Community Project Funding
Congresswoman Cori Bush has submitted funding requests for important community projects in Missouri’s First District to the House Appropriations Committee.
Under guidelines issued by the Appropriations Committee, each Representative may request funding for up to 10 projects in their community for Fiscal Year 2022 – although only a handful may actually be funded. Projects are restricted to a limited number of federal funding streams, and only state and local governments and eligible non-profit entities are permitted to receive funding. Additional information on the reforms governing Community Project Funding is available here.
In compliance with House Rules and Committee requirements, Congresswoman Cori Bush has certified that she and her immediate family have no financial interest in any of the projects she has requested.
Affinia Healthcare
Amount of Request: $2,000,000
Intended Recipient:
Affinia Healthcare
1717 Biddle St.
St. Louis, Missouri 63106
Project Explanation:
Affinia Healthcare is making plans to collaborate with the YMCA of Greater St. Louis to construct and operate a new community health center at 3930 Pershall Road (63135), located in the City of Ferguson, a municipality in North St. Louis County. In the new facility, to be located adjacent to the Emerson YMCA, we will offer a wide range of primary care services in highly-underserved areas of the St. Louis region, including medical, dental and behavioral health/substance use services and enabling services. Since there is currently not a comprehensive primary care health center in this area, all of these services will be new. The facility will be approximately 15,000 square feet in size and projected to serve approximately 6,700 individual patients per year.
Affinia Healthcare Disclosure Letter
CareSTL Health, The Ville Wellness Campus
Amount of Request: $1,000,000
Intended Recipient:
CareSTL Health
5471 Dr. Martin Luther King Drive
St. Louis, Missouri 63112
Project Explanation: CareSTL Health is proposing a bold vision with a project designed to provide COVID-19 services as part of established COVID-19 National Federal Objectives. The Ville Wellness Campus (VWC) anchored by a 46,000,000 SF State-of-Art Federal Qualified Health Center, will put abandoned LRA property back into productive use, remove decades of blight, combat persistent crime, provide much needed services to remediate unhealthy lifestyles contributing to chronic levels of hypertension, diabetes, mental illness, and addiction. Additionally, the new facility would replace the current facility, which is laced with asbestos, functionally obsolete, and unable to handle current and future pandemics.
CareSTL Health, The Ville Wellness Campus Disclosure Letter
BJC Healthcare - Hospital to Housing
Amount of Request: $800,000
Intended Recipient:
BJC Healthcare
4901 Forest Park Ave.
St. Louis, Missouri 63108
Project Explanation: H2H provides housing to homeless patients who frequently seek shelter in hospital emergency departments. This initiative is a part of a framework of BJC programs aimed to address social determinants of health and identified health disparities. H2H addresses housing instability and access to behavioral health services.
This program is positioned to increase access to and care coordination of effective treatment and other support services. There is a growing amount of evidence that reveals a connection between positive health outcomes and services focused on the social determinants of health – defined as conditions in place where people live, learn, work and play per the CDC. Providers and policymakers are innovating new models of healthcare delivery that incorporate housing, income supports, food security and other non-medical factors in order to address disparities in health outcomes. Reliance on crisis systems in healthcare by people who are homeless and suffer from behavioral health issues is a problem that is ripe for the innovative solution that Hospital to Housing provides. Without stable housing, individuals are more likely to lack routine healthcare check-ups, resulting in cycles of stays in emergency departments and hospitals that produce poor health outcomes at a high public cost.
BJC Healthcare - Hospital to Housing Disclosure Letter
The Minority Entrepreneurship Collaborative Center for Advancement (MECCA) at Harris-Stowe State University
Amount of Request: $995,000
Intended Recipient:
Harris-Stowe State University
3206 Laclede Ave.
St. Louis, Missouri 63103
Project Explanation: The focus of MECCA is to be deliberate and intentional in fostering the growth of emerging entrepreneurs and cultivating the next generation of business owners from underserved communities. Within MECCA, HSSU will further the Minority Business Enterprise by helping budding entrepreneurs move their ideas from concept to commercialization. There is an urgent need within the St. Louis metropolitan area to address the unmet needs of low-and moderate income individuals by providing education and consulting for startup businesses. This will be realized by facilitating hands-on educational training and services to complement formal classroom learning in a state-of-the-art entrepreneurship center for Harris-Stowe State University students and the community at large. As an anchor institution, Harris-Stowe will accomplish this task by driving inclusive economic activities and creating synergistic innovation within the St. Louis region.
St. Louis University Mobile Health Clinic
Amount of Request: $500,000
Intended Recipient:
Saint Louis University
One Grand Blvd.
St. Louis, Missouri 63103
Project Explanation: To increase healthcare access and improve health outcomes in the region, Saint Louis University sets out to establish and support a mobile health clinic. To advance health equity and reach the most vulnerable and disenfranchised populations of the St. Louis region, we are proposing the establishment of a mobile health clinic. This mobile unit will serve areas where citizens lack nearby healthcare facilities, transportation to clinics, or the technology to utilize telehealth options.
The mobile health clinic will provide individuals the routine care necessary to avoid more costly services or visits to the emergency room. In a 2017 report from The Advisory Board Company, patients report numerous barriers to access care, including: 53% of low-income adults do not trust healthcare, 20% are deterred by high healthcare costs, 25% lack transportation to medical appointments and others report social isolation, racial or economic barriers, or language or cultural barriers. The Advisory Board Company also reports that showing up in neighborhoods of our low-income, minority, and homeless populations creates trust and found that patients were 78% more likely to self-manage their conditions after visiting a mobile health clinic. Mobile clinics are convenient, and patients do not need to have or pay for transportation. The mobile clinic will also train and engage a pipeline of healthcare providers to serve the community, while mobile nutrition and health education will bring health literacy to underserved communities.
St. Louis University Mobile Health Clinic Disclosure Letter
The Healthcare-based Crime Intervention Clinic
Amount of Request: $1,312,400
Intended Recipient:
Assisted Recovery Centers of America and the City of St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office
1430 Olive Street, Suite 100
St. Louis, MO 63103
Project Explanation: The Healthcare-based Crime Intervention Clinic is a resource embedded within the Circuit Attorney’s office in partnership with Assisted Recovery Centers of America. The 22nd Circuit courts can be effective access points to address the racial disparities and inequities that fuel the criminal justice system. The promotion of racial and social justice and healthcare for all people with mental health, and substance addiction disorders generational trauma, lack of access to housing, economic instability, food. Crime viewed through a public health lens enlightens the need for an innovative Healthcare-based Crime Intervention Clinic embedded within the Circuit Attorney s office and the Circuit Courts to provide a holistic and public health coordinated approach to public safety outcomes in the City of St. Louis.
The Healthcare-based Crime Intervention Clinic Disclosure Letter
Gun Violence Response Network with Mental Health Access
Amount of Request: $601,700
Intended Recipient:
City of St. Louis Mental Health Board of Trustees
333 S. 18th Street, Suite 200
St. Louis, Missouri 63103
Project Explanation: The St. Louis Area Violence Prevention Commission created the Gun Violence Response Network in 2020 as a step toward the objective of coordinating the community-level response to nonfatal shootings. It is a network of service providers with multiple entry points, a coordinated intake, and wraparound services for victims of violence.
As part of VPC’s Action Plan, we have convened victim service providers to identify unmet needs for victims of nonfatal shootings, to work with United Way 2-1-1 on a first of its kind gun violence victim intake, and to identify and partner with resource agencies to meet victims’ needs. The most unmet needs that the committee members identified were mental healthcare, employment, basic needs (like utility assistance), funeral costs, and funds to fix property damage.
To ensure that the community response system is comprehensive, VPC will also launch the Handle with Care program to enhance communication between law enforcement and schools when children witness and are involved in traumatic events. This notification system will ensure that schools can serve as critical connection points for youth and their families who experience traumatic events in the community that may otherwise go undetected by school staff
Provident Behavioral Health’s Access Center offers same-day $5 therapeutic appointments provided by student therapists and overseen by a licensed, Master’s-level clinical therapist, available to anyone two days a week. Our Access Center’s goal is to make quality behavioral health services accessible by providing timely and affordable services to people in need. This prevents people seeking help from facing long wait times to begin services with a therapist and prevents people in crisis from relying on local emergency rooms for behavioral health issues. We seek to expand our Access Center program to include more student therapists in order to serve more people including those referred through the VPC Gun Violence Response Network.
Gun Violence Response Network with Mental Health Access Disclosure Letter
Mildred’s Casa de Paz — PotBangerz, Feed the Body Mission
Amount of Request: $165,300
Intended Recipient:
PotBangerz
685 Shackelford Road
Florissant, Missouri 63031
Project Explanation: Mildred’s Casa de Paz is designed to provide transitional housing for women experiencing homelessness. This program is targeted to all women in the St. Louis region including straight, cisgender queer and transgender women. Among the unhoused, this population is the most at-risk. Casa de Paz aims to provide a safe, nurturing space for four to six months during which time residents at Casa de Paz will be obliged to engage in job training and/or education programs.
Mildred's Casa de Paz partners with local organizations and agencies to provide wraparound services that will assist every resident whom we house in navigating their way from homeless to housed. Services include housing referrals, job training and placement assistance, counseling, transportation, medical referrals, information regarding life skills and more. These services look different for each individual that we house because each person's experiences, strengths and needs are different. Mildred's Casa de Paz and the services that we offer address a need that isn't currently being met in our community.
Mildred’s Casa de Paz — PotBangerz, Feed the Body Mission Disclosure Letter
Harmony Village — St. Patrick Center
Amount of Request: $887,000.00
Intended Recipient:
St. Patrick Center
800 N. Tucker St.
St. Louis, Missouri 63101
Project Explanation: The Harmony Village project is an innovative, intensive approach to creating housing stability, social mobility and public safety in our community. By providing affordable housing in tandem with onsite support services to community members in the most need, this project creates stability and sustainability for vulnerable Veterans, families and individuals. Through this project’s funding of $887,000, the 48 apartments at the 3600 block of Salena St. in south St. Louis City will serve the community indefinitely, providing stability and security. Harmony Village’s onsite services are provided to residents by St. Patrick Center’s team of professional and clinical staff.
By offering individualized case management, onsite support, and stable, rent-controlled apartments, this project will foster self-sufficiency and life skills that clients need to improve their health and achieve housing stability. The program is unique in that it focuses intensively on addressing the social determinants of health for a population for whom lack of adequate support services contributes to high rates of utilization of crisis services, such as emergency departments. With stable, affordable housing and comprehensive support services in place, Harmony Village will decrease inappropriate use of crisis services, reduce crime, and contribute to a healthy, thriving neighborhood as chronic homelessness decreases.
This project offers real return on investment for taxpayers. By addressing the social determinants of health while providing affordable housing, Harmony Village will effectively reduce chronic homelessness, which can lead to rapid neighborhood deterioration as crime rates rise and property values plunge. Housing individuals and families in projects like Harmony Village decreases stress on emergency services, which in turn produces significant cost-savings for communities. Reducing housing instability will relieve stress on ERs, jail, and other crisis services in the City and decrease costly hospital stays. Program participants will transition from homelessness and impoverishment to healthy, productive neighbors.
Harmony Village — St. Patrick Center Disclosure Letter
Wellston Loop Mixed Use Development Project — Easton Development Corporation/Young Voices With Action
Amount of Request: $916,900.00
Intended Recipient:
Easton Development Corporation/Young Voices With Action
6913 Page Blvd.
St. Louis, Missouri 63133
Project Explanation: The Wellston Loop Mixed Use Development Project is a new, mixed use space with shops, restaurants and housing that will also serve as the home for the Young Voices with Action and Easton Development Corporation corporate offices and training center. This development will be the first of its kind in over 32 years in the 5900 block of Dr. Martin Luther King Drive, in the heart of the St. Louis region and will help create a stronger, more cohesive neighborhood. This mixed use space is 16,000 square feet. The first level will have 4 white box store fronts. The 2nd floor will house a total of 8 affordable housing units.
This is a valuable use of taxpayer’s funds because this project services a community that is long neglected and deprived of economic development and other wraparound services. The Wellston Loop is formerly an economic corridor that generated revenue and spurred population growth in the suburbs surrounding it. It is currently a renewed focal point for major investments for new residential and mixed use communities. This development will help provide education, engagement and empowerment to the residents and businesses that are inhabitants of the area. This taxpayer-supported project will lead in redeveloping this transformative neighborhood that will also be a catalyst and spark for the continuing growth and rebirth of the Wellston Loop and the surrounding neighborhoods.