News

PROVIDENCE — The Housing Network of Rhode Island and Homes RI, a multi-sector housing advocacy coalition, are pleased to see the General Assembly’s continued emphasis on housing reflected in key legislative initiatives and the FY24 budget. 

On July 5, the Governor signed into law a package of 13 bills championed by House Speaker Joseph Shekarchi aimed at housing production and land use reform, including: 

• Allowing for the adaptive reuse of certain commercial structures like factories, hospitals, offices, malls and schools into high-density residential developments.
• Creating a transit-oriented development pilot program.
• Streamlining and clarifying the permitting, application and appeal processes for housing developments.
•  Requiring regular updates to comprehensive plans.

The package also contained legislation to prohibit rental application fees and allow tenants to provide their own state-issued background check and/or credit report during the screening process. The inclusion of this bill (House 6087 aa, sponsored by Rep. Cruz, and Senate 311 Sub-A sponsored by Sen. Murray) among the Speaker’s priorities yielded a significant protection for prospective renters designed to curb burgeoning and often predatory fees associated with rental applications.

In addition to the application fee legislation, the General Assembly approved several more significant tenant and homeowner protections – firmly signaling that the expansion of these protections is essential to increasing housing stability while the State undertakes measures to address housing supply and affordability. These include a package of lead poisoning prevention bills backed by Attorney General Peter Neronha. One of the highlights of the AG’s bill package is legislation that creates a statewide rental registry and will help enforce compliance with existing lead safety laws, among other protections for renters impacted by noncompliant landlords. A bill requiring replacement of residential lead pipes – a priority of Senate President Dominick Ruggerio – also passed, making this session an historic one for advancing policies and practices to prevent childhood lead poisoning in Rhode Island.

The General Assembly also passed legislation that provides a pathway to seal eviction records, something that has been a priority of Homes RI and many advocate partners  since 2018. Legislation to extend the time on foreclosure mediation legislation also passed, which helps ensure that Rhode Islanders at risk of foreclosure can access free mediation and counseling to potentially avoid the loss of their home. 

The FY24 Budget reflects the Administration and General Assembly’s response to the housing crisis, and we applaud both branches of government for taking decisive action with an additional $71.5 million investment from State Fiscal Recovery Funds in housing, homelessness services, and Housing Department infrastructure. These investments are welcome and necessary, and investments in housing should remain a top priority in future budget years as our State confronts the impacts of under-building and under-investing for the prior three decades. 

Overall, the housing investments in the FY24 budget coupled with the slate of land use  and housing stability legislation

PROVIDENCE – The Housing Network of Rhode Island is pleased to kick-off Rhode Island Community Development Corporation Week (March 13-17) with the release of the Network’s 2021-2022 Membership Impact Report.

The Housing Network of Rhode Island (HNRI) is the state’s membership organization of Community Development Corporations (CDCs) and nonprofit housing developers, who are committed to expanding equitable housing and economic opportunities for low-income Rhode Islanders.

The Housing Network’s members are a critical piece of the state’s housing development sector and essential to ensuring every Rhode Islander has a safe, healthy, affordable home in a thriving community. The Impact Report details the contributions to Rhode Island’s communities and economy of our 15 member nonprofits from 2021 to 2022.

PROVIDENCE – The Gap: A Shortage of Affordable Homes, a new report released today by the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC), finds a national shortage of 7.3 million affordable and available rental homes for extremely low-income renter households.

Between 2019 and 2021, the shortage of affordable housing for extremely low-income renters worsened by more than half a million units. While rental inflation has cooled going into 2023, extremely low-income renters will continue to face significant barriers to finding and maintaining affordable housing, as their incomes are insufficient to cover even modest rental prices.

Every year, The Gap reports on the severe shortage of affordable rental homes available to extremely low-income families and individuals. The new Gap report finds that the economic repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic, followed by significant rent increases, drastically impacted the supply of affordable and available rental homes in recent years. As households lost income and rental prices increased, the number of extremely low-income households rose, while the number of units affordable to them shrank.

In Rhode Island, there are 51,596 extremely low-income households but only 27,547 affordable rental homes available to them. Rhode Island has just 74 affordable and available rental homes for every 100 households with extremely low incomes.

Facing a shortage of 24,049 affordable and available rental homes, 60 percent of Rhode Island renter households are severely housing cost-burdened, spending more than 50 percent of their monthly income on housing.

“According to this year’s Gap report, more than half Rhode Island’s renter households are severely housing cost-burdened. Since a disproportionate share of their income is being spent on monthly housing costs, this makes it difficult for these households to afford other essential needs, such as food, child and healthcare expenses,” said Housing Network of Rhode Island executive director Melina Lodge. “The staggering shortage of affordable and available rental homes means that it is imperative that Rhode Island continue to invest in policies and programs that will expand our stock of affordable homes, and we must act with urgency. Fortunately, there is a window of opportunity for us to capitalize on, with strong leadership in the House of Representatives by Speaker Shekarchi and the availability of federal resources to make initial investments – Rhode Island can still turn its housing crisis around.”

“Each week, the Coordinated Entry System Help Center receives over 1,000 calls from Rhode Islanders suffering due to the devastating housing crisis in our state. This Gap report demonstrates what we are all experiencing, the supply of housing does not meet demand,” said Caitlin Frumerie, executive director of the Rhode Island Coalition to End Homelessness. “When there isn’t enough supply, people are left with nowhere to go and often end up living outdoors. In the last two weeks, there were 379 Rhode Islanders who are unsheltered and scores more who are housing insecure. We must address this gap before the crisis worsens.”

“The Gap report is a great resource to help us think about how we are serving the needs of our extremely low-income renter households. Beyond