Latest news with #RIHousing
Yahoo
02-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Winning the lottery: East Providence school site turned into income-restricted housing
EAST PROVIDENCE – What was once the Platt-Waters school complex in East Providence has been turned into eight new homes and three duplexes built by a nonprofit, sold via a lottery for well below market value. City and state leaders gathered at one of the three new duplexes on Hoppin Avenue on April 22, to celebrate the project, saying that adding the six new units will help alleviate, even a small amount, the state's housing crisis. The three new duplexes were sold for $239,000, well below the market rate and below what the eight other single-family homes sold for, around $550,000 to $600,000. The three duplexes cost SWAP, the contractors who built the duplexes, around $450,000 to $475,000, including the cost of the land. East Providence Mayor Roberto DaSilva said he grew up in a two-family house, on the second floor, in Washington Park in Providence. "Thanks to that, my family was able to achieve the American dream," DaSilva said. The three duplexes were sold via a lottery to people making up to 80% of the area median income, $62,950 for a single person, $71,950 for a couple. A family of four could have made up to $89,900. SWAP Executive Director Carla DeStefano is a huge proponent of duplexes because they add greater density and they give home buyers an income stream to offset the cost of their mortgage, although often times, family members move into the additional units. "We're essentially subsidizing almost one full unit," DeStefano said. In October of last year, DeStefano's group sold five duplexes for $309,000 in South Providence on Portland Street. The higher price point reflected the higher maximum income limit, 100% of the area median income, $78,680 for a single person or $112,400 for a family of four. The city's plan was to subdivide the former school site and sell eight 7,500-square-foot lots, which have all been turned into single-family houses, and three 10,000-square-foot lots for income-restricted housing, which were sold to SWAP. DeStefano had to ask the city for a zoning change to allow her to build duplexes, instead of single-family homes, on the three lots the city sold her organization for income-restricted housing. Those lots are big for a city. As an example, Providence allows buildings on lots up to 10,000 square feet to be totally exempt from parking requirements, which allows for dense apartment buildings. DeStefano said she teased DaSilva about East Providence's restrictive zoning requirements and that he takes to heart concerns over the need to increase density. Selling for $239,000 duplexes that cost $450,000 to $475,000 to build represented a significant subsidy to the homebuyer. Funding to subsidize the income-restricted houses was provided by: RI Housing's site acquisition grant RI Housing's homeowner investment fund RI Housing's pre-development grant Centerville Bank offered mortgages that did not require private mortgage insurance, or PMI. With the new single-family homes up on Hoppin and Burnside avenues, some decisions on landscaping, including fences, will be up to the new buyers. The other new homeowners on the eight smaller lots haven't put up fences yet, DeStefano said. "It's almost like a subdivision where everybody needs to decide," she said. When she was growing up, neighbors left their yards open and children treated them as one big field, although she suspects, with lots so large, some people might put up fences close to the house and leave much of their yards unfenced. While SWAP doesn't normally use vinyl siding on its properties because of its fragility in the dead of winter, the group did for these duplexes to make them fit in with all the other new builds. A few trees still need to be planted as part of the landscaping. SWAP has a drawer full of house designs that are usually pulled for any given project, which reduces costs because the nonprofit doesn't have to pay an architect every time they want to build a new house. In this instance, DaSilva did not want all of the houses to have extensive second floors, so SWAP reconfigured several past designs. One building, the most popular, was the "classic up-and-down" with three bedrooms on the first floor and a two-bedroom unit on the second floor. "We can put this house on, easily, 3,500 square feet in the city," DeStefano said. "These houses can literally go anywhere." "With all the hoopla about (accessory dwelling units), what we really need to focus on is the model that probably already exists in all 39 cities and towns in Rhode Island," DeStefano said. "It's these houses. They fit right into every community." Thanks to our subscribers, who help make this coverage possible. If you are not a subscriber, please consider supporting quality local journalism with a Providence Journal subscription. . Follow Wheeler Cowperthwaite on X, @WheelerReporter, or reach him by email at wcowperthwaite@ This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Three income-restricted duplexes sold by lottery in East Providence
Yahoo
17-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
McKee submits budget amendment to streamline Rhode Island's housing bureaucracy
Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee has submitted a budget amendment seeking to reduce bureaucratic hurdles hounding the Department of Housing's governance structure. (Photo by Christopher Shea/Rhode Island Current) Under a budget amendment filed by Gov. Dan McKee on Wednesday, the Rhode Island Department of Housing would be renamed the Executive Office of Housing in a move designed to consolidate state housing governance. Changes stem from a 141-page report that Housing Secretary Deborah Goddard submitted to state leaders at the end of 2024. The General Assembly as part of its fiscal year 2025 budget had asked the Department of Housing to review and recommend ways to streamline housing governance across Rhode Island as part of the state's fiscal year 2025 budget. 'By introducing this budget amendment, in collaboration with the Department of Housing, we are taking a critical step toward creating a more efficient and unified housing governance structure,' McKee said in a statement. 'This is about providing real, lasting solutions for Rhode Islanders, and I am committed to making them a reality.' Under the plan, the state would merge the Housing Resources Commission and the Advisory Council to the 20-member Interagency Council on Homelessness into a single advisory body. The existing Housing Resources Commission consists of 18 members from the public and private sectors. The Interagency Council on Homelessness met for the first time in seven years last December with the intention to reform its advisory council once the budget amendment is approved, said Housing Department spokesperson Emily Marshall. State law requires at least three members of the advisory council be involved with the homeless community. McKee's amendment would codify the Secretary of Housing as the permanent chair of the board of commissioners for RIHousing, the quasi-state agency that finances affordable home construction. New year, new potential name for R.I.'s housing department The new Executive Office of Housing would also take over administration of the state's Housing Production Fund. Created by the General Assembly in 2021, the fund is supported by real estate transfer tax revenue and has been managed by RIHousing. Officials at RIHousing are still reviewing McKee's budget amendment, Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer Christine Hunsinger told Rhode Island Current. Such changes would help state agencies work better together to clear some of the regulatory redundancies stunting Rhode Island's housing development, according to the announcement from the governor's office. 'The state's housing challenges require a unified and coordinated approach,' Housing Secretary Deborah Goddard said in a statement. 'By implementing these structural changes, we can ensure that the state's resources are being used effectively, and that we are making measurable progress in addressing the housing needs of Rhode Islanders.' Housing officials want to have 15,000 total new homes permitted by 2030, but getting new homes built has been incremental at best. The department's latest integrated housing report released Tuesday found that between 2021 and 2024, Rhode Island added 4,365 new units — representing a 0.9% increase to its housing stock between those three years. The state permitted 2,655 new units for 2024, according to the report. McKee's office said the governor believes the department's governance recommendations are what the state needs to produce long-term benefits for Rhode Island's housing sector, along with reducing homelessness. At least 2,442 unhoused people across Rhode Island were counted when volunteers from the Rhode Island Coalition to End Homelessness conducted an annual survey in late January 2024 — up 35% from the 2023 count. The coalition conducted its annual Point-In-Time count for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development on Jan. 28, but results aren't expected to be released until some time in the summer. Every three years starting around July 1, 2026, the department must create a statewide plan to address and end homelessness. But affordable housing advocates have concerns about the state's ability to take on more responsibility — especially as uncertainty continues over federal funding toward housing projects. 'Over 75% of the funding that we get for housing and homelessness programs comes from the federal government,' HousingWorks RI Director Brenda Clement, who serves on the Housing Resources Commission, said in an interview Thursday. 'I don't want to create something in state government that is not fundable.' Clement declined to comment on the state's plan to create a single advisory body. House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi has not yet reviewed the governor's amendment, chamber spokesperson Larry Berman said in an email Thursday. The House Committee on Finance is expected to schedule a public hearing some time after lawmakers return from their April recess next week. The State House this year is considering a dozen new proposals in a package of bills aiming to encourage new home construction including legislation that would make it easier to subdivide oversized lots, allow vacant or unused state-owned land to be developed, and encourage municipalities to convert vacant commercial space into homes. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Boston Globe
10-04-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
Collaboration is key to easing Rhode Island's housing crisis
At the same time, the speaker has spearheaded a series of legislative packages designed to streamline the development-permitting and approval process, and provide consistent statewide standards for land use development, while leaving decision making in the hands of cities and towns. Now, with Speaker Shekarchi's fifth package of housing legislation, we have the opportunity to build on that by addressing key obstacles that have made housing development in Rhode Island unnecessarily expensive and complex. It is indicative of the collaboration that has marked these proposals that the legislation has garnered the support of the Get Rhode Map A weekday briefing from veteran Rhode Island reporters, focused on the things that matter most in the Ocean State. Enter Email Sign Up Related : Advertisement In particular, we are pleased to see that the legislation will continue to streamline and digitize the land use approval and permitting process. Several of these bills also focus on increasing the diversity of housing types allowed under zoning ordinances, a much-needed strategy given that 87 percent of Rhode Island is zoned for single-family by right according to the The combination of increasing investment and removing regulatory barriers to housing development is critical to growing the supply of housing in Rhode Island, and these efforts are already bearing fruit. From 2021 to 2024, there were over 3,000 new housing units financed by RIHousing that are working their way through the development pipeline. Additionally, in 2023, over 2,400 units were permitted statewide, the most in a single year since before the Great Recession. Related : The housing crisis is a challenge that impacts all Rhode Islanders. However, with Speaker Shekarchi's new package of housing bills and the continued support of our community partners, we are making real progress. By cutting through red tape, incentivizing affordable housing, and embracing new ideas, we can create a future where all Rhode Islanders, regardless of income, can find a home they can truly call their own. Advertisement The state Department of Housing and RIHousing are grateful for the speaker's dedication to addressing the state's housing needs and look forward to the passage of this important legislation, so we can continue to work together to build a more affordable, sustainable Rhode Island for generations to come. Deborah Goddard is the R.I. Secretary of Housing and RIHousing board chair, and Carol Ventura is the CEO of RIHousing.
