Street. City residents and some residents believed the three-year squatting saga had ended.
The couple has relocated just a block away to South Spring and Gravois avenues.
“I’m so glad they tore it down, but it looks like they ain’t went nowhere,” Gloria Rodgers said. “They still huddled right there. And I wish somebody—please, God—send somebody to get them. They’ll have to make them go.”
City social workers and the International Institute had been conducting regular outreach efforts to the couple, hoping to get them to accept available services and housing options.
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City officials offered the refugees a place to stay with physical and mental services available, but they turned down the help.
Joyce Williams, who said she’s also homeless, hopes the couple rethinks their decision.
“It’s so much happening out here in the streets. The shootings, the addicts—it’s everything, you know? People staying in vacant houses. It’s really sad,” she said.
Williams said she would take help if offered and hopes the couple does, too.
The City of St. Louis released a statement about the situation with the Sudanese couple:
Last night, a representative from the Department of Human Services met with the couple that previously occupied the encampment at the corner of Spring and Chippewa. Via a translator, the couple was offered long-term housing at no cost to them. The couple refused the offer. There are no further updates at this time.
We are told the couple has been squatting for more than a decade.
It’s still unclear whether the couple will be able to live here on the streets of St. Louis, but residents once again are hoping that this couple will receive the help that they need.
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