Under a budget amendment filed by Gov. Dan McKee on Wednesday, the Rhode Island Department of Housing would be renamed the Executive Office of Housing in a move designed to consolidate state housing governance.
Changes stem from a 141-page report that Housing Secretary Deborah Goddard submitted to state leaders at the end of 2024. The General Assembly as part of its fiscal year 2025 budget had asked the Department of Housing to review and recommend ways to streamline housing governance across Rhode Island as part of the state’s fiscal year 2025 budget.
“By introducing this budget amendment, in collaboration with the Department of Housing, we are taking a critical step toward creating a more efficient and unified housing governance structure,” McKee said in a statement. “This is about providing real, lasting solutions for Rhode Islanders, and I am committed to making them a reality.”
Under the plan, the state would merge the Housing Resources Commission and the Advisory Council to the 20-member Interagency Council on Homelessness into a single advisory body.
The existing Housing Resources Commission consists of 18 members from the public and private sectors. The Interagency Council on Homelessness met for the first time in seven years last December with the intention to reform its advisory council once the budget amendment is approved, said Housing Department spokesperson Emily Marshall.
State law requires at least three members of the advisory council be involved with the homeless community.
McKee’s amendment would codify the Secretary of Housing as the permanent chair of the board of commissioners for RIHousing, the quasi-state agency that finances affordable home construction.
The new Executive Office of Housing would also take over administration of the state’s Housing Production Fund. Created by the General Assembly in 2021, the fund is supported by real estate transfer tax revenue and has been managed by RIHousing.
Officials at RIHousing are still reviewing McKee’s budget amendment, Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer Christine Hunsinger told Rhode Island Current.
Such changes would help state agencies work better together to clear some of the regulatory redundancies stunting Rhode Island’s housing development, according to the announcement from the governor’s office.
“The state’s housing challenges require a unified and coordinated approach,” Housing Secretary Deborah Goddard said in a statement. “By implementing these structural changes, we can ensure that the state’s resources are being used effectively and that we are making measurable progress in addressing the housing needs of Rhode Islanders.”
Housing officials want to have 15,000 total new homes permitted by 2030, but getting new homes built has been incremental at best.
The department’s latest integrated housing report, released Tuesday, found that between 2021 and 2024, Rhode Island added 4,365 new units, representing a 0.9% increase to its housing stock between those three years. According to the report, the state permitted 2,655 new units for 2024.
McKee’s office said the governor believes the department’s governance recommendations are what the state needs to produce long-term benefits for Rhode Island’s housing sector, along with reducing homelessness.
At least 2,442 unhoused people across Rhode Island were counted when volunteers from the Rhode Island Coalition to End Homelessness conducted an annual survey in late January 2024, up 35% from the 2023 count. The coalition conducted its annual Point-In-Time count for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development on Jan. 28, but results aren’t expected to be released until some time in the summer.
Every three years, starting around July 1, 2026, the department must create a statewide plan to address and end homelessness.
But affordable housing advocates have concerns about the state’s ability to take on more responsibility, especially as uncertainty continues over federal funding toward housing projects.
“Over 75% of the funding that we get for housing and homelessness programs comes from the federal government,” HousingWorks RI Director Brenda Clement, who serves on the Housing Resources Commission, said in an interview Thursday. “I don’t want to create something in state government that is not fundable.”
Clement declined to comment on the state’s plan to create a single advisory body.
House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi has not yet reviewed the governor’s amendment, chamber spokesperson Larry Berman said in an email Thursday. The House Committee on Finance is expected to schedule a public hearing some time after lawmakers return from their April recess next week.
The State House this year is considering a dozen new proposals in a package of bills aiming to encourage new home construction, including legislation that would make it easier to subdivide oversized lots, allow vacant or unused state-owned land to be developed, and encourage municipalities to convert vacant commercial space into homes.
This story was originally published by the Rhode Island Current.
