RAPID CITY, S.D. – The Black Hills Area Community Foundation will receive $3 million to incentivize affordable housing in Rapid City, the group announced Friday.
The donation is from the Bush Foundation, a philanthropy organization that offers grants in South Dakota, Minnesota and North Dakota.
“This award is the Bush Foundation’s largest program-related investment in South Dakota, and it will have a significant impact on affordable housing issues in Rapid City,” said marketing director Karabeth Borresen in a news release.
The organization’s gift includes $2 million for the Community Foundation’s Housing Trust Fund. The fund was established in 2021 to improve housing affordability for people earning between $20,000 and $50,000 per year. It offers low interest loans to multi-family housing developers.
“We are so excited to continue to work with the Bush Foundation through our Housing Initiative,” Liz Hamburg, CEO of the Black Hills Area Community Foundation, said in a news release. “This is a long-term investment from the Bush Foundation that helps us continue the work of the Strategic Housing Initiative and spread the local housing trust fund model across the region.”
This January, the state legislature passed a $200 million allocation to create a similar revolving loan fund for housing infrastructure.
Other funds will go towards the Community Foundation’s broader efforts to improve housing affordability, including $1 million for the organization’s Strategic Housing Initiative and $250,000 to plan and evaluate its housing-related efforts.
The Rapid City area needs around 5,500 new housing units by the year 2030, according to research from Elevate Rapid City.
The donation is the Bush Foundation’s largest program-related investment in South Dakota. The Bush Foundation was created by Archibald Granville Bush, who helped grow the company 3M.
