Public Services

As evictions and housing insecurity rise, Rhode Island announces $166m for affordable housing

The $166 million includes $115 million in funding from the $250 million Governor McKee and the General Assembly have earmarked for housing efforts from the state’s federal ARPA funds.

Rhode Island News: As evictions and housing insecurity rise, Rhode Island announces $166m for affordable housing

November 3, 2022, 4:00 pm

By Steve Ahlquist

HUD defines housing insecurity as “an umbrella term that encompasses several dimensions of housing problems people may experience, including affordability, safety, quality, insecurity, and loss of housing.” As HousingWorks RI showed in their 2022 Housing Fact Book, housing insecurity is on the rise in Rhode Island, as is the eviction rate. It was in the shadow of these facts that Rhode Island Governor Daniel McKee joined United States Senator Jack Reed, Housing Secretary Josh Saal, RIHousing Executive Director Carol Ventura and affordable housing developer Peter Bouchard to announce the availability of more than $166 million in funding to support affordable housing efforts across the state.

The funding comes from a variety of sources, including both federal and state programs, and supports the construction and preservation of affordable housing as well as operating support. In March, the Governor and state leaders announced the availability of $60 million in funding to support affordable housing efforts across the state. Today’s announcement adds additional funding to support housing efforts, including programs supported via the state’s federal allocation of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds.

“Earlier this year, I proposed, and the General Assembly passed utilizing $250 million in ARPA funds to tackle head on the housing crisis in our state,” said Governor McKee. “Just a few short months after we signed the budget, we are here opening up a competitive funding round to get these dollars out the door and start building on that promise. The McKee-Matos Administration has made housing one of our top priorities and we are thrilled to be able to make these strategic housing investments and help Rhode Islanders as quickly as possible.”

“The long-term solution to the state’s housing shortage is, very simply, to build more housing,” said Rhode Island Secretary of Housing Josh Saal. “This significant investment will allow us to advance our mission of fixing, building and stabilizing the statewide housing stock in a way that strengthens communities and creates a more accessible and affordable housing future for all Rhode Islanders. We look forward to reviewing proposals, activating these funds quickly and efficiently, and breaking ground on much-needed developments across the state.”

Uprise RI asked Secretary Saal what is meant by “affordable” housing, after it was revealed that housing in the Superman Building was considered “affordable” yet remains outside the budgets of a large majority of Rhode Islanders.

“Affordable housing means income restricted,” said Secretary Saal, “and that people who qualify for that housing will pay no more than a third of their income.”

Uprise RI also asked Secretary Saal how fast this new housing might come online. Though it is hard to predict, said Saaal, he estimated anywhere between 6 months and 3 years.

“How many housing units does $166m buy?” asked Uprise RI.

“That a great question, it depends on the market,” said Secretary Saal, offering no answer in terms of the number of housing units.

After the press conference, Uprise RI managed to ask Secretary Saal some questions about the availability of shelter beds for the coming winter.

Uprise RI: What I’m seeing is 274 new shelter beds coming online, but if you take out the 50 beds no longer funded by FEMA money, we’re looking at 224 new beds for a total of about 1097 beds statewide. I’m hearing from the advocates that they’re looking at needing close to 1300 beds, which is shortfall about 200. And I’m also seeing increasing eviction rates.

Secretary Saal: The numbers are important and we’re data driven. At the end of the day, we have to close the door on homelessness, which is why we put this legal services RFP [Request for Proposals] to prevent evictions. And once people become homeless, we have to get them permanently housed. Think about it this way: If someone’s staying in a shelter for four months in a year, you can serve three people with that same bed. If someone’s staying in a shelter for 12 months, that’s one person. So you just tripled the capacity.

So in addition to constructing new beds we’re putting people in programs that will get people from that shelter bed to permanent housing. That’s just as important as the number of shelter beds. With regards to the actual amount of shelter beds, we’ve been working with the advocates and they challenge us to put the amount of shelter beds that they feel are needed.

Advocates mentioned the number 350 and we’re still working towards that. We haven’t finished. There’s a question about how we right size our shelter system for the future, coming out the pandemic. It’s an extremely volatile market and it’s extremely volatile for the people. At the end of the day, what really matters is the people who are suffering from this, who are on the street. That’s why we’re working to prevent more people from becoming homeless and to get them the services they need to get either into shelter or permanent housing. To create a pipeline so they can have a safe, affordable permanent place and they don’t have to go back to homelessness. We don’t want to create shelter beds to just satisfy one number or another.

Uprise RI: I was thinking in terms of winter, and saving lives. In terms of evictions, at the HousingWorks RI event we both attended last Friday it was noted that non-court evictions may outstrip court evictions, the ones we know about, by a factor of 5 to 1. What do we do about that?

Secretary Saal: The issue of quiet, or forced evictions, whatever we want to call them, is a real one. In fact, some of my first work here in Rhode Island was community organizing and going to homes that were being foreclosed. Sometimes the tenants didn’t know they were being evicted. A lot of the times they were being harassed by landlords. You know, there are good landlords and the terrible ones.

But the legal services, whatever point you’re getting them, are extremely important. That’s why we also fund things like outreach and counseling, before eviction even happens. We work with our cities and towns. The city of Providence, for example, has an outreach program where they try to identify people who are at risk and get them the help they need so they know their rights and they understand the system because about 90% of landlords have legal representation and very few tenants do.


“Let me state clearly: the federal funds being put to work here are from a law that some have said should never have been passed,” said Senator Reed. “I fought for these funds because Rhode Island cannot solve our affordable housing problem without money, without change, and, without will. Sadly, some people are content with the status quo and toeing the party line when it comes to affordable housing. That type of thinking is what led to this crisis and that is why dedicating this new federal funding to housing solutions like this are necessary and overdue.”

The $166 million includes $115 million in funding from the $250 million Governor McKee and the General Assembly have earmarked for housing efforts from the state’s federal ARPA funds. The $250 million in ARPA funding is an investment to create and preserve critically-needed affordable housing options intended to help to transform blighted properties, strengthen communities and create good-paying jobs in the construction and allied trades.

RIHousing, in partnership with the state and the Rhode Island Housing Resources Commission (HRC), has adopted a universal funding application that consolidates the request for multiple financing sources. This competitive request for proposals utilizes a “consolidated” Request for Proposals (RFP) approach, which allows interested development partners the opportunity to apply for multiple funding sources through a single application.

The Consolidated RFP includes funding from a dozen state and federally funded housing programs.

To date, over $26 million in SFRF (State Fiscal Recovery Funds) have been allocated to acquire and develop affordable housing in 17 communities throughout Rhode Island.

“Prior to launching our first-ever consolidated funding RFP, developers would need to apply for each funding source separately, and often at different times of the year,” said Carol Ventura. “With the release of our previous consolidated RFP, we removed significant barriers to the development process, streamlined the application and review process and ensured funding awards were made as efficiently as possible. With this second consolidated funding round, we are building off the success of the initial effort and adding to the available funding with the state’s historic investments in housing.”

While program priorities are similar among the various financing programs, scoring and program requirements may differ. It is recommended that applicants familiarize themselves with the various sources and identify the funding sources that best meet the needs of their proposal.

Proposals are due before 4pm on Thursday, January 12, 2023. Program descriptions or Term Sheets for each funding source are included on RIHousing’s website.

Funding sources included under the Consolidated RFP:

  • 2023 9% Low Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC): approximately $3 million in federal LIHTC funding. LIHTC is the primary federal program for the development, rehabilitation and preservation of multi-family affordable rental housing. The LIHTC program is a public-private partnership that uses federal resources to leverage private investment to meet the nation’s housing needs.
  • Tax-exempt bond financing and 4% LIHTC: RIHousing has traditionally accepted applications for bond financing on a rolling basis and will continue to do so. Completion of the consolidated application will be considered an application for tax exempt bonds. Funding is available for rental housing only.
  • ARPA Production Funds: The source for ARPA Production Funds is State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF) funded through the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. A total of $75 million has been allocated to ARPA Production Program for new production or rehabilitation of income eligible rental units for households with incomes at or below 80% of AMI.
  • HOME Program Investment Funds: federal HOME program provides much needed gap financing to develop and rehabilitate homes for households earning up to 80% of the Area Median Income (AMI). HOME funds can be used to develop rental properties. Approximately $4.5 million in HOME Funds are available; awards will be limited to $1 million per project and will be prioritized for 9% LIHTC applications.
  • Housing Trust Fund (HTF): an important federal resource that was authorized by the Housing & Economic Recovery Act and is funded by a portion of profits from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. It is an important source of financing for projects serving extremely low-income and very low-income families. $2.1 million is available.
  • Community Revitalization Program: funded via the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, $20 million has been allocated to the CRP to finance the acquisition and redevelopment of blighted properties in qualified census tracts to increase the development of affordable housing. Projects may include commercial or community spaces that are ancillary to the housing and serve residents of affordable housing. Residential components must serve households at or below 80% AMI.
  • Acquisition Revitalization Program (ARP): funded via the state bond referendum, approximately $9 million in ARP funds is available for residential, commercial, and public facility projects to redevelop blighted properties; 75% of the funding is set aside for urban communities and household incomes for residential or mixed-use properties are limited to 120% AMI.
  • Capital Magnet Fund (CMF): approximately $12 million available to provide owners of existing affordable housing developments with incentives to maintain these developments as quality affordable housing. CMF is also available as a source for newly created affordable housing opportunities, however preservation is a priority. Priority is also given to projects in Areas of Economic Distress and developments serving households below 50% of AMI. Funding is available for rental housing only.
  • Middle Income Loan Program: a total of $20 million to finance innovative proposals that seek to develop housing affordable to households with incomes between 80% – 120% AMI. The program addresses the affordable housing needs of households who are increasingly caught in the gap between rising housing costs and ineligibility for other traditional state and federally financed affordable housing. The source is SLFRF funded through the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.
  • Preservation Loan Fund: approximately $3 million in funds is available for the preservation of existing restricted affordable housing that has completed its initial LIHTC compliance period. Funding is available for rental housing only.
  • HOME-ARP Funds: approximately $9 Million of HOME-ARP funding available to support the development of housing for Qualifying Populations (QPs). QPs are defined as (i) individuals or households who are homeless or at risk of homelessness as defined under McKinney Vento, (ii) are fleeing or attempting to flee domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, stalking or human trafficking, as defined by HUD (iii) Other Populations where providing supportive services or assistance under section 212(a) of NAHA (42 U.S.C. 12742(a)) would prevent the family’s homelessness or would serve those with the greatest risk of housing instability.
  • Housing Production Fund for Operating Support (HPF-ELI): approximately $9 million for operating support for households either exiting homelessness or earning less than 30% AMI. The subsidy covers the difference between actual rent and the amount necessary to operate the unit. Funding is provided through proceeds from the state’s real estate conveyance tax.