PROVIDENCE – City Councilman David A. Salvatore on Thursday introduced a proposal that would dedicate half of the city’s real estate conveyance tax to affordable-housing creation.
The resolution requests that the city reserve half of its existing tax on real estate transfers for the needs of families who are having difficulty accessing affordable homes.
The city now collects nearly $2 million in revenue annually from the state’s real estate conveyance tax, Salvatore said.
If the City Council authorizes his proposal, half of that would go to the Providence Affordable Housing Trust Fund.
Salvatore cited the 2019 Housing Fact Book, produced by HousingWorks RI at Roger Williams University, which found that outside the East Side, households in Providence need to earn $60,000 annually to afford a home in the city. On the East Side, the household income level rises to $100,000 to comfortably afford a home.
“This is not rocket science,” Salvatore said in a news release. “We have an affordable-housing crisis in the city of Providence, but those of us in power just talk about it. We need to actually do something about it.”
Salvatore, who represents Elmhurst, Wanskuck and other neighborhoods on the northwest side of Providence, works as a lobbyist for the Rhode Island Association of Realtors.
Mary MacDonald is a staff writer for the PBN. Contact her at MacDonald@PBN.com.
