(Editor's note: This is just one part of a series of stories about local candidates in the upcoming June 2 primary, municipal and school board election. Find more coverage here.)
Simplified: Sioux Falls Simplified surveyed readers before talking to all of the local political hopefuls, and one of the topics that came up most was the city's approach to homelessness and supporting Sioux Falls' unhoused population. Here's what At-Large City Council candidates had to say on that topic.
Here's what we asked:
What is your philosophy when it comes to addressing homelessness in our community? And what, if anything, would you do differently than the current administration?
And here's what candidates (listed in alphabetical order) had to say:
At-Large A
Vince Danh said it's important to look both at a systemic view of homelessness and at the symptoms that lead to people being unhoused. He noted that The Link triage center has done a great job of helping on the mental health side of things, but "at the end of the day, people need homes."
"At the end of the day, we have to treat the symptoms of chronic homelessness which could be mental health, which could be drugs, which could be all sorts of different factors," Danh said. "And then at the same time we also have to figure out how we can create more supply in housing."
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James Oppenheimer said the city could start looking at options for another Safe Home-type option to help people get back on their feet, but long-term, he wants to see more focus on mentoring for Sioux Falls youth.
"It’s a short-term solution to say, well, we have this much of our population, let’s find a way to find them a house," Oppenheimer said. "That’s great in the short term. Long term, it's more important to say, 'What's causing this, and how can we solve that problem?' My philosophy would be: let's work with the youth. Let's look at different mentoring things."
Juliann Perrigo Talkington* said the issue is living costs and that if people are working and can't afford housing, there's "something amiss" in the economy. She also cited a possible root cause as "artificial economic development" or using tax dollars to create jobs.
"When an economy is at full employment and you artificially create jobs, there are not enough people to fill the openings," she said. "When this occurs, companies often fill the jobs with workers from overseas. The people from overseas are so desperate to get to the U.S. that they will accept very low wages. And sadly, these work visas have very low wage floors. When you have people willing to take jobs at these low levels, the wages for everyone are held artificially low. This means everyone, including the citizens, are impacted."
*Note: Talkington's answers were submitted via email because she was unable to sit for an in-person interview.
At-Large B
Rich Merkouris noted that addressing homelessness has been a passion of his since being elected onto the council – including serving as the chair of the city's homelessness task force.
"My focus is going to be non-law enforcement engagement, housing first where there's opportunity, and then the other thing the city needs to continue is, the city needs to systematize," Merkouris said.
He added that he'd like to see conversation about The Link, Falls Community Health and Minnehaha County Health and Human Services regionalizing.
Samantha Scarlata said she lives near downtown and sees a lot of the unhoused population firsthand. She also created a new "Adopt-a-Homeless" program to connect people with an unhoused person they can check in on and support.
"I love going to the downtown library because there’s a lot of homeless people down there, and I like talking to them," Scarlata said. "I’m constantly helping homeless people. My kids are as well."
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