Changes are coming to homeless services in St. Louis in 2026, with the leader of the organization established to coordinate big-picture, regional solutions to homelessness departing abruptly in mid-December. That organization—House Everyone STL—will soon look for a replacement for her.
Samantha Stangl, who had been executive director of House Everyone STL for two-and-a-half years, left the organization abruptly in mid-December, citing personal reasons for the change. A message she sent out, including to SLM, came on December 18, giving the following day as her final date in the job. She said she would “continue supporting the work in background” until February. Stangl did not respond to requests for comment Monday.
Get a fresh take on the day’s top news
Subscribe to the St. Louis Daily newsletter for a smart, succinct guide to local news from award-winning journalists Sarah Fenske and Ryan Krull.
Stangl has described the organization—first established in 2021—as a “backbone” organization to coordinate big-picture strategizing for other non-profits that help unhoused people. Importantly, House Everyone takes a strategic role instead of being a direct service provider, like a traditional shelter.
“This was Samantha’s decision to move on to what’s next in her career,” says Mike Sorth, who is now serving as House Everyone’s interim executive director. “It was not a contentious, you know, negative thing. It was just her making a decision that it was time.”
In 2024, Stangl told SLM that she was hoping to channel funds to pilot programs that help move unhoused people into permanent housing. Sorth says plans are still underway to get those off the ground by spring. That work involves working with landlords who might have housing that could meet those needs, and connecting resources to the people that need it, he says.
A coalition of providers came together to form the new nonprofit that became House Everyone with the intention of coordinating federal resources independently, and focusing on a regional approach, rather than doing most of that work through the City of St. Louis, which had historically received federal funds for homelessness services and then distributed them. Providers had found it difficult to work with the city, and House Everyone was designed to become the conduit to the federal government and, in Stangl’s words, “alleviate the pain points” of federal reimbursement and contracting.
As the organization is now focused on shelter support for the winter, Sorth says the board of House Everyone STL will likely mount a search for a replacement in February. Part of Stangl’s mandate was to think about issues surrounding homelessness in St. Louis systemically, a trait Sorth says the organization would look for in a new leader.
“While losing a good person is never something you want to happen, the organization was set up to survive it just fine,” he says. “The board will make sure they take the time to select another good person that is capable of doing the job. We’ll see how that takes shape over the next couple months.”
Sorth’s full-time job is as the vice president of business capacity services for Let’s Build Hope, a consulting firm focused on working with nonprofits to improve operations. Sorth had already worked with Stangl before her departure, and was picked by the board to be an active leader while it searches for a new, permanent leader.
House Everyone is a partner with the regional leadership organization the East-West Gateway Council of Governments, which is made up of leaders from more than 20 counties and political subdivisions in the area, including St. Louis Mayor Cara Spencer, St. Louis County Executive Sam Page, and St. Charles County Executive Steve Ehlmann. That partnership is called the Bridge to Home initiative, which a spokesperson for East-West Gateway says will continue. “We are deeply grateful to Samantha Stangl for the work she did last year building partnerships across counties and organizations, and we are excited for the work ahead,” it said in a statement.
House Everyone’s most recent tax filing made public through ProPublica’s Nonprofit Explorer, for the fiscal year ending in June 2024, showed revenue of $207,042 and expenses totaling $372,983. That filing showed five full-time employees at House Everyone (it did not list any salary information for them).
When asked to name some of the major successes of House Everyone, to date, Sorth mentioned a summit in 2024—before he started working with House Everyone—that coordinated service providers, municipal leaders, and others, to talk about how to best pilot permanent supportive housing programs. He said they’re also working on a consolidated platform for organizations to coordinate volunteers, allowing volunteer time to be distributed more evenly.
He also highlighted $166,000 in “winter flex funds” in a newsletter announcing his interim position recently, which he says can go to support service providers in the region during the coldest months.
“We’re not running shelters,” he says of House Everyone STL. “We’re not running feeding programs or anything like that. What we’re here to do is to help those organizations … and then work with the business and civic community—through our partnerships with East-West Gateway and [Greater St. Louis, Inc.]—to make sure that the resources that they can bring are being taken advantage of.”
