22
MASTERFUL
MOVERS A groundbreaking evening of dance & live music
ONE NIGHT ONLY ! March 11 , 2022 7:30pm
VETERANS MEMORIAL AUDITORIUM
WORKS BY ACCLAIMED CHOREOGRAPHER NICOLO FONTE AND COMPLETELY REIMAGINED PRODUCTION OF CARL ORFF ’ S CARMINA BURANA
TICKETS & INFO ISLANDMOVINGCO . ORG 401-847-4470
CityState : Reporter
finally created a small permanent revenue stream for affordable housing via an estate conveyance tax for properties valued at more than $ 700,000 . Should Congress pass the Build Back Better Act , which allocates about $ 170 billion for affordable housing , the state would have more .
Rhode Island Foundation president and chief executive officer Neil D . Steinberg says that , in all his years of sitting around conference tables brainstorming policy solutions , “ this is the first time the money showed up first . But we need to plan it and we need implementation and oversight .”
Developing a strategy — the remit of new housing czar Josh Saal — will be challenging . In Rhode Island ’ s densest cities , the vacant lots are few and the deteriorated housing stock is plentiful . The state boasts dozens of affordable housing development and management organizations , but there is little coordination among them . Municipal land use laws , which have stymied the development of affordable housing for years , need reform , says Shekarchi .
“ The cities and towns , no matter what they say , prohibit or discourage development of housing ,” he says . “ For example , more than half of the communities in Rhode Island prohibit multifamily zoning . There ’ s no multifamily housing by right . You need a variance , and they make it very expensive , time-consuming and difficult . The State Planning Commission hasn ’ t updated our land use laws in thirty years .”
It will take years to bring new units online , as the cost of land , labor and materials goes up . And , in the meantime , existing affordable rentals need help with operating costs .
“ It ’ s hard to build units that serve the lower income bracket — those at 50 to 20 percent median income — because the rents they generate are very low , yet the operating costs are the sale , if not higher ,” says Jay O ’ Grady , a lending officer for the Local Initiatives Support Corporation , one of the country ’ s largest community development financial institutions . “ The state used to have an operating subsidy funded out of a line item in the budget , but that went away in 2010 . Rhode Island Housing stepped in to fund the existing contracts , but has not issued any new ones .”
There appears to be some consensus that the priority should be the very-low income .
“ I want to see income targeting for the people most in need ,” says Providence College sociologist and long-time housing advocate Eric Hirsch . “ We should start with permanent supportive housing for the chronically homeless .”
In October , the Rhode Island Foundation recommended that the state devote $ 405 million to produce at least 5,150 units of affordable housing by investing in rentals and permanent supportive housing , as well as homeownership , along with lead paint remediation for 2,850 units and renovations to at least 4,000 homes .
“ We have people working minimumwage and lower-wage jobs earning an honest living who can ’ t afford a place to live ,” Steinberg says . “ That ’ s not right .”
Thea Fielding-Lowe and Paul Lowe Jr . moved into their 1,500-square-foot saltbox on George Eddy Road in Pascoag in November 2016 . Six years later , program manager Daynah Williams still loves that video .
“ It reminds me why I do the work I do ,” she says . “ They never thought they would own anything .”
Eventually , the Mutual Self-Help Housing program will build thirty houses on this winding street a stone ’ s throw from the Pascoag Reservoir . Phase three is now underway . Another small crew of new owners shrugs off the finger-stiffening cold of a Sunday morning before Christmas to get to work . Jeannette Arroyo is helping construction supervisor Paul Brais hang sheet rock in one house . Across the street , future neighbors Cindy Desautel and June Degre stuff insulation between the ceiling joists of their little castle .
“ Sweat equity . That was our down payment ,” says Arroyo , a single mom with two young sons who worked every weekend off from her job at a medical device manufacturer in hopes of moving in by the spring . “ I love it and I built it .”
Desautel steadies the ladder , while Degre takes a turn with the insulation .
“ I ’ m working from the heart ,” Desautel says . “ I always wanted to own my own home , and I always wanted to build things .”
She gestures to studs . “ This is an even bigger dream .” �
Ellen Liberman is an award-winning journalist who has commented on politics and reported on government affairs for more than two decades .
30 RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY l MARCH 2022