PROVIDENCE
– For every 100 extremely low-income households, Rhode Island provides just 54 affordable and available units, according to a new report by the National Low Income Housing Coalition.
On Thursday afternoon, the coalition released the most recent edition of its annual report, The Gap, which reports on affordable housing availability throughout the U.S. with state-by-state data.
Rhode Island made some improvement from the coalition's 2025 report, which found 47 affordable homes available per 100 extremely low income renters. But the NLIHC says that with Rhode Island's small sample size, this change is not statistically significant, said Nicole Dotzenrod, a spokesperson for the Housing Network of Rhode Island.
Rhode Island sits above the U.S. average of 35 affordable rental homes available for every 100 extremely low-income renter households, the report states. The NLIHC also ranks Providence-Warwick as having the least severe housing shortage among U.S. metro areas.
Still, "Even after controlling for other factors, there's a correlation between the share of the rental stock that is HUD-assisted in a metro area and the prevalence of severe housing cost burdens for the lowest-income renters," Dotzenrod said. "The larger the HUD-assisted share, the lower the prevalence. This is evidence that housing assistance works, especially in places like Providence, and that we just need more of it.
With the entire country experiencing a dire housing shortage, the U.S. needs another 7.2 million affordable and available rental units. In the Ocean State, the report says, another 23,222 of these units are needed to serve the state's 50,063 extremely low-income households.
Rhode Island housing advocates say that the data highlights an ongoing battle to meet affordable housing needs.
“The annual Gap report reflects what too many Rhode Islanders are living every day:
rents that stretch paychecks beyond their limits and impossible choices between
housing, food, medicine and other basic needs," said Melina Lodge, executive director of the Housing Network of Rhode Island.
"We are still not producing enough homes affordable to residents with the lowest incomes, leaving families without the stability they need to thrive,” Lodge continued. “At a time when federal housing resources are increasingly uncertain, we must recommit to reversing decades of underinvestment and restrictive land use policies and expand deeply affordable housing so people can count on a safe, stable place to call home.”
In a statement, Housing Network of Rhode Island called for more subsidies towards affordable housing production and preservation, as well as more opportunities to subsidize the difference between market rate rentals and what the state's lowest-income renters can afford.
Brenda Clement, executive director of HousingWorks RI at Roger Williams University, said that The Gap report's findings align with the nonprofit's own research, which was highlighted in HousingWorks RI's annual Housing Fact Book.
"For the first time, Rhode Island renters need an income that exceeds the renter median income [$48,434] to affordably rent anywhere in the state," Clement said in a statement. "Similarly, homeownership is out of reach. Even with an income of $100,000, potential homebuyers are priced out of homeownership opportunities throughout Rhode Island."
The Gap report also found that more than 70% of extremely low-income renters in Rhode Island are housing cost-burdened, meaning that they spend more than 30% of their income on housing expenses. Additionally, 55% are severely housing cost-burdened, with more than half of their income going toward housing.
Jacquelyn Voghel is a PBN staff writer. You may reach her at Voghel@PBN.com.
