Shekarchi Defends Housing Policies as Rents, Home Prices & Homelessness Are Up

Shekarchi Defends Housing Policies as Rents, Home Prices & Homelessness Are Up

For three consecutive years, Speaker of the House Joe Shekarchi has introduced dozens of bills to improve Rhode Island’s housing situation. In the first two years, 20 Shekarchi housing bills passed.

During this legislative session, he proposed another dozen bills.

But while the bills keep passing, the impact, in the short-term, appears to be minimal.

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In fact, by nearly every measure, the housing market has gone from bad to worse.

 

Rhode Island in Focus

- In 2024, the number of people experiencing homelessness in Rhode Island increased by 35% from the previous year. 

- Rents continue to skyrocket. Providence led the nation with the highest year-over-year increase in rents — a whooping 12+%, according to rent.com.

- The median price of a single-family home in Rhode Island is now approaching $500,000. And the prices are expected to increase in 2025.

When asked about the lack of positive impact, Shekarchi did not respond, but his office claimed that there has been an increase in housing starts.

“According to the 2024 Housing Fact Book published by HousingWorks RI at Roger Williams University, in 2023, a total of 2,453 building permits were sought in Rhode Island; comparatively, in 2022, 1,436 building permits were sought – thus representing a 70% increase in one year,” said Shekarchi’s office.

Rhode Island continues to be last in the country per capita for housing starts.

Despite the flurry of Shekarchi bills, the impact in the first two years has produced a minimal yield.

 

Taxpayers Are Funding Hundreds of Millions

Shekarchi's office did outline that he has pushed through tremendous spending.

"RIHousing administered over $206 million of SRFF in 2024, of which $197 million has been committed and $116 million has been expended, representing either new development or preservation of existing development, for a total of 1,595 homes. The total pipeline of units in RIHousing-financed developments at some stage of development from 2021-2024 was 6,458 units [less than 1,700 units a year]," said Shekarchi's office.

Additionally, voters in November 2024 approved a $120 million housing bond, the largest in Rhode Island’s history.

There are also questions about how effectively taxpayers' funds have been spent. 

In November, RIPEC found Rhode Island’s housing program project costs have been "de-emphasized," and over half of the projects had total development costs of more than $400,000 per unit, and three exceeded $500,000 per unit.

These costs rival luxury buildings and, in some cases, are double the cost of federal projects.

The RIPEC report on the cost per unit is in stark contrast to a recent review of the cost of housing developed by the federal government.

“Average per-unit costs were $232,000, most for one-bedroom apartments, in a review of a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development program designed to build and preserve affordable housing,” found The Center Square. The Department of Housing and Urban Development's Housing Trust Fund program needs better oversight, according to a new report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

Rhode Island needs to build more than 34,000 new homes to meet demand, according to HousingWorks RI; the state needs to build an average of 2,200 to 3,087 new housing units each year to maintain existing housing levels.