Black Hills Area Community Foundation
Report date
May 2021
What has been most instrumental to your progress?
Many attempts to address housing have started and stalled. Everyone comes to the table but historically, there was no dedicated leader to continue the conversations and work toward specific goals. Through our Bush grant funding, we have been able to contract with David Lust as our Housing Consultant. David is a well respected attorney, former legislator and Speaker of the House. David most recently helped to lead the creation of Elevate Rapid City, a merger of our Chamber of Commerce, Economic Development Partnership/Foundation, and the Ellsworth Development Authority. David's connections and reputation locally and within our state helped us to move this work forward. Addressing housing requires the connection of a multitude of stakeholders, all of whom have their own work. Engaging a respected leader to drive efforts around policy, development and financing has allowed us to make progress.
By strengthening the relationship between our City's Community Development staff, other public partners, philanthropy and private business, we were able to inform the new Rapid City Strategic Housing Plan. This plan has been developed over the past two years and includes voices of multiple stakeholders including residents. This plan will help to shape our city's residential development through new tools and ordinances.
Our new partnership with CommonBond Communities is proving to be an incredible asset. In addition to their entry into the Rapid City housing market as a nonprofit development corporation, their experience with other market areas has provided us with a knowledge base for the work we're undertaking in Rapid City. Through our connection with them, we learned of local housing trust funds and their investments in affordable housing projects. We've created this tool to also support our housing work but we chose to house it at the Black Hills Area Community Foundation rather than with in a government entity. This will allow philanthropic individuals, businesses, government entities and other foundations to help us build this funding mechanism. In May of 2020, the Rapid City Strategic Housing Trust Fund (RCSHTF) was created and the RCSHTF Advisory group was formed with representation from the City, County, philanthropy, and business. Alan Solano of the John T Vucurevich Foundation was chosen to chair the group. Program related investments will be vetted by the Advisory group and recommended to the Black Hills Area Community Foundation Board of Directors.
Key lessons learned
Philanthropy, beyond traditional nonprofit support, is a powerful catalyst and can influence and inspire public and private partnerships to better address intractable issues. Housing and homelessness, whose issue is this? There are so many components that affect housing, it really belongs to everyone. Taking ownership and responsibility to address housing for our city and region needs to be shared and owned by everyone - city, state and federal government, economic development, the nonprofit community and philanthropy.
Not necessarily a failure - just a postponement of our plans. Our timing was terrible - who could have predicted a global pandemic just when we were gaining momentum? We did create the Trust Fund and begin our work. We primarily focused on keeping people housed, eviction mitigation and support for rent/utilities assistance in the form of grants rather than program related investments for development and retention of housing inventory. The funding we were able to offer created a much needed bridge to address these needs prior to federal funding becoming available.
Public policy and advocacy requires consistent messaging and reinforcement from multiple stakeholders. These efforts alone require a significant and consistent amount of time and energy - in a nutshell - this became a larger share of our work than anticipated. With additional funds coming into our State through various pandemic relief plans, there are significant funds available that could be invested in housing. We continue to work to build our case for a share of these funds to be allocated for local administration. In our last legislative session, Senate Bill 155 was introduced to provide funds for housing in Rapid City and Sioux Falls. The bill had momentum in the Senate but died in the House as the dollars grew and the entire state's needs were added to the bill. We did draw significant attention to the issue and housing is one of two topics chosen for the summer legislative study. The Public Policy director for Elevate Rapid City along with David Lust, led this advocacy work.
Reflections on the community innovation process
I believe that collaboration is most important. Housing is such a multi-faceted, intractable issue. It is critical that we continue to share a common agenda and monitor reinforcing activities with continuous communication and data sharing. Housing is a systemic issue and efforts need to be made to create change at multiple intervention points. More inventory is only a part of solution. Supportive services for residents and landlords, inclusivity and cultural sensitivity are also important to keep people housed.
Progress toward an innovation
Our progress is represented through the new Rapid City Strategic Housing Plan that includes incentives for development as well as livability - tools to insure safer standards for rental housing through pro-active rental inspection. The plan also includes the new Strategic Housing Trust Fund, Transportation review and the City's Community Development Block Grant process for our allocation from HUD, recognizing that all of these components should work together. Through our COVID response efforts, and in some ways, because of these efforts, the partnership network addressing the needs of our homeless and those in transition has been strengthened. I do believe that we are closer to more solutions now than ever before, but I also recognize that we still have a long way to go. We have several new components in place that address the housing system differently. The challenge will be the continued weaving of resources - public, private, and philanthropic - and the ongoing commitment of change makers.
What it will take to reach an innovation?
1)We need to build our Trust fund so that this resource can be deployed in housing projects. Currently, we are working to leverage philanthropic funds to gain City and County investments which we will leverage to request state funded support. The money is there, the challenge is convincing the state entities that local control of the funds is imperative. A one-size-fits-all approach at the state level will deter applications and inhibit the investment of these resources. This advocacy will be the primary focus of the work over the next 6-10 months.
2)We need to get our first PRI out the door - hopefully to CommonBond as they move closer to land acquisition. This first PRI will demonstrate the revolving nature of the Strategic Housing Trust Fund and the reinvestment of these dollars, year after year.
3)We need to continue to support organizations who are working to transition people from homelessness to supportive housing to stable and sustainable living situations.
2)We need to get our first PRI out the door - hopefully to CommonBond as they move closer to land acquisition. This first PRI will demonstrate the revolving nature of the Strategic Housing Trust Fund and the reinvestment of these dollars, year after year.
3)We need to continue to support organizations who are working to transition people from homelessness to supportive housing to stable and sustainable living situations.
What's next?
Continuing to work with City staff and council to refine the city's Strategic Housing plan, reiterating the importance of proactive rental inspections and a rental registration database.
Growing our Strategic Housing Trust fund and deploying our first PRI from the Strategic Housing Trust Fund.
We need to continue advocacy efforts with governmental entities as well as private developers and property managers.
We are planning an all day housing summit on October 20th (previously planned for May 2020), to report progress, generate interest and discussion, and prepare continued advocacy.
Growing our Strategic Housing Trust fund and deploying our first PRI from the Strategic Housing Trust Fund.
We need to continue advocacy efforts with governmental entities as well as private developers and property managers.
We are planning an all day housing summit on October 20th (previously planned for May 2020), to report progress, generate interest and discussion, and prepare continued advocacy.
If you could do it all over again...
1) There will be a global pandemic that will completely change the focus of these efforts from adding housing inventory to keeping people housed. A year later, construction costs will skyrocket.
2) In a crisis, people find the time to listen and work together. Priorities change.
3) We need some new legislative representation from several districts in western South Dakota. As in our nation, our state parties are widely divided.
2) In a crisis, people find the time to listen and work together. Priorities change.
3) We need some new legislative representation from several districts in western South Dakota. As in our nation, our state parties are widely divided.
One last thought
It is no surprise that efforts to address housing fall by the wayside. There is no quick fix, this requires patience, persistence, and continuity.
Projected Outcomes for this grant were:
Create a nonprofit development corporation or partner with an existing organization such as CommonBond, to build and manage needed affordable housing stock to reduce the gap of 3500 affordable units.
Establish public/private partnerships with for-profit developers to leverage available resources and expertise.
Expand donors and investors for affordable housing through development and implementation of additional options, including charitable and impact investing funds and implement program related investments for affordable housing projects.
Encourage affordable housing development with forward thinking ordinances, infrastructure assistance and incentives by Rapid City and Pennington County.
All four of these outcomes have been met and require continued efforts to produce needed housing stock and improved livability for our most financially challenged residents.
Projected Outcomes for this grant were:
Create a nonprofit development corporation or partner with an existing organization such as CommonBond, to build and manage needed affordable housing stock to reduce the gap of 3500 affordable units.
Establish public/private partnerships with for-profit developers to leverage available resources and expertise.
Expand donors and investors for affordable housing through development and implementation of additional options, including charitable and impact investing funds and implement program related investments for affordable housing projects.
Encourage affordable housing development with forward thinking ordinances, infrastructure assistance and incentives by Rapid City and Pennington County.
All four of these outcomes have been met and require continued efforts to produce needed housing stock and improved livability for our most financially challenged residents.