Shelter for homeless families moves toward opening

This spring, families in need of emergency shelter will be able to find a temporary home on North Western Avenue.

Only a few months of construction remain before a portion of the former Children’s Inn building will be converted into a non-congregate shelter for up to 10 families at a time.

The northern portion of the building already is being used, with Inter-Lakes Community Action Partnership staff operating out of the offices that once housed Children’s Inn employees. ICAP serves 14 counties with a variety of programs, primarily for low-income families and the elderly.

“We purchased the building in December 2022, and we moved in right away in January 2023,” said ICAP CEO Eric Kunzweiler.

Most of ICAP’s staff didn’t have to move far. Its main property then was located at 505 N. Western Ave., while the Children’s Inn 24-bedroom facility was at 409 N. Western Ave. Now, the 505 property holds ICAP’s early childhood development staff and center. ICAP’s weatherization assistance staff members now are in the former Children’s Inn building with the garage used as their warehouse. That program provides funds for income-qualifying households to make their residences more energy-efficient.

ICAP’s health staff — housing stabilization coaches and community service workers — moved to what ICAP calls its Community Commons in the 409 building. The move next door means ICAP staff are in two locations only, no longer needing to rent space.

The Children’s Inn shelter was vacated last year when the emergency housing programs for those at risk from domestic violence moved to a new building on the Empower campus on East 10th Street. It now is known as the Children’s Home Shelter for Family Safety and serves children, women and men.

When Kunzweiler toured the former Children’s Inn building more than a year ago, he knew the office space would meet his staff’s needs.

“The first time I came in, I said, ‘Oh, wow, this is perfect for our caseworkers,’” he said. ICAP’s case management sets it up beyond other programs, he said, because it supplies people with the help they need.

While ICAP is deeply involved in helping people with housing needs through its current programs, Kunzweiler did not want to involve his agency in homelessness resources.

That’s where the Bishop Dudley Hospitality House comes in. Its current shelter has space for individuals and seven apartments where families can stay temporarily, said executive director Madeline Shields.

“This is not the best place for families, but it’s the best we had when we opened in 2015,” she said. “We knew there was a great need to house homeless families. Our rooms are motel-size rooms with two beds and a dresser. … We have been looking at least two and a half years for alternative spaces. When ICAP purchased Children’s Inn and approached us, we knew this was going to be the perfect, perfect match.”

Because there isn’t enough room, Bishop Dudley Hospitality House turns away families in need of temporary shelter every single day, Shields said. On one recent morning, two families called, but all seven of Bishop Dudley’s rooms were full. Recently, when six families occupied the rooms, there were a total of 19 children being housed.

The Bishop Dudley Center for Families will offer 10 suites with private bathrooms and a small living room. Families will use the congregate dining room for meals. A one-bedroom unit will serve families with an infant. There is also one three-bedroom suite; the others offer two bedrooms.

Shields describes the units as sleeping rooms more than mini-apartments.

“This is temporary emergency shelter,” she said. “We keep reminding people, this is a beautiful place, but it’s not for them to live in. It’s shelter until they get transitioned to more permanent housing, and we’ll do that as quickly as possible. They’re not moving in their belongings, just some clothing. Nothing else comes with them.”

Families at Bishop Dudley Hospitality House stay on average 60 to 70 days, Shields said. Some families can be there for as little as a week; others who are more difficult to house may be there for three or four months.

“We have people that are really easy to house, they have jobs, they have savings, but for whatever reason they lost their housing, and we can help them find a place to move into,” Shields said. “Some have back rents they owe, thousands and thousands of dollars, and it may be a long time to get them back into housing. They have to pay the back rent that they owe before they can find a place to live. That’s why our family coordinators and case managers are so key in working with families and individuals.”

Drywall went up in the new shelter this month, and Shields and Kunzweiler anticipate a late March or early April move-in.

Shields describes this winter as “extremely challenging,” with the below-zero temperatures in January as brutal on guests and staff.

The new facility will allow Bishop Dudley staff to expand the programming that is offered. The homeless shelter already collaborates with South Dakota State University Extension to offer cooking classes, which can be enlarged with more room in the space.

Currently, there is no room to bring in experts to talk about financial literacy and renters’ rights, although individuals can visit one-on-one.

“The new facility has a dining room space where we can bring in financial experts to talk about the need to work on financial stability and how they can help,” Shields said. “We’ve already started talks with a bank about providing education for the guests. This is going to be great for families.”

People’s housing needs also are a key focus for ICAP, Kunzweiler said. His agency thinks outside the box when coming up with solutions such as using federal funds for non-congregate apartments.

Several years ago, a Low-Income Housing Tax Credit project offered 62 one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments to qualifying families in Sioux Falls. In 2019, a LIHTC project, Lacey Village Townhomes, offered 46 units in six new two-story buildings in northeastern Sioux Falls.

Now, ICAP has partnered with Lloyd Cos. to develop a new LIHTC property, FortyOne Flats. The 41-unit affordable housing project will be at 41st Street and Ellis Road in southwest Sioux Falls. It should be completed in July.