Castles in the Sky
Can Rhode Island meet the crushing demand for affordable housing ?
Scene : A woman in a white tank top stands before a large patch of bare earth . The day is hot and sunny ; the woman cups her hand over her eyes to shield them from the glare . The camera is steady , but the image is blurry . Off-camera Male Voice : “ Welcome to your new home .” The smile on the woman ’ s face teeters between disbelief and joy . Woman : “ We got approved ? For real ? Did Daynah call you ?” Off-camera Male Voice : “ Just now .” Long pause . Woman scans the lot behind her . Her smile grows as if the Publishers Clearing House Prize Patrol is behind the camera with balloons and an oversized check . Woman : “ We have a house ?” Off-camera Male Voice : “ We have a house .” Woman squeals with happiness , jumps up and grabs the camera man . The shot goes sideways , then to black . The video on NeighborWorks Blackstone River Valley ’ s YouTube channel captures the moment Thea Fielding-Lowe ’ s husband tells her that the couple has been accepted into the U . S . Department of
ILLUSTRATION : MEAGHAN SUSI AND TOMMY / GETTY IMAGES .
Agriculture ’ s Mutual Self-Help Housing Program . The sixty-yearold program provides mortgage financing for low- and very-lowincome borrowers who work together to build each other ’ s homes in rural areas . It funds organizations , like NeighborWorks , to administer the program and supervise the construction , says program manager Daynah Williams .
The clip also wraps up the state ’ s affordable housing crisis in thirty-seven seconds .
The United States is currently short of about 6.8 million units of housing . The National Low Income Housing Coalition reported in July 2021 that a minimum wage renter can only afford a one-bedroom apartment in 7 percent of counties , because median rents have been galloping past median renter income since 2001 . The upshot , according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities : about twenty-three million low-income renters pay more than half of their income for housing .
The numbers in Rhode Island are no better . More than a third of Rhode Island households spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing costs . Of this group , 43 percent spend more than
RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY l MARCH 2022 27