Author: kensumm (Page 1 of 2)
Homelessness can happen to anyone, and in times of need, access to safe, supportive shelters becomes essential. As a college student studying near St. Louis, I’ve come to realize how complex and layered the city’s housing insecurity issue is. There’s not one type of shelter or one type of person who needs it. Depending on someone’s age, gender, health, family situation, or even the weather, the kind of support they need can vary a lot. That’s why understanding the landscape of homeless shelters in St. Louis is crucial, not just for those in need, but for anyone who wants to be part of a more compassionate community.
When someone is suddenly without a place to stay, emergency shelters can be a critical lifeline. For men, Peter & Paul Community Services in the Soulard neighborhood offers a stable, safe place every night of the year, with access to meals, showers, and lockers. It’s consistent, which can be huge when you’re trying to figure out your next step.
For families, Gateway 180 is one of the few places in the city designed specifically to keep families together during housing crises. Their goal is to help families transition into permanent housing within about a month. During freezing weather, the AmeriCorps Winter Warming Shelter opens, offering warmth, food, and emergency services. It’s seasonal, but when temperatures drop below 20°F, it can mean the difference between life and death.
Young people that experience homelessness require tailored support, especially as they are still pursuing education or beginning their careers. That’s where Covenant House Missouri comes in. They serve youth aged sixteen through twenty-four and go beyond just beds; they offer medical care, mental health support, job help, and even educational resources. It’s also one of the more LGBTQ+ inclusive shelters, which is essential since LGBTQ+ youth are disproportionately affected by homelessness.
For even younger individuals, eleven through twenty, the Epworth Youth Drop-In Center provides meals, education help, and legal support. They meet youth where they are without forcing a “fix everything overnight” narrative. Another option, the Center for Youth on the Rise, offers teens a safe space to regroup, learn life skills, and build toward stability.
Women, especially pregnant women or mothers with young children, face specific challenges when it comes to housing. Haven of Grace is one of the few places in St. Louis that focuses on pregnant women, offering housing and support through birth and beyond. For teenage moms, Almost Home offers a structured program that helps them rebuild with their kids while working toward independence.
The Salvation Army Family Haven is also worth noting—it’s one of the more comprehensive shelters, offering detox services, daycare, counseling, and even recreational programming. It’s designed to serve entire families, which is incredibly important when other shelters might separate parents from their children.
St. Louis also has specialized and transitional housing shelters for people with very specific challenges. For example, Father Dempsey’s Charities focuses on helping men transition out of homelessness by providing both shelter and social support. Doorways provides housing and health services to people living with HIV/AIDS, and they have options for both individuals and families.
Then there’s the Criminal Justice Ministry, which helps people recently released from prison reintegrate into society. Housing is only part of what they offer, they also help with transportation, hygiene, medicine, and emotional support. It’s a reminder that homelessness is deeply connected to other systemic issues like incarceration, health, and inequality.
The shelter you go to really depends on your specific situation. Age is a big factor, youth-focused shelters like Covenant House are ideal for young adults, while others like Father Dempsey’s are designed for older men. If you’re LGBTQ+, choosing an affirming environment is essential for both safety and dignity. If you have children, you’ll want a place like Gateway 180 or Salvation Army that can keep your family together.
Conclusion
Navigating homelessness is overwhelming, but the wide range of shelters in St. Louis provides hope and structure for people in crisis. Whether someone is seeking temporary refuge, long-term housing, youth support, or help with reentry, there are dedicated shelters ready to meet those needs. By evaluating personal circumstances—such as age, health, family status, or emergency needs—individuals can find the shelter that aligns best with their situation, providing not just safety, but a path to a brighter, more stable future.
Sources:
https://www.americorps-stl.org
https://www.covenanthousemo.org
Storymap:
My spatial analysis highlights disparities in access to Black hair care resources in Edwardsville compared to Fairview Heights, forcing Black residents and SIUE students to travel for culturally specific products, which is inconvenient and costly. This reflects spatial injustice, where resources are unevenly distributed due to factors like demographics, economic barriers, and institutional biases that limit Black-owned businesses’ presence in predominantly white areas. The lack of access affects Black students, faculty, and staff by making daily hair care more difficult while also limiting diversity and inclusivity in the broader community. Addressing this issue could involve financial incentives for Black-owned businesses, SIUE partnerships with local stores, and policy changes to support minority-owned businesses in diverse locations.
This research examines the role of urban farming in addressing food insecurity in North St. Louis, a historically marginalized area with limited access to fresh, affordable food, by analyzing the impact of community-based farming initiatives through a socio-technological lens using GIS mapping, data visualization, and storytelling tools, while investigating challenges such as land access, funding, and policy barriers, with reference to primary sources like local urban farm initiatives and secondary sources on urban agriculture’s role in food justice and city planning, ultimately aiming to determine whether these efforts offer a viable long-term solution to food deserts and community resilience.
The “Illinois Landcover in the Early 1800s” dataset was created by the Illinois Natural History Survey (INHS). The INHS is a division of the Prairie Research Institute at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, dedicated to the study and preservation of the state’s biological resources.
The dataset is based on original surveys conducted by the General Land Office (GLO) between 1804 and 1843. Surveyors documented various landscape features in field notebooks and plat maps, noting details such as tree types, landscape quality, watercourses, and other notable features. These records are among the earliest detailed maps of Illinois, predating county land ownership maps and atlases.
The dataset was compiled to provide a detailed representation of Illinois’s landscape prior to extensive settlement. By digitizing historical GLO maps and notes, the INHS aimed to create a comprehensive land cover map reflecting the state’s early 1800s environment.
This dataset serves as a valuable resource for researchers, historians, and environmental scientists interested in analyzing historical land cover and ecological conditions, studying changes in vegetation and land use over time, and informing conservation and restoration projects by providing a historical baseline.
The dataset is available in Geographic Information System (GIS) formats, specifically ESRI Arc/Info, facilitating spatial analysis and mapping.
The dataset includes 42 land cover categories, such as prairies, forests, wetlands, and various landforms. These categories are based on the original terminology used by GLO surveyors. The attribute table contains items like “Land_Code” for detailed categories and “Map” for broader classifications.
The INHS digitized the original GLO maps by scanning microfilm copies, georectifying the images against USGS topographic maps, and tracing the line work using GIS software. They standardized and combined certain land cover names that varied by region or surveyor. For example, terms like “bluff” and “sand bluff” were merged.
As a scientific organization, the INHS aimed to preserve and interpret historical ecological data. Their focus on accuracy and standardization likely influenced the meticulous digitization and categorization processes, ensuring the dataset’s reliability for research purposes.
This dataset can be utilized for historical ecological research to understand pre-settlement environments, comparative studies of land use changes over time, guiding ecological restoration efforts by providing historical reference points, and educational purposes to illustrate Illinois’s natural history.
By offering a window into Illinois’s past landscapes, this dataset is instrumental in both academic research and practical conservation planning.
The Overland Trails project, created by the Digital Scholarship Lab at the University of Richmond, is part of the American Panorama series. This interactive digital project visualizes the migration of thousands of emigrants along the Oregon, California, and Mormon Trails in the 1840s and 1850s. The project’s goal is to provide a detailed, data-driven exploration of westward expansion, using emigrant diaries and historical accounts to map the routes, hardships, and experiences of these pioneers. It is primarily intended for historians, educators, students, and history enthusiasts, offering a dynamic way to engage with migration patterns that shaped the nation. Through this work, researchers gained a deeper understanding of how geography, time, and human decisions interacted to define these historical migrations. The project uses interactive web mapping technologies, combining geospatial analysis, historical data, and digital storytelling. The Digital Scholarship Lab collaborated with Stamen Design, a firm specializing in data visualization, to create an engaging, user-friendly experience. The project likely took several months or years to complete, given its depth and digital complexity. A key strength of the project is its interactive design and rich historical integration, making complex migration patterns visually accessible. However, its weaknesses may include data interpretation challenges such as missing or biased historical records and technological accessibility for users unfamiliar with digital tools. While the Overland Trails primarily focus on western migration, they offer valuable context for regions like Edwardsville, Illinois, which played roles in migration routes and supply chains. The project enhances knowledge by adding depth to well-known historical narratives and reinforcing the scale and complexity of westward expansion. It is a valuable tool for understanding migration’s impact on American history, though some details might still require additional sources for a complete picture.
The data set on “Average Weekly Hours of All Employees: Total Private in St. Louis, MO-IL (MSA)” is curated by Trading Economics, a financial and economic data platform that compiles indicators from government sources. The primary source of this data is the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) through its Current Employment Statistics (CES) program. The CES conducts surveys with businesses and government agencies to track employment, hours, and earnings trends.
The primary goal of this data set is to provide insights into labor market trends in the St. Louis metropolitan area. Policymakers, economists, and businesses use it to understand workforce dynamics, assess economic health, and inform decision-making. The data has been applied in economic reports, industry studies, and regional workforce analyses to evaluate economic growth and stability.
The data set is formatted as a time series, recording the average weekly hours worked by private-sector employees at regular intervals. This structure makes it easy to analyze trends over time, but the data set lacks details on industry-specific trends, demographic breakdowns, or distinctions between full-time and part-time employees.
The BLS applies rigorous data cleaning processes, including seasonal adjustments and validation methods. However, there are still potential sources of error, such as sampling limitations and revisions to initial data. The way Trading Economics presents the data could also introduce bias, as commercial platforms may highlight certain trends over others.
The data’s structure and intent influence how it can be used. Since it only tracks total private-sector employees, it may not capture sector-specific shifts or employment disparities within the workforce. A deeper analysis would require combining this data with other sources, such as wage trends or employment rates by industry.
This data set is useful for tracking labor trends, particularly for identifying economic expansions or contractions based on changes in work hours. However, its limitations require careful interpretation, ensuring that conclusions about the St. Louis labor market are contextualized within broader economic data.
Title: Girls Like Us
Creator: Randi Pink
Date: Published in 2019
Format: Paperback book
Description: This book holds personal significance because it reignited my love for reading. After a period of not engaging with books as much, Girls Like Us reminded me of the power of storytelling and the way literature can connect us to different perspectives. The novel explores the experiences of four young women navigating teenage pregnancy in the 1970s, shedding light on themes of choice, agency, and societal expectations. Beyond my personal connection, the book speaks to broader histories of reproductive rights, gender roles, and the struggles that young women have faced across generations.
The GPT-4 Forecasting Challenge was an interesting way to test my assumptions about the model’s performance. Overall, GPT-4 performed about the same as I expected. My strategy started with assumptions about specific task strengths and weaknesses, and I adjusted my probabilities as I observed its responses. I noticed that GPT-4 was particularly strong at factual recall and sometimes structured reasoning but struggled with complex logic. One surprising result was weakness, which made me reconsider how I assess AI capabilities.