PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) - Providence is trying to figure out how to create more affordable housing.
The City Council passed a resolution Thursday night creating a commission to look at why housing is expensive in Providence and what can be done about it.
Council spokesman Billy Kepner said Friday that the commission will consider, for example, incentives for developers to partner with the city to create more affordable housing and ways to work with state and federal agencies on solutions.
Roughly half the renters in Providence spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing costs, according to HousingWorks RI. That meets the federal government’s definition of “cost burdened.”
HousingWorks RI projects that Providence needs about 20,000 new housing units over the next decade.
Councilman Seth Yurdin, a Democrat, introduced the resolution to create the commission, calling adequate housing a human right. The full council co-sponsored it.
“We are reaching a critical point in the struggle for adequate and affordable housing in Providence,” City Council President David Salvatore, also a Democrat, said in a statement. “I feel strongly that by bringing together this group of housing experts we will be able to find solutions.”
The commission is scheduled to report back to the council by Nov. 1. Its members are experts on the housing market.
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