As taxpaying citizens of a community, we expect certain things: upkeep of streets, snow and trash removal, and safe neighborhoods, just to name a few. But sadly, if you live in a place that has endured one-party rule for decades, like St. Louis, Missouri, well, you might want to lower your expectations, especially when it comes to the city dealing with the homeless population. 

Steve McClanahan and Richard Baumhoff live in a section of St. Louis City known as Tower Grove South. It's a neighborhood of older homes with alleys in between them, the kind that people love to rehab, and it borders one of the city's most beautiful parks, Tower Grove Park. On Wednesday, McClanahan and Baumhoff won their lawsuit against the city for its failure to deal with squatters who had taken up residence in a makeshift tent on the sidewalk right in front of their house for almost four years.

This situation began way back in September 2020 when the couple, refugees from Sudan, erected the tent from tarps, blankets, and plastic bags. They ended up staying until April 2024, roughly 1,300 days. The couple was using a hibachi grill to cook on and storing kerosene tanks in the tent, which attracted rats. They took bucket showers and used bucket toilets. Baumhoff said, “It’s been difficult. … Closed up in your home. Couldn’t open shades or windows, you know? The smell was coming in; it was really bad.” McClanahan and Baumhoff began contacting police, their city alderwoman, the health department, even then-Mayor Tishaura Jones, with no results.

The squatting couple had gone through the refugee resettlement process through the International Institute of St. Louis 12 years ago; the International Institute as well as a long line of city officials said the couple continually refused offers of housing. After years of trying to get the city to do something about the couple, McClanahan and Baumhoff sued the city for $66,000 in what they believed was lost rent revenue. McClanahan said of the case:

“A long line of the city not paying attention to taxpayers. Similar to the train horns, the tornado sirens; the list goes on and on. And the city needs to wake up and start paying attention to its taxpaying citizens.”

Bevis Shock is the attorney for McClanahan and Baumhoff and laid out the facts of the case, backing up what his client Steve McClanahan said:

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“The fact is the government of the City of St. Louis cared as they should have, with compassion, about two poor people who live on the streets. But (the city) thought they were more important than the taxpaying homeowners, and this jury just answered that question and said, ‘Who’s more important? The taxpaying homeowners.’ And that’s how it should be.”

As indicated, on Wednesday, a jury sided with the homeowners and awarded them $36,000. Good on McClanahan and Baumhoff for squeezing money out of city government for not handling the problem. But like many other blue cities, St. Louis' homeless problem is growing, up 25 percent between 2020 and 2025. If not taxpayers, who else does city government think is footing the bill for the homeless? And if the city allows it to happen on one street corner, it will happen on another. 

Sadly, it's business as usual in another Democrat-run-for-decades city.