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ST. LOUIS — Mayor Cara Spencer said Tuesday night she is working to keep every single resident displaced by the recent tornado from leaving the city. And she said she would stake her reputation on her success or failure.

Spencer reminded residents at a church in the Grand Center neighborhood she campaigned on reversing the city’s long-running population decline, and she wasn’t going to waver now.

“We want to keep everybody here in ӣ����Ƶ,” she said, “and I want my record to be tied to how we keep people here.”

The remarks doubled down on an already audacious objective: City leaders have been trying to reverse population decline since the 1950s without success. When Spencer said during her campaign that she would tackle the problem, even those who wished her well said it would be a steep climb.

Now Spencer aims to do it in the wake of one of the worst storms in the city’s history, a storm that tore trees out of the ground, ripped off roofs, and pulled entire rooms off home after home here.

David Jackson, a North Side resident and advocate for Black contractors who backed Spencer’s campaign, was cheered by her message.

“That shows she’s committed to ӣ����Ƶ,” he said. “We need these people.”

Alderwoman Sharon Tyus, of the Kingsway East neighborhood in the path of the storm, liked the optimism, too. It may not be possible to keep every person, she said.

“But if you don’t dream the impossible dream,” she said, “you don’t get near it.”

Still, the road ahead is daunting.

As of Monday, building inspectors had found significant damage to more than 2,500 buildings in the tornado’s path. More than 1,100 had been “red-tagged,” marking them as so damaged they are unsafe to enter. The city assessor estimates it could cost more than $500 million to replace the buildings that have been lost. And already, some residents who have lost their homes have said they’re not sure they’ll be back.

City and state leaders are scrambling to put together money to help rebuild.

Gov. Mike Kehoe formally requested money from the federal government over the weekend to help people fix their homes and cover other expenses.

On Tuesday morning, aldermen introduced bills to waive some property taxes for people whose houses were rendered uninhabitable and channel money to help people pay for interim housing.

A short while later, Kehoe said he would ask state lawmakers to authorize a tax deduction to offset the cost of insurance deductibles, and to pump $25 million into an emergency housing assistance program.

And on Tuesday night, Spencer said the city was looking at ways to free up unspent federal pandemic aid to help with recovery, which she said could contribute tens of millions of dollars to recovery efforts. 

But uncertainty remains. People in the audience at the church Tuesday night asked question after question about how the money would get to them or their neighbors, and whether it would be enough to rebuild what was lost.

Stan Stewart, 63, of the Greater Ville neighborhood, said people would be waiting for more than words. He said Spencer’s pledge was no surprise: The city needs residents.

“I would think that a mayor would want to be a mayor of somebody,” he said. “But they need to make things happen for the people.”