Tallying the cost of housing shortage

More than 150 people rally at the State House, calling for more affordable housing and detailing the human and economic price of homeless.

 Friday, June 3, 2005, BY RANDAL EDGAR, Journal Staff Writer

For two months, Maria Ramos and her three children stayed with relatives, moving from one home to another. With a little help, she found temporary housing and a job, and then went back to school, earning a GED and a certificate in phlebotomy at Community College of Rhode Island.

Now, she and her children -- two daughters and a son -- live in a subsidized apartment in South Providence.

"Me and my children are so happy to say that we have a roof over our heads," she said yesterday at a rally in the State House rotunda. "I have a career, and I have a home."

Ramos told a human side of Rhode Island's housing shortage, but that was only part of the message at this housing rally. The other part was told by people like Michael F. Ryan, executive vice president of Narragansett Electric, and Michael McMahon, executive director of the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation.

Rhode Island's economy will suffer, they said, if working people can't find safe, decent, affordable places to live. And that means everyone -- advocates, the business community, state government -- has to work together to solve the problem.

"There are some who might ask why would the business community get involved with an issue that doesn't affect the bottom line," Ryan said. "Well, for the business community, at least Narragansett Electric, this does affect the bottom line. . . . That's why business is involved in this."

More than 150 attended the rally, organized by HousingWorks, a coalition of more than 70 community, government, business and charitable groups, including the United Way of Rhode Island and the Rhode Island Foundation. Established about a year ago, the group is pushing the General Assembly to pass four bills that would raise spending on housing programs by about $3.8 million.

One bill would raise state funding for the creation of subsidized, income-restricted affordable housing from $5 million to $7.5 million. Another seeks $600,000 to move families and individuals with disabilities from shelters to subsidized housing. A third seeks $400,000 to supplement the private money received by nonprofit developers that create affordable housing. A fourth seeks $350,000 to help the chronically homeless find housing and remain housed, helping them with life and work skills and helping them rebuild networks with family and friends.

The push for more money follows last year's effort to enact a new housing law that is expected to encourage affordable housing production. Advocates say the law is a good first step, but they say it's not enough in a state with one of the lowest rates of housing production and one in which housing prices have nearly doubled in five years.

Speakers at the rally said the additional money would be well spent.

"This proposal represents a very modest $4 million," said Carol Golden, acting Rhode Island Foundation president.

Golden drew one of the rally's loudest cheers when she said HousingWorks will remain active "until every one of you and every one of your neighbors in your communities has a safe, decent and affordable place to live."

Other speakers included Anthony Maione, president and CEO of the United Way of Rhode Island; House Majority Leader Gordon Fox, D-Providence; and Rep. Thomas Slater, D-Providence.

Advocates said the presence of the business community should send a clear message that Rhode Island's housing shortage affects not just people like Maria Ramos, but everybody.

"It's a voice that we have been needing to join with us," said Noreen Shawcross, executive director of the Rhode Island Coalition for the Homeless.

Brenda Clement, executive director of the Housing Network, a coalition of nonprofit developers, said the link between economic growth and housing is "not a new concept in Rhode Island."

"Mill owners understood that," she said. "Now we'll just hope that the legislators hear the message."

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