Sioux Falls/Minnehaha county saw an almost 30% increase in homeless in one year;
In South Dakota, more than 1,100 people don’t have a place to call home, and over half of them live in Sioux Falls. Monday, the results of the one day homeless count in Sioux Falls were released.
“We had 618 homeless, and 218 of them were children,” Maria Krell, Executive Director of Good Shepard Center said.
In 2012, the homeless in Sioux Falls totaled 435 people.
Krell said, “It’s really a lack of affordable housing.”
Stacey Tieszen, who serves on the Sioux Falls Homeless Advisory Board, agrees. She said Sioux Falls did a study in 2010 that showed the city was 1,000 affordable housing units short, and we would need to build 250 units each year from there on to keep up with the growth of the city and the wages being paid.
“We’re not building that, we aren’t even remotely keeping pace with that, so we are behind the eight ball already,” Tieszen.
Tieszen said in order to afford a two bedroom apartment that costs around $800 a month, a person would have to make $14.61 an hour.
In Minnehaha County, for 44 percent of people surveyed in this count, this was their first time being homeless.
We have a combination of low unemployment, and the jobs that do exist are low paying, forcing many to have multiple jobs. Pile on the constant property tax increases, rate increases for utilities and the lack of affordable housing and what happens? People are forced to hit the streets. What’s even more scary is the amount of people who are ‘borderline’ homeless, and teetering on the edge.
There are things ‘Businesses’ can do;
– Pay workers more, but hire quality employees and train them well so you don’t have to have as many. It will balance out in the end.
There are things ‘Government’ can do;
– ONLY award TIF’s to affordable housing projects.
– REVOKE all other TIF’s that have nothing to do with affordable housing, and start charging them the proper property taxes.
– Reduce property taxes for individual property owners, especially those on fixed incomes.
– REVOKE the food tax, for everyone! Or on at least raw & fresh foods.
– Implement a corporate income tax
These constant tax breaks to those who can afford to pay the most in taxes has to end. We need to take the burden off those who can least afford it. Sadly, as Janoct Adja pointed out when running for mayor the first time, ‘even the homeless in our community have to pay taxes.’
This culture of working the poor to death without providing them affordable housing has to end. But the culture of handouts to the special interests at city hall has to end also to make this work. Once city hall has done everything it possibly can to make it more appealing for contractors to build enough affordable housing in our community, then, and only then, can we start talking about hotels on public golf courses, pickleball courts, and private indoor tennis courts for the mayor and his buddies.