Under the Arch | S5 Ep. 5: "What's Next for the Workhouse" ft. Inez Bordeaux

After emptying the notoriously hellish Workhouse jail in June of 2022, the City of St. Louis promised the community would decide what happens to the site and the land around it. It established a committee of people impacted by the jail to survey the community and put forward a proposal to re-envision the site, which has since been released. But this spring, the Jones administration ignored the community’s recommendations and announced plans to continue St. Louis’ history of disappearing vulnerable people onto the Workhouse site.

“Building tiny homes at the Workhouse is unconscionable. I am disgusted at the idea of it, and everyone involved in putting this plan together ought to be ashamed,” says Inez Bordeaux, Deputy Director of Community Collaborations at ArchCity Defenders and a lead organizer with the Close the Workhouse campaign. “It is incredibly clear that while we were engaging in this process that the mayor had no intentions of following the recommendations put forward.”

This week, we talk to Inez about her journey from nurse to organizer extraordinaire, the findings of the Re-Envisioning the Workhouse committee’s report, and the environmental and moral concerns of Jones’ plan to move St. Louis unhoused to the Workhouse site.

Read the Re-Envisioning the Workhouse report here. 

This week's Music Minute features the song "Can Tell Me Nun" by MC Tres. Follow him @mctres on social media and listen to his music on your favorite platform.