Rhode Island House Speaker Joe Shekarchi unveiled a package of legislation Thursday designed to deal with the state's housing crisis.
The 15 bills propose several changes to existing law, plus new concepts, including expansion of homeowners' ability to rent out living space and allow municipalities to count mobile homes toward affordable housing goals.
Shekarchi has pushed for overhauling the state's housing laws and says the aim is to give cities and towns more tools to create additional housing.
“Our housing and homelessness crisis has been decades in the making and will take a long-term, sustained effort to fix. Although we’ve already introduced and passed three packages of housing legislation – approximately 30 bills – we still have a great deal of work left,” continued Speaker Shekarchi. “I am committed to seeing this through until all Rhode Islanders have a good, safe home. I am thankful to everyone who has partnered with me to raise the dialogue and develop viable solutions to create more housing.”
Speaker Shekarchi was joined by Rep. June S. Speakman (D-Dist. 68, Warren, Bristol), chair of the Special Legislative Commission to Affordable Housing; Thomas E. Deller, chair of the Special Legislative Commission to Study the Entire Area of Land Use; members of both commissions; legislators; housing advocates; builders; and developers.
“This package of housing bills builds upon the work of the Housing and Land Use Commissions and on the housing laws enacted in 2022 and 2023. These bills continue our efforts to make the approval process more effective, zoning more flexible, and to get the best use of our existing buildings. Those efforts will pay off as we produce more safe, comfortable, affordable homes for Rhode Islanders,” said Rep. Speakman.
Rhode Island builds the fewest new housing units per capita in the US and less than half of what is required to keep housing costs from going up.
(Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
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