I just tried the relative path using both
background-image: url(../~stxmill/images/home_page/background.jpg);

and this
background-image: url(../images/home_page/background.jpg);

Neither one displayed the background so i reverted back to how i had it for now. I can make the image larger and that isn't difficult by any means but the larger the image the larger the file size which means longer download time. Thought I could prevent that somehow.