Recovery Office Preliminarily Approves 1,200 Additional Tornado Home Repair Applications, Proposes $30 Million Allocation for Phase 2

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 First

To 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 tornado
• Owner-occupied and lived in at the time of the tornado
• Owned by a household with a reported income at or below 120% of the Area Median Income

Rental 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 Habitability

Preliminary 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 Schedule

Preliminarily 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 at once..

"Many residents have asked us one question: when will you get to my house?" said Julian Nicks, Chief Recovery Officer. "After waiting nearly a year and a half, this answer and their place in the program may not be the one everyone hoped for. But it gives every family clarity on where they stand in the queue."

The proposed allocation of funds for Phase 2 covers approximately 600 homes. Phase 3 will move forward as Phase 2 makes strong progress and additional funding is secured.

Batches of homes will move forward across multiple neighborhoods at the same time. The schedule will be available online and show which areas are in each phase and batch, with estimated windows for inspection and construction. The next batch will begin inspections in January 2027.

Residents will be notified in writing of their eligibility, the appeal process, and/or their phase and batch assignment by Friday, November 13, 2026. 

A public schedule and dashboard at STLRecovers.com will be available showing batch order, status, and progress once all residents have been notified, and will be updated regularly as work moves forward.

Applicants Who Did Not Qualify

More than 1,500 applicants did not meet program eligibility. Rental and commercial properties were the largest reason, accounting for almost 80% of ineligible applications. Their notice will explain why they did not qualify and how to appeal. The Recovery Office is developing new programs to support residents in these households.

Long-Term Recovery for Every Household

This Home Repair program is one part of the City's recovery. The City will focus some future federal Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) requests, action plans, and allocations on long-term programs for households and properties not served by the City’s programs.

Get Help

Residents can get help with questions, appeals, the batch schedule, and other programs at the STLRecovers Outreach Center, 4401 Natural Bridge Ave., Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., or by calling the Resident Support Team at 314-207-7395.