Our Mission
HESTL’s mission is to ensure there is a path to housing for everyone in the St. Louis region.
Our Vision
HESTL envisions a homeless response system across the St. Louis region that ensures homelessness is rare, brief, and non-recurring.
Where we Work
HESTL works with partners across an eight county region – spanning 4,400 square miles in the bi-state area – including the city of St. Louis and Franklin, Jefferson, St. Charles, and St. Louis counties in Missouri and Madison, Monroe, and St. Clair counties in Illinois.
Regional Work. Shared Commitment
Homelessness is a complex regional challenge. No single organization can solve it alone. Because homelessness doesn’t stop at jurisdictional boundaries, neither does our work.
Building on the expertise and commitment of providers, community leaders, and partners across the region, House Everyone STL is helping lead Bridge to Home—a collaborative effort to strengthen how our region works together to respond to homelessness.
Born from a 2024 regional planning effort led by East-West Gateway Council of Governments, Bridge to Home brings together government, business, housing, community, and lived-experience partners to develop shared strategies, strengthen connections across systems, and turn regional priorities into action.
The goal is to work together across boundaries and sectors to strengthen how our region works together to respond to homelessness —so together, we can ensure a path to housing for everyone.
How We Strengthen Our Regional Response
House Everyone STL focuses on three connected strategies: strengthening the people and organizations doing the work, bringing partners together around shared challenges, and developing solutions that can be tested, improved, and scaled across the region.
Strengthen Regional Capacity
We support the providers, communities, and systems working every day to connect people to housing. By strengthening capacity, sharing resources and knowledge, and helping partners navigate barriers, we make it easier for frontline organizations to do what they do best: help people find and keep housing.
Connect & Convene
Regional challenges require regional collaboration. We bring together providers, government, business, housing, philanthropy, and community partners to build relationships, align efforts, share knowledge, and create momentum around shared priorities.
Develop & Scale Solutions
In partnership with local providers, we identify opportunities to test new, data-informed approaches to reducing homelessness. We help turn promising ideas into practical regional strategies—learning from what works, adapting along the way, and building toward solutions that can be sustained and scaled.