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Yahoo
14-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Could RI create 15,000 new housing units by 2030?
EAST PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) — The R.I. Department of Housing announced an ambitious goal on Thursday to create 15,000 new housing units by 2030. The number was part of the department's draft Housing 2030 plan presented to lawmakers at the Special Legislative Commission to Study Housing Affordability on Thursday night. Policy analyst Patrick Duffy said the state also wants to create 1,000 low-cost homeownership units, triple the number of ADUs permitted, increase multifamily homes by 50%, and finance 2,250 affordable rental units. By comparison, Duffy said that in the last five years (2019-2023), Rhode Island had permitted 8,444 housing units for construction. 'We are really trying to walk the line of being ambitious in what we need to do but also putting forward goals that are going to be achievable,' Duffy said. During a taping of WPRI 12's Newsmakers on Friday, Acting Housing Secretary Deborah Goddard said it will take a combination of targets and incentives to get there. 'Targets for every community and incentives for communities that are making or progressing towards those targets, and withholding those incentives from those who aren't,' Goddard said. The 2030 plan is expected to be made open for public comment in March, according to Goddard. She said the 15,000 units aren't exclusively homes, but are 'across the spectrum.' 'Homeownership, rental. Within rental, some permanent supportive housing and some very low-income,' Goddard explained. The plan also assumes that all 39 of Rhode Island's cities and towns are on board. Last month, Johnston Mayor Joseph Polisena Jr. blocked a 225-unit affordable housing project after he announced plans to seize land through eminent domain. The mayor said the town would build a comprehensive public safety municipal complex on the property. Polisena Jr. argued the project would overwhelm the town with nearly 600 new residents and create what he called a 'trifecta of chaos:' increased traffic, drainage issues, and an influx of students. 'I am all for building housing, but when we say housing, I mean in the sense of single family homes,' Polisena told 12 News last month. 'I think that's really where the pressure point is in the market right now.' Goddard said she was disappointed to learn Polisena Jr. blocked the project, but said it will be part of her job to convince Rhode Islanders why these projects will help municipalities. 'Folks across the state need housing, and we know one thing is that a lot of times the folks that need the housing, or the folks that support the housing, their voices do get drowned out by the negative,' Goddard said. 'So, part of what we need to do is help lift up those voices.' Goddard said the state will conduct a study in the upcoming months to examine the municipal fiscal impact that creating affordable housing units has on a city or town. 'We're going to do the research… bring it up to speed,' she said. Goddard admitted meeting the 2030 plan goals wont be easy, but said it can be done and can get more developers on board to build in Rhode Island. 'It's slogging work, it's plotting work. No doubt,' she said. 'But I do believe that if you're willing to do that slogging work, if you're willing to work municipalities, if you're willing to work with folks in every region, you can get more of the yeas to come out and support something.' Alexandra Leslie (aleslie@ is a Target 12 investigative reporter covering Providence and more for 12 News. Connect with her on Twitter and on Facebook. Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
14-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
15,000 new homes in four years? R.I. housing officials set ambitious target.
Rhode Island Department of Housing Policy Analyst Patrick Duffy, right, presents the draft Housing 2030 plan before the Special Legislative Commission to Study Housing Affordability on Feb. 13, 2025. To his left: Acting Housing Secretary Deborah Goddard. (Screencap/CapitolTV) The Rhode Island Department of Housing envisions 15,000 new homes receiving building permits within the next four years — assuming each of the state's 39 municipalities are on board. Acting Housing Secretary Deborah Goddard and department Policy Analyst Patrick Duffy presented that lofty goal in the state's draft Housing 2030 plan Thursday before the Special Legislative Commission to Study Housing Affordability. The plan is expected to be made open for public comment some time in March, Goddard said. Goddard is one of the commission's 17 members. The state in 2023 commissioned Abt Associates of Cambridge, Massachusetts, to draw up a statewide housing plan meant to guide policy decisions and future. 'It will also help guide the use of federal funds, which of course, remains to be seen,' Goddard told the panel of lawmakers, referring to the ongoing court battles over the Trump administration's freeze on federal grants and aid. 'We remain hopeful.' The housing department's presentation notes fewer than 8,500 new homes were permitted for construction between 2019 and 2023. A lot of the state's blame still lies on local zoning ordinances that prevent higher density structures from being constructed. Roughly 20% of Rhode Island is zoned for two-family homes, according to the housing department's presentation. The housing department also wants to get more towns to allow developers to bypass local zoning under the state's Low and Moderate Income Housing Act, which limits the ability of municipalities to block projects if less than 10% of their residences qualify as affordable. Only eight communities across the state have hit or exceeded that 10% goal in the three decades the law has existed, according to the housing department's presentation. 'We're treading water,' Duffy said. So how does the state plan to get towns on board in building more homes? By meeting with municipal leaders to see what makes sense to construct in their communities. The Housing 2030 plan also calls on providing technical assistance to towns looking to create more homes. 'Having goals is one step, but actualizing on those goals and getting there is going to require action,' Duffy said. High property costs have also contributed to the state's slow construction rate. Land values skyrocketed 81% between 2012 through 2022, according to the housing department presentation. House Minority Leader Michael Chippendale, a Foster Republican, placed much of the blame on people who work in Boston, who he said bid with cash on the spot and waive all home inspections. 'Our professional children who are trying to establish themselves in Rhode Island cannot compete with that,' he said. 'There is a very real dynamic that the more we build, the more we're building for Boston.' Commissioner David Caldwell, president of the Rhode Island Builders Association, commended the state's lofty goal, but said it will all mean nothing if developers can't quickly get their necessary permits. He cited the yearlong process to open ECHO Village, the 45 one-room shelters off Victor Street in Providence that were first assembled last February and finally welcomed the first occupants on Wednesday. The state had planned to get the shelters open by last March, but were delayed partly because officials struggled to figure out how the cabins fit into the state's fire and building codes. Fire permits were ultimately approved in April 2024. A building permit was issued last June. An opening ceremony for ECHO village took place on Tuesday. 'The ECHO Village project, unique though it may be, is an example of how hard it is to get anything done in this state,' Caldwell said. 'I can keep you here from hell to breakfast with all the ways this just gets dragged out endlessly to the point where folks like me just don't bother anymore.' When he meets with developers from across the country, Caldwell said they can't believe how long it takes to get a permit. Indeed, a 2019 analysis by the Wharton Residential Land Use Regulatory Index found that the Greater Providence area was the third most heavily regulated metro area in the country for housing — just behind San Francisco and New York. The state's performance was cited at least three times during the meeting. 'That's shameful, we need to work on that collectively,' Goddard told commissioners. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
