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 sometime 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 the 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, former 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 was 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 last 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.
This story was reported and published by the Rhode Island Current.
