Report: affordable housing is a ‘crisis’ in RI

A HousingWorks RI report released on Thursday said that affordable housing has reached crisis proportions in every city and town in the state.

Rhode Island’s Affordable Housing Fact Book said a family making $50,000 a year can’t afford to buy a median-priced home in any community in Rhode Island and that families who earn less that $35,000 a year – 42 percent of Rhode Islanders – can’t afford the average rent for a two-bedroom apartment in any community in the state.

Hose Majority Leader Gordon Fox said legislators are determined to work with advocates to help find long-term solutions that make living in Rhode Island affordable for families.

“Until we can build a society in which each and every one of its members has access to affordable housing then none of us can truly feel secure within the walls and beneath the roofs of the homes we once thought were our birthright,” said Fox.

This year, two and a half million dollars was added to Neighborhood Opportunities Program, the only program providing direct funding in the state budget for new housing. The annual budget is now $7.5 million In four years, the imitative has created over 600 affordable homes, according to HousingWorks. An additional $300,000 was pegged for the state’s Supportive Services Program, an effort designed to house the chronically homeless and provide the necessary services to create stability in people’s lives while decreasing the use of state funded services.