State housing office planned

The governor's proposal aims to improve coordination among agencies that deal with housing.

Wednesday, February 2, 2005, BY RANDAL EDGAR, Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE -- Pointing to low housing production and a 91-percent rise in prices from 2000 to 2004, Governor Carcieri yesterday announced plans to create an office that will give housing a more prominent place in state government.

Carcieri, speaking to more than 70 housing advocates, said the state is working hard to address its housing needs but lacks coordination among agencies that deal with housing.

His plan -- to create an Office of Housing and Community Development -- will provide that coordination, he said, by establishing a central advocate for housing issues and giving those issues a voice in the State House.

"We have lots of people doing great things, but we don't do a good job of pulling it all together," Carcieri said at the offices of Stop Wasting Abandoned Properties, a nonprofit agency that restores vacant buildings.

The state needs a "focal point," he said, one that will provide the lead in creating "an affordable-housing stock" for the state.

Housing advocates praised the governor, saying Rhode Island has long needed a central housing office.

"The state hasn't been a partner. Now we're going to have the state involved," said Barbara Fields Karlin, senior programs director for the Local Initiatives Support Coalition. "It gives housing a home."

Richard Godfrey, executive director of the Rhode Island Housing and Mortgage Finance Corporation, said the new office, together with a new Low and Moderate Income Housing Act, should help solve a crisis that has left one-third of the state's families paying too much for housing.

"There's a lot of things coming along, but without a central office in state government, it's hard to pull those things together," he said.

In related moves, Carcieri announced plans to create a planning division in the Department of Administration. The division will combine the department's Statewide Planning Program with the new Office of Housing and Community Development. Together, those offices will be overseen by a new associate director, he said.

Carcieri also said two private charitable organizations, the United Way of Rhode Island and the Rhode Island Foundation, will help pay for the creation of a state housing plan -- required by the new housing law -- that will set statewide goals and standards for housing creation.

A spokeswoman for the governor's office said the Office of Housing and Community Development will take its staff from the Office of Municipal Affairs, in the Department of Administration, and from the Department of Human Services. Once created, the office will give the Housing Resources Commission, a volunteer board created in 1998 to oversee housing policies, the staff it has lacked, advocates said.

Brenda Clement, a commission member and executive director of the Housing Network, an association of nonprofit development agencies, said the only thing missing yesterday was more money, particularly for the Housing Opportunities Program.

Started under the Almond administration, the program has provided $5 million a year to Rhode Island Housing, helping to create about 125 housing units a year for the past four years. Carcieri has proposed another $5 million for next year, but a bill filed by House Majority Leader Gordon Fox would increase the amount to $7.5 million.

Carcieri said the moves announced yesterday will create only two or three new positions and will cost about $250,000. Asked when the new office will be created, he said soon.

"I would think this is not a question of months and months," he said.

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