The recent appointment of Stefan Pryor as the state’s housing secretary has some observers feeling confident that he can take the R.I. Office of Housing and Community Development in the right direction, although they say his predecessor’s missteps aren’t the only reason for the office’s initial shortfalls.
Gov. Daniel J. McKee established the housing office last year, appointing Joshua Saal as the first person to lead the agency in July 2022. Saal, a Brown University alumnus, previously worked in the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development.
But as the months went on, Saal faced bipartisan criticism for a lack of action in addressing Rhode Island’s severe shortage of affordable housing.
Scott Wolf, executive director of Grow Smart Rhode Island, is optimistic that Pryor can turn the office’s perception around, despite his previous experience as Rhode Island’s commerce secretary not pertaining directly to housing policy or programs.
Running an organization as large as R.I. Commerce Corp. meant dealing with some housing issues, Wolf said, even if that isn’t the economic development agency’s main focus. And prior to entering Rhode Island’s political scene, Wolf notes, Pryor led a quasi-public entity that planned the redevelopment of the area of Manhattan badly damaged in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Those experiences running large governmental agencies will serve him well in leading the relatively new housing office, Wolf says
State Rep. June Speakman, D-Bristol, who chairs the Special Commission to Study the Low and Moderate Income Housing Act, agrees that Pryor has the experience needed for the role, but she believes that criticisms leveled exclusively at Saal aren’t entirely fair.
“I actually think [Saal] was not given enough time to do the work that he was assigned to do,” Speakman said, adding that initial demands were compounded by protests and a lawsuit surrounding a homeless encampment outside the Statehouse in December that McKee had ordered cleared.
“Now that we have a Cabinet-level Department of Housing, I think the secretary of housing needs to look at all the agencies in state government that deal with housing to figure out what they do and how to consolidate them,” sad Speakman said. “Secretary Saal offered this plan, and I think Secretary Pryor will probably use it as a stepping-off point,”
Although Saal resigned in January, he hasn’t left the department yet. The state has hired Saal as a temporary consultant, sparking controversy for paying the former housing secretary a $105 hourly pay rate in this role.
In a statement, R.I. Department of Administration spokesperson Laura Hart indicated that Saal was hired as a consultant at least partially at Pryor’s request, stating that Pryor “views it as helpful to draw upon Mr. Saal’s input during this transition.”
Pryor did not respond to a request for comment.
In addition to consolidating the work of various departments, Pryor will also need to increase cooperation between state and local agencies, Wolf said.
“I think making that agency achieve the full vision people have for it is a pretty Herculean task,” Wolf said. “Stefan Pryor … is a talented guy, and I hope he can make progress on this, but we shouldn’t be putting all of our eggs in the basket of having a more streamlined, coordinated approach.
“We need to make sure we have more carrots, more capacity and have the state coordinate more with local government,” he said.
Stephan never achieved any real Biz Dev goals as SoC, an area in which he supposedly had some experience. What makes anyone think he will achieve any housing goals, an area in which he has zero experience?