March 2022 | Page 31

share of their income on housing , which as the numbers above illustrate , is a lot of our fellow citizens . The shortage has been building over five decades . From the early 1930s to the early 1970s , the federal government played a key role in producing and maintaining affordable housing . But , in 1973 President Richard Nixon halted the production of new rental units and homeownership programs administered by the Department of Housing and Urban Development . And although the moratorium was lifted the following year , it marked the federal government ’ s sharp shift away from producing affordable housing to leaving it to the states and the private market . The structure of federal programs changed to tax incentives and rental subsidies , but there was no new significant federal investment . In the early 1980s , homelessness became a national issue , but after the public ’ s initial shock , it simply became institutionalized with no real coordinated national strategy to address it .

Advocates have long argued that the lack of affordable housing was a hindrance to economic development . Then came COVID and the associated economic downturn to exacerbate the problem and give it greater visibility — especially among the lowestincome people facing eviction .

“ The problem has also crept into the middle-income group ,” says Brenda Clement , director of HousingWorks RI . “ There is no community in Rhode Island where the average median income of $ 63,000 for a family of four can afford to buy a home . That ’ s a big workforce retention and attraction issue .”

The NLIHC estimates 21,678 rental units are needed just to serve the bracket of verylow-income households in Rhode Island . A 2016 analysis by HousingWorks RI , which factored population and household incomes under two scenarios , estimated that the state would need between 34,600 to 40,000 new units of housing by 2025 .

The size of the ARPA package — $ 1.8 billion over two years — gives the state an opportunity to finally make a substantial investment instead of relying on periodic housing bonds . Since 2006 , the voters have approved four affordable housing bonds totaling $ 190 million dollars , which has been leveraged to develop and rehabilitate nearly 2,000 units . However , Rhode Island

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