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New housing trust fund gets big boost from Elevate Rapid City
A standard household dedicates 30% of their household income on housing. That is the threshold used by experts to determine what is “affordable” housing. But in Rapid City, that is the exception far more than it is the rule. In fact, more than half of Rapid City households earning less than $20,000 per year were spending more than 50 percent of their income on housing.
This is a problem. The disparity creates a ripple effect across the economy. Money spent on housing, means less money spent in other areas. “We know that if people and families have to spend more than 30 percent of their incomes on the cost of housing each month, it’s too much, and prosperity goes down, not up,” said Tom Johnson, President and CEO of Elevate Rapid City. “We simply can’t have this.”
Some of this gap is caused by a limited market. TheRapid City area is short nearly 3,500 units costing less than $900 per month. Rates continue to climb, while incomes do not.
In a community already struggling with affordable housing, what happens in a crisis?
April saw unemployment rates in Rapid City skyrocket. People were without jobs. Bills were not slowing down. Something needed to be done. With people concerned about work, health and safety, they should not also have to worry about facing eviction.
This is why Elevate Rapid City made a major contribution to the Affording Housing Initiative by committing $150,000 to the Rapid City Strategic Housing Trust Fund at the Black Hills Area Community Foundation.
“The Strategic Housing Trust Fund is the result of the collective impact work that has been ongoing over the past few years in Rapid City, working to solve the pressing need of affordable housing in the area,” said Alan Solano. Solano chairs the advisory group that will make recommendations for the release of funds in the form of grants and low interest loans. “Using a collective impact approach brings a broad array of stakeholders together under a shared vision. Part of that vision was the creation of a local housing trust fund.”
While the trust fund is still in the start-up phase, Solano says the initial response from the local philanthropic community and Elevate Rapid City has been very strong. Tom Johnson of Elevate says affordable housing is a quality of life, workforce, business development, and infrastructure issue all wrapped into one.
To address short-term needs, the Rapid City Strategic Housing Trust Fund is being used to assist residents with rental and utility assistance in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Half of Elevate Rapid City’s $150,000 contribution to the Rapid City Strategic Housing Trust Fund is designated for immediate housing-related needs resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Short-term uses of the trust fund, which is housed at the Black Hills Area Community Foundation, include rental retention and economic assistance.
