The Reverend Larry Rice has set up a new homeless shelter, this time on the front lawn of a condemned apartment complex in South City. As one might expect, the neighbors are not happy.
“The last thing that I want is a neighborhood that’s indifferent to the plight of the unhoused,” says Melanie Reupke, who lives in Marine Villa near the 20 or so people in about a dozen tents that Rice has set up outside the boarded up Concord Apartments. But, Reupke adds, “What Larry Rice is doing is an abomination.”
In addition to the minor tent city out front right now, the Concord Apartments are trash strewn and fire damaged. No one in the neighborhood can recall a time when the complex was particularly nice. Its 36 units near the intersection of Illinois Avenue and South Broadway are owned by an LLC associated with Jason Wagrodzki, the son of the owner of a Hazelwood trucking company that, according to KMOV, has in recent years reported $224 million in annual revenue. (Another apartment building owned by Wagrodzki in St. Louis County has faced a slew of ordinance violations.) But, a few months ago, as one neighbor put it, the already shitty apartments “got shittier.” Families had once stayed there, neighbors say, but by the end of last year they had long moved out. Squatters, drugs, and guns moved in. There were 75 calls for service to the complex this year alone, police say. The owner of Widman Motorcycle Services next door says he’s spent $11,000 on broken windows and other repairs necessitated by people staying at Concord…