Today, the City of St. Louis Recovery Office announced it has preliminarily approved 1,200 more applications to the Home Repair program for homes damaged by the May 16, 2025 tornado and will propose a $30 million allocation to fund Phase 2 of repairs. The Recovery Office also finalized program eligibility, prioritizing owner-occupied homes, and is releasing a phased repair schedule.These homes will be repaired in Phases 2 and 3, building on the Phase 1 pilot that began in May with more than 200 homes, 60 of which are already complete. Lessons from the pilot have set the program up to scale successfully. Of the 3,000 applications received, 1,200 have been preliminarily approved, in addition to the more than 200 homes in the pilot.The proposed $30 million comes from Board Bill 22 Rams settlement funds and will go to the Board of Estimate and Apportionment for final approval on November 18. It builds on the $12 million already allocated to the Phase 1 pilot, where work continues. The City continues to pursue more resources for home repair, including the State Senate Bill 1 Missouri Housing Trust Fund through the Missouri Housing Development Commission and federal Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery funds. The announcement follows last week’s $4 million in Affordable Housing Commission awards to bring 250 tornado-damaged affordable units back online.”Every home we repair brings a family back and helps a neighborhood recover,” said Mayor Cara Spencer. “This plan puts our resources where they will do the most good. My focus remains on ensuring our residents can stay or return home.”Finalized Eligibility: Owner-Occupied Homes FirstTo stretch limited City repair dollars while waiting for federal support, the Recovery Office has finalized home repair eligibility, prioritizing owner-occupied homes. To receive preliminary approval, a home must have been:Damaged by the May 16 tornadoOwner-occupied and lived in at the time of the tornadoOwned by a household with a reported income at or below 120% of the Area Median IncomeRental and commercial properties do not qualify for Home Repair.Homeowners with preliminary approval will provide documentation of ownership, occupancy, income, and duplication of benefits, such as insurance and FEMA payments, only after repairs have been deemed feasible.Feasibility and Full HabitabilityPreliminary approval is not final approval. Each home will be inspected and scoped to confirm it can be fully repaired to habitability standards, meaning safe, sanitary, and functional, within the program’s $50,000 cap. This approach protects taxpayer dollars and ensures every repair dollar goes into a home that will be safe for families to return to.Phases and Batch SchedulePreliminarily approved homes will move to inspection and scoping in batches within each phase. The phases bring back blocks with higher occupancy first, while ensuring progress across all priority impact areas. Batches focus on bringing back entire blocks a 

Author