PROVIDENCE – Rhode Island has directed more than $600 million toward housing in recent years, but a new report finds the state is still producing relatively few new units.
The Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council report released Thursday found that between 2021 and 2025 the state allocated a total of $644.1 million toward housing, including $467 million for direct production and preservation.
Yet despite that investment, output has lagged and costs have remained elevated.
In April, $52.2 million in 2024 bond funding, along with other state sources, supported 200 newly constructed units –184 designated affordable and 16 market-rate – at an average total development cost of $512,377 per unit, according to RIPEC.
The state portion covered roughly 51% of that cost, or $283,782 per unit.
The report also noted that per-unit costs were nearly 50% higher than comparable private-market multifamily developments, while 92% of newly built units were restricted to households earning below 80% of area median income.
But no units were targeted for middle-income households, RIPEC said.
Taken together, RIPEC found that the state’s 2024 and
proposed 2026 housing bonds are projected to yield just 642 net new rental units – covering less than one-third of the state’s Housing 2030 production target.
Overall, cumulative spending since 2021 is expected to generate about 2,207 affordable units, meeting under 10% of the estimated 23,222-unit affordable housing gap.
The report argued that while funding levels have increased, policy design has not consistently translated investment into scale and calls for shifting more resources toward maximizing unit production, expanding middle-income housing, and streamlining housing programs and governance.
The report also recommended directing a larger share of future bond funding – up to 50% – toward middle-income housing, which RIPEC argues has been underserved under current subsidy structures.
R.I. House Minority Leader Michael W. Chippendale said the report underscores what he called a gap between spending levels and outcomes, arguing that “the real measure is not dollars spent – it is units produced.”
“That is not a sustainable housing strategy," Chippendale said. "In fact, it is a sign of failed strategy.”
Even as Rhode Island moves toward a more centralized housing strategy, the report concluded that higher spending alone has yet to meaningfully close the gap between policy ambition and housing supply.
(UPDATE adds comments from Michael W. Chppendale in paragraphs 12 and 13.)
Matthew McNulty is a PBN staff writer. He can be reached at McNulty@PBN.com or on X at @MattMcNultyNYC.
I am a Business Representative for the painters union and the organizing director for the RI Building and Construction Trades Council. I walk union and non union construction projects across the state every week of the year. I speak to construction workers and contractors daily.
The states strategy for housing production really needs some work.
RI Housing has a race to the bottom strategy for building housing and too many non profit developers have a phobia of trying something different.
The industry currently has a strategy of using low road contractors who do not have training programs in any meaningful way. They frequently utilize undocumented immigrant labor, pay low wages, do not offer benefits such as health care (so the state is also subsidizing that as well ultimately ). Safety on the sites range from moderately risky to down right life threatening.
A model based on exploitation of labor is not sustainable, has no answer for workforce development that is direly needed in the industry to replenish aging workforces, is morally wrong, and is ultimately very unproductive.
Utilizing labor standards such as responsible contractor ordinances would be a good first step in stopping the worst abuses. Mandating apprenticeship programs would allow for workers to learn skill sets in entry positions of the industry. Utilizing prevailing wages and project labor agreements would allow more housing to be built that is high quality and delivered on time and on budget.
The current system is broken, and change needs to come.