$200M in housing money won’t be available in time for summer construction

GOED involvement in SD Housing program catches lawmakers by surprise

(Kenny Eliason / Unsplash.com)

Bureaucratic red tape will keep home builders from tapping into a $200 million workforce housing program for a second construction season.

While the money got allocated by the Legislature in early 2022, it didn’t get disbursed during last year’s construction season due to drafting errors in the original funding bill. That’s why lawmakers, who didn’t want to miss yet another year of building, rushed to get a clean-up bill passed in January for the workforce housing program, which will use $150 million in state funding and $50 million in federal funding to cover utility and infrastructure costs associated with housing developments.

But now South Dakota Housing Development Authority officials say it could be September or later before the organization begins to consider applications from builders, developers and communities seeking a portion of the funds.

NEWS: Lawmakers scramble to fix $200M housing bill