Rhode Island House Speaker Joe Shekarchi unveiled Thursday a 14-bill package that he predicted will spark production of affordable housing in the state.
One of the bills would reduce the number of steps in the permitting process for affordable housing, from three to two. Others would encourage the production of accessory dwelling units; incentivize housing near rail and bus lines; make easier the adaptive reuse of commercial structures, such as the former Memorial Hospital in Pawtucket; and eliminate rental application fees.
Shekarchi stressed that lawmakers are not imposing new affordable housing mandates on local municipalities.
“We will remove barriers and streamline the process, but the decisions will be made locally,” he said, while joined by other lawmakers, state Housing Secretary Stefan Pryor, nonprofit leaders and others during a Statehouse news conference. “Nothing will prevent a city or town from denying an affordable housing project, or any project, except their own consciousness.”
He declined to predict how many units the legislation may produce, but said the goal is to create housing at different income levels.
If approved, all but one of the bills would take effect next Jan. 1.
The package marks the latest step by state officials to confront a housing crisis that has developed over decades, due to slumping production and soaring real estate values.
Last year, lawmakers approved $250 million in federal COVID aid for housing, with $170 million of that going for housing production, although the spending of the money is still in the works.
Other bills in the package would standardize the notice requirements for land-use planning, extend the life of a legislative land-use commission, and repeal the State Housing Appeal Board, in favor of what Shekarchi called a more direct appeal to the Superior Court.
Cortney Nicolato, president/CEO of the United Way of Rhode Island, was among those attending the news conference.
“This legislation, and many of the housing-related bills we are seeing this session, are building critical momentum that must be kept going,” she said in a statement. “We applaud Speaker Shekarchi and our state representatives for their work on this important next phase and look forward to ramping up the pace this session and next so we can better move the needle in the direction our state needs.”
Shekarchi said the bills were not watered down in response to concerns from some local communities about possible state mandates.
He said he didn’t look at drafts of bills until earlier this week.
“One particular person was running around, scaring everybody,” Shekarchi told reporters. “I had a woman from Glocester call me up, hysterical that … I was going to put a Chad Brown [housing project] in the middle of Harmony. I don’t know where this idea – it’s a false narrative, it’s deliberate misinformation and it caused a lot of angst in a lot of communities.”
Ian Donnis can be reached at idonnis@ripr.org. Follow him on Twitter @IanDon. You can sign up for email delivery of his weekly RI politics newsletter.
