Invest STL is putting power back into the neighborhoods located in the West End and Visitation Park through their The Rooted: Cultivating Black Wealth in Place initiative. The 20-year timeline is committed to investing in people, property, and small businesses.
“The work is looking at supporting residents in these neighborhoods,” said Dana Eskridge, Invest STL executive director. “This is work we can complete in a generation’s time.”
The initiative will focus on investment in neighborhoods, neighborhood planning, and the power of influence and decision-making from residents. Its goal is to empower residents and help them remain members of a neighborhood that is attracting new development.
The initiative hopes to create “a multi-generational approach to wealth building” by providing $20,000 to 50 participants that live in the city’s West End or Visitation Park neighborhoods who applied and qualified for the grant. Each participant will have access to free services including financial planning, credit counseling, and estate planning.
Michelle Witthaus, the program’s policy design and activation partner said, “We heard from the people in the community. They are concerned with gentrification [and] people getting pushed out of the neighborhood.”
The funds can be used toward purchasing a home in those communities, renovating property, starting a business, or opening an investment account. Participants also will receive an additional $2,000 to pay off debt, create emergency funds, or address immediate financial needs.
Chuck Flowers has lived in the West End for over 40 years after his family migrated to that community from Mill Creek Valley. Flowers plans to use his grant money to make renovations and investments.
“I want to be more prepared for the future so that I can leave my family home to my niece,” said Flowers.
Qualified participants had to show they have lived in the neighborhood since at least 2016, a Black household, over the age of 25 with an income between 10 and 120% of the area median income.
Enrollment ran from October 2022 through January 2023 and 258 applications were received for the grant. In February–Invest STL selected 50 participants. Almost half of the participants have lived in the neighborhood for over 21 years.
“We are looking at how we make the neighborhood work for the residents that already live here,” said Witthaus.
According to Invest STL data, the average income for that community is $28,942. Since 2010 there has been a 396% increase in white residents, meanwhile, Black residents have decreased by 30%. In 2017 residents noticed an increase in investor-owned properties.
Its data also showed a large number of families that migrated to the West End neighborhoods and Visitation Park came from Mill Creek Valley.
Darius Franklin, who lives with his grandfather in a three-story home in the West End neighborhood said 6 generations live in one house. “We entered this program to keep our home. These houses are more than monetary value to us,” said Franklin.
Vianey Beltran, VP of Senior Philanthropy & Community Impact Specialist for Wells Fargo, said the financial institution has funded the initiative since 2020.
“[The initiative] really puts the power in the individual,” said Beltran.
According to Beltran, Wells Fargo has supplied a total of $1 million dollars to the initiative, to help support the 50 households that were chosen for the program to receive the $20,000.
By the end of 2025, the program hopes to invest in 6-9 neighborhood clusters which total 24 neighborhoods across the region. Over the next 5 years, Invest STL is looking to both pull and invest out $25 million dollars, so far they have raised $10 million–70% of those funds go out to the community. 30% is for the staff.
Once the study is complete the organization hopes the results show a need for more local, state, and national levels for scaling and replication by other partners in other communities. Invest STL plans to write a how-to-guide so that other organizations can begin the work as well.
Ashley Winters is a Report for America reporter for the St. Louis American.
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