RI needs a better housing production system | Opinion | Providence Journal

Michelle Wilcox and Lisa Guillette, Guest columnists

A recent Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council (RIPEC) report raises important questions about the cost of affordable housing development. Rhode Islanders deserve a thoughtful discussion about how public dollars are invested and whether housing programs are delivering results.

But focusing primarily on the high cost of affordable housing risks overlooking a more important reality: the biggest challenge is not affordable housing itself, it is the way affordable housing gets built.

Housing for households with the lowest incomes will never be produced at scale by the private market alone. Families earning 30% of area median income, seniors on fixed incomes, young adults leaving foster care and individuals exiting homelessness simply cannot afford rents high enough to support the debt required to finance new construction. Public investment is not evidence of failure; it is the mechanism that makes housing possible for some of Rhode Island's most vulnerable residents.

The more pressing question is why affordable housing costs so much to deliver.

The answer often has less to do with the cost of lumber, steel, concrete or labor than with the complexity of assembling the funding required to make projects viable. Affordable housing developments often rely on multiple grants, tax credits, loans and subsidies because lower rents cannot support the same level of debt as market-rate housing.

They also carry long-term obligations that market-rate developments typically do not, including deed restrictions that preserve affordability for decades, operating and replacement reserves that protect the public investment, and ongoing compliance requirements to ensure homes remain available to the people they were built to serve.

These safeguards ensure public investments remain protected and affordable housing stays affordable for future generations, but they also add cost and complexity that private developments typically do not bear.

While those funding sources are assembled through separate competitive processes, projects wait.

And while projects wait, costs rise.

Land carrying costs, insurance, taxes, professional fees, inflation, interest rates and construction prices continue to increase. Prevailing wage requirements, permitting timelines, and multiple layers of state and municipal review all contribute to the overall cost of delivering affordable housing. What appears to be an affordable housing cost problem is often a capital formation and project delivery problem.

Rhode Island has seen this firsthand. The Taunton Avenue Collaborative in East Providence, a partnership among ONE Neighborhood Builders, Crossroads Rhode Island, Foster Forward, and Family Service of Rhode Island, acquired the site in 2023 and broke ground in 2026 after assembling financing from 16 funding sources and navigating years of planning, approvals, and coordination among public and private partners.

That timeline is not unusual for affordable housing developments. It reflects a system that requires developers to piece together multiple funding awards before construction can begin. Every month added to that timeline increases carrying costs, exposes projects to rising interest rates and escalating construction costs, and ultimately drives up the price of delivering desperately needed housing.

If Rhode Island wants to lower costs and produce more housing, the solution is not to reduce investment in affordable housing. The solution is to create a more efficient housing production system.

State agencies, municipalities, utilities, philanthropy and housing developers should work together to identify strategic development sites, establish more predictable development standards, complete infrastructure planning, address zoning challenges, and resolve environmental issues before projects enter the funding pipeline. By reducing uncertainty and shortening development timelines, Rhode Island can lower costs, accelerate construction, and deliver more housing for every public dollar invested.

The state needs more housing at every income level. Market-rate housing and affordable housing are not competing priorities; they are complementary solutions to the same housing shortage. Rhode Island's long-term success depends on building enough housing to meet demand while ensuring that those most at risk of displacement and homelessness are not left behind.

The goal should not be fewer affordable housing projects.

The goal should be a smarter, faster and more coordinated system for building the housing Rhode Islanders need.

Michelle Wilcox is the CEO of Crossroads Rhode Island. Lisa Guillette is the executive director of Foster Forward.