HOUSING

We have a housing crisis in America. Across the United States, including Rhode Island, housing is the single largest expense. In 2012, 78% of home sales were considered affordable for the average family. That number has now dropped to below 50%.While the government recommends that people spend no more than 30% of their income on housing, about one-third of households spend at least 30%, and one-sixth of households spend at least 50%. In comparison, Rhode Island Housing estimates that 51% of households spend at least 30% of their income on housing in the state.

Wage increases are simply not keeping up with increases in the cost of housing. From 2015 to 2016, while rents for a studio apartment increased by 11% and rents for a two-bed rose by 4%, incomes across the state increased by only 3%. In short, rent increases are outpacing wage increases. The lack of housing in Rhode Island, as well as the lack of rent control laws, have forced rents to balloon out of control, disproportionately hurting working and middle-class families who need affordable housing.

Capping rents alone will not fix the housing crisis. There simply are not enough affordable housing units available in Rhode Island. There are more than 1,000 homeless Rhode Islanders who cannot afford for-profit housing. And it takes an average of 37 days for families experiencing homelessness to find shelter. There are 15,000 apartments set aside in Rhode Island for people with Section 8 vouchers. However, there are over 20,000 people on the waitlist for these vouchers. Federally, Section 8 vouchers only assist one-fourth of those eligible. Rhode Island, and the United States, are currently failing its citizens who need access to affordable housing. Unlike our New England neighbors, there is no permanent funding stream in the Rhode Island budget to build affordable housing. Rhode Island must immediately push for a line item in the fiscal budget to ensure that year after year there is state investment in building affordable housing units.

So far, Rhode Island has also failed to keep up with the rest of the country in building new homes. In 2017, only 1,156 new houses were issued permits across the state, one of the lowest per capita rates in the country. Rhode Island Housing estimated in 2016 that to meet demand, at least 30,000 housing units needed to be built by 2025. Having built only 1,000 each year since, we now need to build over 25,000 units in the next five years to reach demand. Currently, we are spending $7.9 million this year for the construction of affordable housing. That will allow for the construction of 250 to 500 units per year, which falls incredibly short of our goals. Massachusetts’s 2020 fiscal year budget, on the other hand, while only four times as large, invested hundreds of millions of dollars in affordable housing, including $72 million into public housing and $124 million to the Rental Voucher Program and voucher programs for those with disabilities.

Only 29% of extremely low-income families have access to affordable, adequate, rental units in the United States. This is due, in part, to a lack of investment in public housing In the US, 1% of American households participate in a public housing program. This compares unfavorably to Canada (5%), Sweden (18%), the Netherlands (32%), and Singapore (80%). Rhode Island must take the lead on this issue and advocate for greater investment in public housing in the state. 

In addition, people in public housing who then exceed the income limit cannot currently stay in their homes. This often forces them to find more expensive housing, which puts them in a worse situation. Tiara supports legislation that would protect any public housing tenant who has been there for at least one year from eviction until they are making at least 125% of district median income.

In addition, Tiara supports the Rhode Island Coalition for the Homeless’ proposed Pay for Success program, which would be the first implemented social impact bond in Rhode Island. A partnership between nonprofit service providers, the government, and impact investors, the program utilizes 125 Permanent Supportive Housing vouchers for chronically homeless people. Permanent supportive housing is proven to work: it has decreased the number of chronically homeless people by 20% since 2007. Criminalizing homelessness and over-policing that population is counterproductive, inhumane, and expensive. By supporting this project and providing permanent housing to these individuals, we will not only reduce homelessness, but also save between $1.8 and $2.6 million per year. We need to keep investing in programs that will better tackle homelessness in the state, provide more housing, and improve existing services for people who need it.

We are falling behind in investments in affordable housing at a time when our constituents so greatly need it, and it is time that we invest more to satisfy this tremendous need.

To ensure the availability of affordable housing units, we must address the issue of discrimination against lawful sources of income. According to the Rhode Island Coalition for the Homeless, eviction is one of the most common causes of homelessness. Eviction not only places a person in a precarious position, but also makes it harder to find another lease because many landlords refuse to rent to anyone with an eviction record, regardless of the situation. The Coalition supports a legislative addition to the Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, which would seal records in cases where the tenant experienced an unfair eviction. Landlords should not have the right to refuse any lawful source of income, which includes social security, Section 8, or other vouchers, as a form of rent payment. Tiara will fight to make it illegal to refuse lawful sources of income, with no exemptions. For landlords with three or fewer, one of which is their own, Tiara supports a tax cut to offset the possible financial burden on smaller or lower-income landlords.