Study: Housing funding creates $400M in activity

PROVIDENCE – In what its authors call the first study of its kind, HousingWorksRI released a report on May 7 that said $25 million deployed by the state for affordable housing generated nearly $400 million in economic activity.
The $25 million comes from a $50 million bond approved by voters in 2006. In 2007 and 2008 – the period the study covers – the state spent $25 million of the $37.5 awarded since the Building Homes Rhode Island program started. HousingWorks said that leveraged $230.9 million in federal and private money and supported $149.3 million in wages.
The study also said that the $25 million has created or maintained 3,060 jobs and anticipated that when the bond is fully spent, it will lead to more than 6,100 direct and indirect jobs throughout Rhode Island.
Commissioned by HousingWorksRI, the roughly $13,000 study was undertaken by I Squared Community Development Consulting in Cranston and New England Market Research Inc. in Middlebury, Vt. &#8226