Storm Shockwaves in StL: Homelessness & the Forces of Nature

On May 16, 2025, deadly tornadic storms ravaged St. Louis area homes on both sides of Delmar Blvd., the so called "Delmar Divide," well-known for historic redlining and blockbusting practices that divided affluent Central West End communities from North St. Louis neighborhoods. The North side of Delmar faces even greater challenges than basic storm recovery, lack of emergency resources, looting, and vandalism - i.e., lack of home insurance. Up to 67% of homes in North St. Louis zip codes could be under-insured or uninsured. Severe storm damage can mean catastrophic financial collapse for families without insurance.

Holly Edgell/The Midwest Newsroom

The precepts of environmental justice require safeguarding those most vulnerable to planetary degradation, particularly communities of color who are disproportionately negatively impacted by climate disasters. Since climate change is bringing more frequent, more severe storms, those with limited or no access to basic emergency services, or those who lack home insurance for catastrophic loss are most adversely affected. It's the perfect storm for ethical collapse in perpetuating unjust systems affecting homeownership, and for the rise of climate-induced homelessness.

Does everyone have the right to safe, healthy housing? Is it a choice, a privilege, or a right?

The founder of the National Homelessness Law Center, Maria Foscarinis, maintains that housing is a right, and champions the "Housing First" model, already in place in U.S. policy. This model prioritizes housing as the first intervention, followed by support services, as needed. Foscarinis insists that homelessness is a result of systemic, not personal failure, a socio-ethical failure that we might choose to rectify at scale. (And Housing for All: The Fight to End Homelessness in America; Prometheus, 2025) Rejecting the narrative that homelessness is a lifestyle choice that should be criminalized, or a privilege guaranteed only by economic affluence, Foscarinis maintains that housing is a fundamental human right. She argues that the most significant barrier to ending homelessness is not a lack of solutions, but a lack of political will, such as embedded discriminatory policies like the ones affecting communities of color adversely affected by climate change. Her book celebrates landmark legal victories, bipartisan collaboration on homeless initiatives, and alternative housing models, including community land trusts.

Where does Nature come into play in this ever-evolving ecology of homing? Where will humans and all planetary dwellers find homing in the context of a shrinking natural world?

"The most recent estimates from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development reveal that 653,100 people experienced homelessness on a single night in the United States in 2023, showing a marked increase from previous years’ annual estimates. An estimated 40% of this population is categorized as ‘unsheltered,’ meaning people who are living outdoors, in vehicles, parks, and other areas not designed for human habitation (de Sousa et al., 2023)." (Seamus R. Land & Monika M. Derrien, "Homelessness and Nature Across Landscapes and Disciplines: A Literature Review", Landscape & Urban Planning, March 2025)

! An estimated 40% of homeless people in the U.S. seek shelter outside, in vehicles, parks and other areas not designed for human habitation. !

While we recover from that staggering statistic, let's consider for a moment the refugee status of Nature and all Nature's denizens, our more-than-human kin, displaced, driven from habitat, or made extinct by human forces.

Back in 2019, we learned that roughly 95% of Earth's land is human-modified.

Only 5% remains somewhat unaffected by human activity and industry. "The researchers from The Nature Conservancy and Conservation Science Partners used publicly available, high-resolution data from ground surveys and remotely sensed imagery on land use in 1 square kilometer grids to provide a spatial assessment of the impact of 13 human-caused stressors across all terrestrial lands, biomes and ecological regions, including:

• Agriculture

• The physical extent of human settlement

• Transportation, including railroads and minor roads

• Mining, energy production

• Electrical infrastructure, including power lines" (Andrew Freedman, "1 Big Thing; Just 5% of Earth's Landscape is Untouched," Axios Science, 2019)

It seems we have a tsunami of widespread homelessness among our human and our more-than-human kin. If hospitality is to be embraced among us, we need human- and Nature-beneficial Solutions, including community land trusts. "Housing First" might be a way forward for our human-kin to address homelessness at scale. Viewing housing as a fundamental human right is a start. What about the rights of Nature?

For our more-than-human kin, we need a global scale - hospitality along the lines of sociobiologist, E.O. Wilson's "Half Earth" project, allowing half the planet for rewilding. This is not pie-in-the-sky wishful thinking. It is feasible at scale, good for humanity, and great for the biosphere.

Whatever we envision for a healthy future for humanity and the biosphere, homelessness and the forces of Nature will not relent unless we embrace the practice of hospitality in the form of environmental and eco-justice. It's wildly necessary, especially as the storm clouds gather.