News

Month of activities planned to celebrate contributions of Rhode Island’s nonprofit affordable housing developers

PROVIDENCE – The Housing Network of Rhode Island and its members gathered at the State House on April 3 to launch Community Development Month to celebrate the impact of Rhode Island’s Community Development Corporations (CDCs) and nonprofit housing developers. 

The Housing Network is made up of 19 member organizations committed to the development of affordable homes and vital communities across R.I. Community Development Month is an opportunity to celebrate these organizations and the transformational work they do to build a brighter, more equitable future. 

“The Housing Network’s members are a vital piece of Rhode Island’s housing development sector and are at the forefront of the effort to expand equitable housing and economic opportunities for low-income Rhode Islanders. We know community development goes beyond bricks and mortar. In addition to helping to address Rhode Island’s affordable housing crisis; these mission-driven organizations are making lasting change in communities statewide by offering a variety of critical resources,” said Melina Lodge, Executive Director, Housing Network of Rhode Island. “We invite you to join us this week to learn more and celebrate the many contributions of our members.”

Following the April 3 kickoff, HNRI’s members will be hosting their own events in the communities they serve throughout the month (see full schedule below).

Based on a recent survey, Housing Network members have the capacity to produce and preserve over 2,100 homes within the next three years if the necessary resources are allocated. 

In addition to producing safe and affordable homes from Westerly to Woonsocket, our members are actively engaged within the communities they serve; maintaining child care facilities and commercial spaces; supporting community gardens and start-up food enterprises; providing job training, homebuyer counseling, landlord education and home repair funds; and offering personal and small business micro-loans or grants. 

“Community development is about comprehensively addressing a community’s needs at large and bringing parity in access to basic needs such as food security, healthcare, education, and opening other doors that deliver economic opportunity to our state’s most vulnerable populations,” said Jennifer Hawkins, President and CEO, ONE Neighborhood Builders. “Oftentimes housing is the first big step to other pieces falling into place for residents we serve at ONE NB. Over the course of nearly four decades, our organization has developed over 480 rental units and 130 homeownership units in our mission to expand more equitable communities.”

“Rhode Island’s nonprofit developers are committed to building stronger, more resilient communities. By empowering residents and educating future homebuyers through programs like homebuyer and landlord education workshops – and by providing affordable, healthy homeownership and rental opportunities for Rhode Islanders – nonprofits like NeighborWorks Blackstone River Valley are leading neighborhood revitalization efforts and encouraging economic opportunity for every resident no matter their income,” said Daynah Gist-Williams, Director of Homeownership and Asset Building Services, NeighborWorks Blackstone River Valley.

“This month, we celebrate the ways local nonprofits

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