ST. LOUIS – After residents of Heritage House Apartments lost their homes due to a pipe burst earlier this month, the community is coming together in support of them.
The City of St. Louis held a housing fair at the Hilton St. Louis Airport Tuesday, where residents were relocated after the pipe burst.
80-year-old Judith Pruitt lived at Heritage House for 18 years up until two weeks ago.
“All 19 floors in some way got damaged,” Pruitt said. “Our apartments are wide open and we can only go in and get certain things because we have a limited time of when we can go up to our floor to get our things.”
Most of the 200 residents who lived at the apartment are elderly.
“We are not sure what’s going to happen to Heritage House, but our primary goal is to make sure that they all have comfortable and warm and secure places to live,” Joyce Bluett, treasurer of Heritage House, said. “So we are not going from year to year, or month to month. Right now, we’re taking it day by day so that our residents will be safe and secure.”
Pruitt was grateful the city stepped in to help her and other residents. Around 100 of those displaced were able to find new homes Tuesday.
“Working with the City of St. Louis, the Senior Fund mobilizing like never before, this is something that really brings out the best of leadership in the St. Louis Metropolitan area,” James Clark, of Urban League Metropolitan St. Louis, said. “From the activist community, to elected officials, to neighborhood churches, it’s been a very strong rally cry.”
Another housing fair will be held at the Hilton St. Louis Airport Wednesday from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m.
