On Feb. 27, R.I. House Speaker Joseph Shekarchi (D-Warwick) announced a 12-bill legislative package in response to Rhode Island’s ongoing housing crisis. The bills aim to expand affordable housing options by addressing zoning laws, building codes, higher density development and more.
“Four years and almost 50 new housing laws later, we are still chipping away at the barriers that have made development in Rhode Island more costly and more cumbersome than necessary,” Shekarchi said in a press release.
This is the fifth housing bill package that Shekarchi has proposed since becoming speaker in 2021. Each successive package is “designed to build upon the previous efforts,” explained House Spokesperson Emily Martineau.
In the press release, Shekarchi noted that low-income residents are disproportionately impacted by rising rents and home prices in Rhode Island.
“The workers who are the backbone of our state — teachers, nurses, first responders and other working families — deserve to be able to comfortably reside within the communities they serve,” he added.
“There is no community in Rhode Island right now where the average people making the median income can afford to buy a home,” Martineau wrote.
Martineau referenced data from the HousingWorks RI 2024 Housing Fact Book, which found that those who earn R.I.’s median household income — $81,370 — and median homeowner income — $107,452 — cannot easily afford to buy or rent a home nearly anywhere in the state based on the median single-family home price in 2023.
In addition to R.I.’s housing affordability crisis, the state is facing a significant housing shortage, State Rep. June Speakman (D-Bristol, Warren) wrote in an email to The Herald.
“Rhode Island has one of the lowest rates of building production in the country,” Speakman added.
As the chair of the House Commission on Housing Affordability, Speakman was heavily involved with the development of the housing legislative package, which aims to increase housing production to “bring down prices for both homebuyers and tenants,” she explained.
Speakman sponsored two bills in the package: one focused on increasing the state’s housing units through single-family dwellings, and another seeking to amend the Low and Moderate Income Housing Act to refine the type of units that can be considered affordable housing.
But she added it was “not likely” that these policies would lower prices quickly enough to “help folks pay their rent” — an issue that would require additional legislation to address.
The package incorporated feedback from several housing commissions that focus on areas ranging from housing affordability to land use regulations, according to Martineau.
“While all of these bills individually do different things, collectively, they’re trying to make it easier to develop” housing, said Brenda Clement, the executive director of HousingWorks RI.
But Clement is skeptical about the power of these amendments to create change and said she “would like to see more … legislation working directly with (R.I.) communities.”
Despite her skepticism, she remains hopeful about the impacts of the legislative package, as it focuses on issues that the state needs to address to “move forward” in the housing sector, she said.
Pavani Durbhakula is a senior staff writer and photographer. She is a first-year from DC and plans to study IAPA and Public Health. In her free time, she enjoys baking, reading, and searching for new coffee shops.
