PROVIDENCE — A committee tasked with studying affordable housing in Providence heard testimony Wednesday night from advocates who recommended policies that could help address the housing crisis affecting the city.

“On any given night in our state, over 1,000 Rhode Islanders experience homelessness, and this number is on the rise,” said Kristina Contreras Fox, policy analyst at Rhode Island Coalition for the Homeless. “Increasing housing costs, stagnant wages, and a lack of affordable homes brought us to this moment of crisis.”

The Special Commission to Study Affordable Housing, which was convened about six months ago by Providence City Council President David Salvatore and Ward 1 City Councilman Seth Yurdin, will eventually submit a report with policy recommendations to the City Council, said commission chairwoman Brenda Clement, who is also the director of HousingWorks RI.

Clement said she wasn’t prepared to outline some of the recommendations that may be contained in the report. She said the commission will likely have a draft of its report by late January.

But housing advocates who spoke at Wednesday night’s hearing had recommendations of their own.

Contreras Fox said she would like to see the city invest in funding for rental subsidies for low- and very low-income families, pass policy that prohibits housing discrimination, and ensure that affordable housing is built with access to supportive services, such as addiction counseling and mental health services, in mind.

“Continue to approach housing in a holistic manner,” she said. “Housing is not merely housing. Housing is health care, food security, educational success, public safety and family stability.”

Jennifer Wood, executive director at the Center for Justice, said she would encourage the state to adopt a policy ensuring a right to free legal counsel for tenants who are getting evicted. Because evictions are civil proceedings rather than criminal, tenants have no right to representation.

“Roughly 90 percent of unrepresented individuals facing eviction will become homeless on the day of their court hearing,” Wood said.

She suggested a number of other policies including the annulment of eviction court records when the tenant prevails in the case and the implementation of an emergency repair fund for tenants facing deplorable, unsafe or unhealthy conditions in their rental units.

With the Hope Point Tower, a luxury apartment development proposed for downtown, dominating much of the public conversation recently, Salvatore said it’s important to bring the city’s focus back to what’s really needed in Providence, which is housing for those earning low to moderate incomes.

“I think the areas of housing that the city has to wrap its head around is low- to moderate-income housing and workforce housing, so middle-class Providence residents who are making salaries that are commensurate to the rent that’s in demand,” he said. “The luxury housing rents that I believe Mr. Fane is going to charge, there is not clearly [a] market for here in Providence.”



— mlist@providencejournal.com

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