Humans of St. Louis: Tracy Fantini’s Story

Editor’s Note: Over the next few days, we’re sharing Tracy Fantini’s story as part of a Humans of St. Louis and STLMade collaboration profiling ongoing tornado recovery efforts across St. Louis. We will update this story with new content as it publishes on our Facebook and Instagram pages this week. And learn how to get involved in tornado relief and recovery efforts across St. Louis.

Subject: Tracy Fantini

In the days, weeks, and months since May 16, 2025, when a tornado devastated communities across St. Louis, Tracy Fantini has been working hard to help older adults in need. As the executive director of Housing Options Provided for the Elderly, Inc. (HOPE), Fantini and her team immediately mobilized resources, secured temporary housing, and helped older adults navigate their next steps. This is her story.

“No one expected a tornado to hit their house in St. Louis. I’m a weather nerd, and I didn’t think it could happen here. I thought we were protected by the urban heat island effect. Nope. I was one of those crazy Midwesterners who would hear the tornado sirens and the warnings go off, and I would run outside to see what was going on. Not anymore. I was here at my office on May 16, 2025. We’re in St. Louis County, so if there’s a tornado anywhere in the county, the sirens go off. There could be a tornado in Fenton, and the sirens are going to go off in Florissant. So I didn’t pay a lot of attention to the warning. But you can see we have these big windows. And when I saw the sky starting to go green, I said to my staff, ‘This is the one office in the building with access to the basement. I think we need to go there now.’

From down there, as the tornado hit, it sounded like breaking glass was falling. I had no idea what we were going to see when we got back up to this level. Turns out, what we were hearing was hail. And, shockingly, we could only see a few melted hailstones, and there was a tree that broke and fell over in the street down the road. Looking out the window from here, none of us had damage on our cars. We didn’t know there was an actual tornado. We did not know until I got a phone call an hour later. Needless to say, I am not that crazy Midwesterner anymore.”

Tracy Fantini, MSW, LCSW, Executive Director, Housing Options Provided for the Elderly

When the tornado hit, what was HOPE already doing work-wise in trying to meet its goals?

“People over the age of 50 are the fastest-growing age group of people experiencing homelessness. This is a national statistic, and I have seen it in reality on a personal level. I attribute it to the rise in rents and housing costs over the last five years. We’ve all seen property values going through the roof and housing shortages. Because of that, landlords can get higher rents. So consider the people who were barely affording a market-rate apartment, duplex, flat — they were just getting by. And then many of their landlords said, ‘I’m not going to renew your lease. I’m going to renovate instead. Where you were paying $600 or $700, I can get $1,000 or $1,200.’ And then we started to see more people displaced. Some people didn’t know what to do, didn’t know where to go. 

We were already seeing the demand for our services increase before the tornado. We had served over 800 clients in 2024-2025, and then even more requested assistance whose needs we couldn’t meet. We see more and more living on the street or in their cars. I mean, when I started working here almost 20 years ago, those folks were mostly the young-old. Now they’re the old-old. And their age group being unhoused was a serious problem before the tornado. Add the tornado on top of it, and my case managers and I were doing whatever we could do. Many of our existing clients were affected, because the zip codes that were impacted — 63112, 63115, 63107, 63106 — are among the top five zip codes we serve anyway. So we got straight to work to identify them and try to meet their needs.

My immediate worry was not as much for those in the senior apartments because I knew they were already connected to services. The St. Louis Area Agency on Aging knew about them; we knew about them. People connected to senior centers were at least connected to some help. My concern was the older adults in their homes who didn’t know about us. So our first strategy was twofold. I had a couple of case managers in Red Cross shelters trying to identify older adults staying there so we could get to work with them straight away. We had no idea how long they would keep shelters open. And I jumped right into outreach to neighborhood hubs, like The People’s Response and 314Oasis, and all of those places that sprang up to help. I was passing out flyers letting people know HOPE can help with relocation, filling out insurance claim forms, and, since FEMA hadn’t arrived yet, applying for relief benefits. The goal was to get to agencies that weren’t regularly in the network of aging services providers and let them know we can provide services to survivors who are seniors aging.”

Tracy Fantini, MSW, LCSW, Executive Director, Housing Options Provided for the Elderly

“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