City of St. Louis Offering Funds For Emergency Shelter, Outreach, and Rapid Rehousing

The City of St. Louis has begun accepting proposals for the bidding process to receive funds from the Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG), which will direct funds for the use of homeless services across the city in the coming fiscal year, beginning July 1.

 "The Emergency Solutions Grant allows the City to fund providers in the community who are doing innovative work to provide shelter, housing, and support to the unhoused,” Adam Pearson, Director of the Department of Human Services. “We're grateful for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the City of St. Louis Community Development Administration for making funds available for these purposes."

There are several component types that ESG funding would go towards in the City:

• Emergency shelter
• Street outreach
• Rapid rehousing
• Homeless prevention
• Data collection/HMIS

“Our Department of Human Services does extremely important work to support those in our community who are without a home, and working with homeless services providers in our area is vital to helping as many people as possible,” said Mayor Tishaura O. Jones. “While our city and region move toward a proven housing first approach, we will continue to use every tool in our toolbox to help unhoused members of our community right now, and I am thankful for everyone who has been and will be involved in that effort.”

Any homeless services providers interested in receiving ESG funds are invited to visit the City’s website and submit an application. Any questions concerning the application process can be directed in writing to Amy Bickford at bickforda@stlouis-mo.gov.

Homeless services providers will be selected to allocate ESG funds based on their application, past performance, spending, and adherence to federal regulations. The closing date for proposals is at 4 p.m. on April 2, 2025.

The Emergency Solutions Grant RFP is an annual bidding process and is made available to our community partners in homeless services every fiscal year.