03/27/2026
(12/12) “Since the tornado happened, I’ve been able to focus on little else besides whatever it takes to help our clients recover. During those early days, I remember I was returning phone calls in the evenings at like 8:30 p.m. I returned several at that time from my dear friend when he finally asked me, ‘Why are you still working?’ I said, ‘I have no work-life boundaries. Like, this is the time I can return calls. So I’m doing it!’ But I’m dedicated. I love this job. There’s nothing else I’d rather be doing. I love my community. I’ve worked with the residents of North St. Louis for almost 20 years. And I love them, too.
I feel that way about St. Louis in general, but particularly the northside, because it’s been handed a raw deal for decades. Intentional disinvestment, redlining, going back decades before Team Four and their plan for ‘benign neglect’: Team Four was the consultant group that developed a plan in the 70s essentially telling the City of St. Louis to just let that part die. Like, ‘the southside is worth investing in, the northside is not, so just let it die slowly and then come in and redevelop it.’ Which is exactly what we’re facing right now. So that’s the next fight that’s going to happen. And I’m a fighter, ready to fight for them.
To see the disparities, as I have all of these years as a social worker… Man, I was crazy in the beginning. I’m still crazy. I used to be like, ‘Put me in the trenches. Send me into that HUD building getting shut down. The one that’s scary where the manager was assaulted and sometimes the elevator works and sometimes it doesn’t. Someone has to help to move people out of there who can’t get out on their own.’ That’s exactly where I wanted to be. Send me into the places falling apart to help those folks. That’s exactly who I wanted to help. I’ve been helping the unhoused for years. I’m not afraid to go anywhere, do anything.
I’ve always had a hard time dealing with injustice, even since I was a child. I want things to be fair. Not just for me, but for other people, too. So I get really upset by that. And I was very upset before the tornado. So please don’t mistake my work for pure altruism. I’m no savior. Taking action to help is the only remedy for that feeling of upset. It’s really the only way I can cope with the visceral feeling of the injustice that so deeply disturbs me.
I heard somebody say, ‘The city’s not responsible for helping people rebuild.’ And I was like, ‘Yes, they are. White folks don’t like the R-word: reparations. But, yes, we are responsible.’”
𝑂ℎ, 𝑇𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑦, 𝑦𝑜𝑢’𝑟𝑒 𝑠𝑜 𝑆𝑇𝐿 𝑀𝑎𝑑𝑒.
“Born. Raised. Never lived anywhere else.”
Tracy Fantini, MSW, LCSW, Executive Director, Housing Options Provided for the Elderly, Inc. (HOPE)
