CityState: Current l Edited by Jamie Coelho
Faces of the Housing Crisis
Housing security affects many people from different backgrounds including single mothers, the
disabled, veterans and the elderly to people simply down on their luck. By Jamie Coelho
According to the 2020 HousingWorks RI Factbook, more than 67 percent of families who rent in Rhode Island earn less
than 80 percent of the area median income (AMI) — less than $66,000 for a family of four. We connected with a few people who
found stability in subsidized housing, an issue that’s on the ballot this November.
HERE ARE A FEW PEOPLE WHO HAVE BEEN HELPED BY AFFORDABLE HOUSING:
ALL PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF LISC/RUPERT WHITELEY PHOTOGRAPHY, (EXCEPT FOR EVELYN’S PHOTOGRAPH). RESEARCH PROVIDED BY LISC.
EVELYN GUILLEN
Age: Thirty-nine
Location: Maplewoods, a complex
with forty affordable residential
apartments in Providence.
Background: Guillen took courses
at CCRI and URI and obtained
several financial services
certificates, but never completed
her degree. She landed a job at a
financial management company,
but when her third child was
born with severe spina bifida and
required surgery for a shunt,
Guillen needed to take time off
from work and was laid off.
The single mother of three is an
insurance broker and small
business owner, and she provides
bilingual financial education and
technical help for the elderly out
of a community room at Stop
Wasting Abandoned Properties
(SWAP), an affordable housing
community development
corporation in Providence.
Current Situation: Guillen rents a
three-bedroom apartment with
handicapped access for $909 a
month in the complex, built by
SWAP using low income housing
tax credits and investments from
RI Housing and Local Initiatives
Support Corporation (LISC).
JANE ELLIOT
Age: Eighty
Location: Harbor House, an
affordable housing complex for
the elderly in Newport.
Background: Elliot was a child
prodigy pianist who was adopted
into a strict family. She spent most
of her childhood practicing piano
and earned a scholarship to the
Juilliard School of Music in New
York. However, she decided not to
go and her family disowned her.
She moved to Hawaii, where she
hoped to start a family but never
did, and eventually moved to
Newport. She had no money and
lived in the Church Community
Housing’s homeless shelter.
Current Situation: The Harbor
House, managed by Church
Community Housing, is a
renovated convent overlooking
Narragansett Bay that has
thirty-eight small apartments.
Twenty-three are reserved for
residents whose income is at
or below 60 percent of AMI.
Elderly with an income of $35,000
or less are eligible to rent small
apartments for $820. Elliot pays
for hers with a Section 8 voucher.
ANDREW LAMSON
Age: Thirty-three
Location: A mixed-use building on
Westminster Street in Providence
with retail on the first floor and
two floors of apartments designed
for handicapped residents.
Background: After graduating
from South Kingston High School,
Lamson wanted to live independently.
He is outgoing and very
active in the Rhody Rangers, a
Special Olympics team where he
participates as an athlete in
basketball, track and golf. He loves
animals, especially his cat, Zeus.
Current Situation: After being on
multiple waiting lists for more
than six years, Lamson moved
into disabled housing managed
by the West Broadway Neighborhood
Association and served by
Spurwink Realty Development
Company, which offers supportive
services as needed. Andrew
works two custodial jobs, is on
Social Security Disability and
qualifies for the income-restricted
apartment with 50 percent of
median income. He pays $400 a
month for his small one-bedroom
apartment.
WAYNE CHURCH
Age: Fifty
Background: After returning
home from deployment in the
Persian Gulf in 1991, Church
struggled with alcoholism and
spent a year homeless, living in
a tent in the woods. He camped
through winter until his friend
connected him with Operation
Stand Down, which provides
support services for at-risk
veterans. He was set up in
transitional housing where he
lived for nearly ten years. Now
he works the third shift at Lowe’s
and has maintained sobriety for
many years and through hip
replacement surgery.
Current Situation: Church
recently moved into a single
apartment with an eat-in kitchen,
bedroom and bathroom.
Operation Stand Down Rhode
Island has eighty-eight units of
mixed housing (transitional and
permanent) throughout the state.
Residents who reside in permanent
housing pay 30 percent of
their income.
RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY l OCTOBER 2020 17