Rhode Island lawmakers and advocates working to address soaring housing costs

BOSTON (AP) — A push to develop affordable housing on publicly owned land and a requirement that renters receive a four-month notice of planned rent hikes are just two of the ideas being pitched to Rhode Island lawmakers to help address rising housing costs in the state.

Other proposals, including policies aimed at discouraging investment firms from snapping up single-family homes, were raised Thursday during a meeting of a commission charged with coming up with possible bills for the 2024 legislative commission to encourage affordable housing development.

A survey release in February by RIHousing found that average rental costs increased from 2021 for all apartment sizes, most significantly for two-bedroom apartments, which increased by $161; studios, which increased by $149; and one-bedroom units, which increased by $117.

Another goal of the commission is to help identify ways to encourage cities and towns to meet their obligations under the Low and Moderate Income Housing Act to ensure that at least 10% of their housing stock qualifies as affordable.

Margaux Morisseau, deputy director of the Rhode Island Coalition to End Homelessness, said her group’s priorities include proposals to encourage communities to continue to create affordable housing even after hitting the 10% mark and to ensure renters don’t get hit unexpectedly with sudden rent hikes.

“One of the leading causes of homelessness that we’re seeing is by really astronomically raising rent prices in the market and not having enough notice to be able to meet that budget gap,” Morisseau said. “What we’re proposing is that there’s a 120-day notice given to people whose rent is going to be raised.”

Joshua Berry, a town planner for the town of Lincoln, said lawmakers should try to focus their policies to benefit families instead of investment firms by finding ways to discourage firms from buying up single family homes and pricing families out of the market.

He also said the state needs to look for more opportunities to build new housing, particularly on publicly owned land.

“I think we need a database of vacant land owned by the state that is not encumbered by open space or other conservation easements and that this land should be dedicated to low- and moderate-income housing,” he said.

In neighboring Massachusetts, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu has pushed to develop housing on city-owed parcels.

The focus on affordable housing comes as a separate legislative commission is studying the economic and social effects of the short-term rental industry in Rhode Island, including the effect of the industry on taxation, the impact on year-round and local housing markets and health and safety concerns.

Supporters of short-term rental companies like Airbnb say they provide an important service while critics say they help drive up housing costs.

Among the goals of the commission is to develop a better understanding of the scope of short-term rental activity, identify specific benefits and drawbacks associated with short-term rentals and how they vary from neighborhood to neighborhood and municipality to municipality.