SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — There’s a shortage of affordable housing in Sioux Falls, but a new proposal could help ease the crunch.
The plan is aimed at helping families who make about $36,000 or less.
Sioux Falls Thrive’s Housing Action Team wants to create more affordable housing in the city.
That’s why the group is proposing a Sioux Falls affordable housing trust, money set aside to develop or renovate rental properties for low-income families.
“It’s teaching assistants. It’s people who are hospitality workers. And we’re always looking at a family of four, so maybe it’s a single mom or grandpa raising two or three kids and those people are living off of way less in terms of annual income than what many of us are doing,” Sioux Falls Thrive president Michelle Erpenbach said.
Kenley Lamberty is the government affairs director of Realtors Association of the Sioux Empire, or RASE.
“The median home price right now is $320,000 in the Sioux Empire. Affordability is at an all-time low. It’s the hardest it’s ever been to buy a house. You have interest rates hitting 20-year highs right now,” Lamberty said.
Erpenbach says getting people into affordable housing can help with workforce development.
“We struggle to get people to come to work. You see it all the time, the employment signs up and down Minnesota, 41st Street. It’s difficult to get to work; it’s difficult to be involved in the community if you are just struggling day to day to pay your rent and even to have a home at all. What we’re looking for is the opportunity for everyone to have a home they can afford,” Erpenbach said.
The proposal asks for $6 million in one time money from the city’s surplus sales tax funds and policies to make the trust sustainable.
Thrive hopes the Sioux Falls City Council takes up the proposal in September during budget discussions.
