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$10M in state funds would demolish more than 120 FEMA-ineligible homes from St. Louis tornado 8%
By Kavahn Mansouri59%
6/3/2026, 3:00:00 AM
BS Summary: This article contains 8 faulty reasoning types, including Optimism Bias, Circular Reasoning, and Begging the Question, with Appeal to Emotion as the most egregious example at 16.3% saturation with 105 hits. Analysis detected 373 faulty-reasoning hits from 645 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 24.3% and a BS Rank of 8% (20,250 of 21,887 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 92.50% of the article peer group.
St.
Louis officials say nearly $11 million of state-provided tornado relief funding will reimburse the city for demolition of buildings ineligible for federal funding and bolster its home repair efforts in north city.
The state has in total allocated about $186 million in tornado-relief dollars via Senate Bill 1 and other efforts in the past year after a massive tornado damaged more than 5,000 homes and buildings in north St.
Louis.
The funds are designated to cover a wide variety of recovery costs in the tornado zone where city officials estimate there is more than $1.5 billion of recovery work to be done.
The Board of Aldermen's Housing, Urban Development and Zoning Committee approved a bill Tuesday allowing the city to accept $10 million of that funding that will reimburse the city for demolition of some FEMA-ineligible private properties.
Julian Nicks, the city’s chief recovery officer, said the funds will allow the city to knock down between 120 and 140 structures in need of demolition.
Sixty-eight of those homes are already being permitted for destruction, and 56 are either actively being demolished or completed.
“So the lion's share of a lot of the demos that people have seen have been directly supported by SB 1,” Nicks said.
As of Tuesday, the city’s online tracker reports 104 homes have been demolished of the 1,209 in need of being torn down.
Roughly 400 are being contracted out for city- or state-led demolitions.
The city had previously hoped hundreds of buildings that were vacant, condemned and privately owned when the tornado struck would be eligible for FEMA funding and had asked the federal government to make an exception due to the burden officials say the demolitions would have put on the city.
However, after months, the federal government rejected that request.
Nicks said the funds, when authorized, will help cover the cost of those demolitions.
Another $1 million the bill seeks to authorize for the city comes from the Missouri Housing Development Commission that provided reimbursements for the recovery office’s home repair program on eligible properties.
Nicks said there are about 17 home repair properties in the repair pipeline that are close to or have qualified for development commission funds.
“This would allow us to do the same rapid repair program that we're running with city dollars, specifically using these state dollars to support,” Nick said.
The city’s repair program has struggled to tackle the large amount of repair requests from residents in the tornado zone.
To date, only 24 homes have been repaired of the more than 2,500 that need work.
Demolitions have ramped up over the past few months and especially after the anniversary of the tornado on May 16.
Around 15 buildings are expected to be knocked down this week.
“From what I've seen, we really are starting to make some real progress and so it's wonderful to see this money coming in,” said Ward 9 Alderman Michael Browning.
“And again, I just want to emphasize the need to continue to invest in north city, so that we can really put them on the road to recovery.”
State Rep.
Kimberly-Ann Collins, D-St.
Louis, spoke on behalf of the bill as a guest of Ward 10 Alderwoman Shameem Clark Hubbard.
She suggested members of Gov.
Mike Kehoe’s office who toured the tornado zone recently could support more state funding toward repairs on homes in the tornado zone as more demolitions are executed.
“They're not opposed to funds going towards rebuilding,” she said.
“We just need to get a little bit further down and push a little bit more of the properties that have been approved for demo and debris removal — and then we can get a little bit further down and continue to talk about where those funds can go.”
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