Chamberlain is a crappy place to live… says the free market, which prefers tourism dollars over workforce housing:
In recent years, Chamberlain has seen development of very few new homes and has been losing some family housing to conversion of existing properties into short-term rentals, said Sheena Larsen, executive director of the Lake Francis Case Development Corp [Bart Pfankuch, “Chamberlain Gives Away Land to Spur New Housing Development,” South Dakota News Watch, 2025.10.13].
That focus on short-term lodging sandbags Chamberlain’s basic economic sustainability:
The overall lack of housing – a common problem in small South Dakota cities and towns – is holding back growth by limiting options for new residents and employers, she said.
“With the school or the hospital, anytime they need employees, the biggest thing is trying to find a place for them to live,” Larsen said. “A lot of times, they take the job and can’t find a place to live, so they have to turn it down” [Pfankuch, 2025.10.13].
So, just like that great socialist Abraham Lincoln, Chamberlain’s leaders have to redress market failure by giving away land:
The land giveaway is part of a municipal subdivision development project that began in 2018 when the city spent $900,000 to buy a 60-acre tract south of downtown and east of Interstate 90, said city administrator Clint Soulek.
The property was divided into 30 housing lots, one multi-family lot for apartments and 11 commercial lots for businesses, he said.
Not long after buying the land, the city gave away 11 buildable housing lots through a computerized lottery system to applicants who met financial parameters and promised to begin building within 18 months, said Soulek, who was on the city council at the time.
The city created a tax-increment financing district, then spent about $2 million in taxpayer money and another $2 million in state and federal grants to hire contractors to build roads and curb and gutter and to extend sewer and water systems to the neighborhood, he said.
“With the free lots, it entices people to get things moving quicker,” Soulek said. “Without this, I don’t think there’s any way we can grow” [Pfankuch, 2025.10.13].
Without socialism, there’s no way Chamberlain or South Dakota would grow.
No thanks I don’t need the neurotoxity.