(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: As Sioux Falls grows, the need for housing grows with it. That, combined with rising home prices are making it increasingly challenging for folks in the city to attain homeownership. Here's what the five Central District City Council candidates had to say about their approach to addressing affordable housing needs in the community.
Here's what we asked:
What role do you think the city should play in helping provide affordable housing options for our fast-growing community?
Here's what the candidates had to say (in alphabetical order):
Zach DeBoer
DeBoer said he'd like to see more infill development and filling in the blank spaces already existing in town before "starting to pave over a new corn field on the edge of town."
"When you build on the edge you’re disconnected from things like grocery stores or schools or what have you," DeBoer said, adding that he also wants to see more emphasis on "missing middle" housing like duplexes, quad-plexes, etc.
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Tommy Kunz
Kunz said the city should take a "pivotal role" in procuring things like foreclosed apartments, for example, and looking at more public housing options.
"I think we have to have a lot more public investment in tackling that instead of just relying on private companies and trying to give them grants or bonds or TIFs or anything like that in order to try to have them solve it," he said.
Matthew McKinley
McKinley did not respond to multiple calls and emails requesting an interview.
Zak Okuwe
Okuwe speculated that part of the issue is wages.
"One, I mean, we need higher paying jobs," Okuwe said. "On the other end, the city has to collaborate with landlords. We have to continue building more homes, whether it's city-donated land. But it's a tough, tough issue, and I think we just have to approach with an open mind, again, and just work together, sit at the table, get everybody together and try to find some solutions."
Bob Trzynka
Trzynka noted that when housing demand is high – as has been the case in Sioux Falls – developers tend to build properties that are the most profitable.
"One of the solutions that we can maybe approach is, as we develop large projects in downtown where there may be some requests for a TIF (tax-increment financing), is that we may be able to condition some of those TIFs on a mix of housing so that it isn't just high-end housing in one development – that you have a mix of housing so that people at various income groups can afford to be in those units," Trzynka said.
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