When an EF3 tornado ripped through the St. Louis region in May, block after block of solid brick houses were reduced to piles of rubble. The tornado’s path stretched 23 miles, causing more than $1.6 billion in damage.
Within the City of St. Louis alone, more than 5,000 homes were impacted across adjacent but demographically diverse neighborhoods. Six weeks into the cleanup phase, the telltale signs of devastation are similar for mansions, modest single-family homes, and apartment complexes alike: roofs covered in plastic tarps, tree roots jutting above sidewalks, and work crews hauling away debris.
However, the recovery trajectory is already starting to diverge. In the less affluent neighborhoods, as many as 67% of homeowners lack insurance, compared to Missouri’s statewide average of 7%. Repairing the physical space these residents call home will be challenging—and the demand for affordable housing in the meantime is exacerbating an already tight rental market.
The community development nonprofit Beyond Housing serves a footprint just to the northwest of the city neighborhoods that were most devastated. Beyond Housing owns or manages nearly 800 affordable rental homes and apartments—and according to President and CEO Chris Krehmeyer, it already had a waiting list. “The tornado intensified an acute situation for low-income renters,” he said.
A Holistic Approach to Placemaking
Fifty years ago, Beyond Housing’s founders recognized that helping people move into affordable homes was not sufficient for resolving the underlying factors that caused housing insecurity in the first place. The comprehensive approach they took continues to inform the nonprofit’s work today.
Beyond Housing’s model starts with strengthening individuals and families through holistic services in the critical areas of housing, employment, education, financial stability, and health. The second facet of its model focuses on transforming the physical environment through economic development projects, greenspace improvements, community-building initiatives, youth programming, and more. Finally, Beyond Housing works to create change at the systems level by partnering with local governments, businesses, philanthropic foundations, and other entities to address the longstanding disinvestment in impoverished neighborhoods.
The results of its approach are visible throughout the north St. Louis County area known as the 24:1 Community. The footprint includes nearly two dozen municipalities and 36,000 residents—all of which are within a single school district, the Normandy Schools Collaborative. This single unifying feature is central to the placemaking strategy Beyond Housing has implemented since 2010.
“We have raised and invested more than $175 million in this community over the past 15 years,” Krehmeyer said. “This includes new construction of homes and economic development projects and repairs to existing structures. But equally important are the adjacent investments in services like the family engagement liaisons in schools, the urban forestry teams, the health coordinators, the financial empowerment specialists, and the homeownership advisors,” he added. “The trusted relationships created through these interactions are the real reason our model is successful.”
A Ripple Effect Throughout the Region
In previous years, Beyond Housing’s new home projects might have been the only signs of residential construction in the 24:1 Community. However, alongside the most recent project Beyond Housing completed—a $12 million investment in 36 new, single-family, affordable rental homes in the City of Pagedale—are other market-rate housing developments by private builders as well as large-scale re-investment projects like the $44 million Wellington Family Homes public housing rehabs in Wellston.
Krehmeyer can quantify the benefits of Beyond Housing’s investment in Pagedale, where residential property sale values increased by 338% between 2013 and 2022, and total crime decreased by 42% in the same years. The community added more than 300 new businesses, which increased its taxable commercial sales.
There are also qualitative outcomes, like the increased satisfaction residents of Beyond Housing’s rental properties in Pagedale report via surveys. And Krehmeyer—who is a familiar presence out and about in the community—hears plenty of direct feedback as well. Beyond Housing has cultivated a philosophy it calls “Ask, Align, Act” whereby its staff finds out what local residents would like to see happen through systematic data gathering, then coordinates planning around that objective before taking action.
As recovery from the May 2025 tornado moves forward, Krehmeyer believes it will be important for St. Louis’ most vulnerable neighborhoods to follow a similarly comprehensive, community-driven approach.
“What we have achieved in the 24:1 Community can be replicated elsewhere too—including in the neighborhoods hardest hit by the storms,” Krehmeyer said. “Centering placemaking within the conversation about recovery will help ensure that not only are residents’ brick-and-mortar homes repaired, but their sense of well-being about where they live is restored as well.”
