Developing a Vacancy Strategy for St. Louis

The Community Innovation and Action Center (CIAC) is partnering with the St. Louis Vacancy Collaborative, a local community-based initiative, on a two-year initiative to develop a vacancy strategy with/for the City of St. Louis. 

As part of this work, the CIAC team works across multiple data sources to identify, understand, and prioritize vacant parcels in the City of St. Louis with a focus on equitable investment and community responsiveness. This also includes a substantial focus on neighborhood engagement and understanding how vacancy impacts different neighborhoods. Dave Menninger, CIAC’s Community Data and Application Developer, began working on this project in May 2024, building on his long history as a volunteer developer for the Vacancy Collaborative, including the creation of the public-facing Vacant Property Explorer which CIAC also helped develop. Building upon this work and the efforts of previous staff, a set of data tools is being developed for City stakeholders and community members so that City agencies can work with community partners to find solutions to vacancy, prioritize which buildings to remediate, which to eliminate, and where vacancy prevention initiatives would have the most impact.