SD Program Aims to Bulldoze, Build, Beautify
September 15, 2017
PIERRE, S.D. – South Dakota is offering a new solution to the state's workplace housing shortage.
It’s a program called Bulldoze, Build and Beautify.
State officials say they've identified about 3,000 dilapidated structures across South Dakota that could be demolished and the property used for other purposes.
So the state is taking $1 million from the Community Development Block Grant provided by the federal government to remove blights from South Dakota communities.
Aaron Scheibe, deputy commissioner of the South Dakota Governor's Office of Economic Development, says it will help working-class South Dakotans.
"The solid workforce of a lot of our companies throughout the state,” he explains. “Individuals who earn a good wage, so they're not eligible for a lot of housing assistance programs, but maybe are not in a position to go out and to build their own house in the country or on the edge of town."