Improving the Housing Ecosystem and Prioritizing Homeownership

• Passed a $120-million housing bond on the November 2024 ballot to make housing more affordable and accessible to Rhode Islanders; 65.5 percent of voters approved this ballot measure. As the largest housing bond in Rhode Island’s history, this bond would provide $80 million for affordable housing, $20 million for homeownership programs, $10 million for acquisition and revitalization, $5 million for site acquisition, $4 million for housing-related infrastructure, and $1 million for municipal planning.
• Released $66 million in Housing Bond funds in a joint “One-Stop” housing development RFP between the Executive Office of Housing and RIHousing, which will allow developers to leverage and combine other sources with state bond funds to build more affordable housing. This RFP included several programs that represent a new approach, in line with the Housing 2030 plan, including a set-aside in funding for small scale rental developments (below 30 units); a set aside for permanent supportive housing; and a set aside for preservation of existing housing. The state’s $5M in bond funds dedicated to preservation will be matched by a $5M investment by RIHousing towards preservation.
• Released $20M in state bond funds through additional RFPs administered by the Executive Office of Housing, including $8M for infrastructure to support new housing development; $1M in municipal technical assistance funding for infrastructure design; $6M for a home repair program; and $5M for a site acquisition program for nonprofit developers.
• Released an RFP for $10M in state bond funds to support new homeownership opportunities through a new program administered by the Executive Office of Housing.  These funds are intended to support new units priced at or below $400,000.
• Expanded the Home Repair Program to assist homeowners statewide in distressed areas with necessary residential repair and rehabilitation costs, including electrical, heating, energy improvements, accessibility improvements, roofing repair/replacement, lead hazard reduction, and plumbing improvements. The program expansion is using $6 million in housing bond funding to serve households throughout the State.
• Allocated $219 million in federal State Fiscal Recovery Funds (SFRF) for the production and preservation of housing units.
  • Awarded funding to help finance over 2,300 units as of October 2024, including over 1,900 low- and moderate-income homes and 180 middle income homes.
  • Established new and innovative grant programs, including the Priority Projects Fund, which supports projects that are difficult to complete with conventional financing and prioritize vulnerable populations such as lower-income Rhode Islanders, older adults, people with disabilities, and veterans.
• Expanded the Statewide Home Repair Program established in 2024 to assist homeowners in distressed areas with necessary residential repair and rehabilitation costs, including electrical, heating, energy improvements, accessibility improvements, roofing repair/replacement, lead hazard reduction, and plumbing improvements. The program expansion is using $6 million in housing bond funding to serve households throughout the State.
• Established a $30-million Statewide Down Payment Assistance Program with SFRF to provide first-time homebuyers in Rhode Island with grants to assist with down payment and closing costs, often some of the greatest hurdles individuals and families face during the process of purchasing a home.
  • Helped over 1,600 families and individuals become new homeowners across 35 of Rhode Island’s 39 municipalities through this key resource, which helps first-time homebuyers facing a challenging housing market. 

• Created the first-ever State Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (S-LIHTC) in Rhode Island, which provides a tax incentive for developers to expand housing options for low-income households and has a statewide annual allocation of up to $30 million.
  • In FY 2025, used the S-LIHTC to close the funding gap for the construction or preservation of over 500 homes across the state.
• Signed a housing legislation package that continues the momentum to produce more homes for Rhode Islanders at every income level by streamlining the permitting process and increasing access to housing through legislation enacted that will expand use of electronic permitting, create new zoning for village/mixed-use projects, allow for attached single-family dwelling units to be built, enable co-living housing opportunities and the creation of a housing land bank. Additionally, the Governor signed into law a Housing Champions program that rewards municipalities that are actively working to address Rhode Island’s housing crisis.
• Increased municipal permitting activity to 2,655 residential units in 2024, reflecting more than a 1,000-unit increase from 2022, and the largest number of residential units permitted in a single year since 2005 (just before the Great Recession).
• Established the Municipal Fellows Program, a new housing development-focused initiative, to provide support to cities and towns with planning, zoning, and/or development capacity to increase housing development.
  • Directly supported eight municipalities in 2025 by awarding approximately $1.1 million in Municipal Fellows grants and secured funding through RIH to offer a second round of Municipal Fellow awards to municipalities.
• Developed the Turnkey Affordable Homeownership Program to help address the need for increased affordable homeownership opportunities in Rhode Island and to streamline the process for the development of low-to moderate-income homes. The RIHousing program provides gap financing to developers once a Certificate of Occupancy is obtained and a deed-restriction is recorded, incentivizing developers to build affordable units with minimal regulatory involvement by RIHousing during construction.
• Developed and launched a Public Housing Pilot Program, which offered financing for public housing authorities to increase the supply of affordable homes and stabilize the supply of existing affordable housing. This program has provided financing for three developments in Narragansett, Newport, and Pawtucket. Additionally, this program has authorized seven technical assistance and predevelopment grants to bolster the pipeline of potential public housing units that can be developed or repositioned. EOH is now developing a public development program using 2024 bond funds that will build off of and learn from the successes and challenges of this program.
• Increased affordable homeownership opportunities across Rhode Island for first-time homebuyers at or below 100 percent of area median income (AMI) through RIHousing’s Homeownership Investment Fund. As of December 2025, the program has funded $5.4 million for 77 units across 13 municipalities.
• Advanced, through the Rhode Island Infrastructure Bank, $2.88 million in Municipal Infrastructure Grant program housing funds to support site-related infrastructure for affordable housing developments across the state, including in the City of Providence, City of East Providence, City of Pawtucket, Town of Coventry, and Town of West Warwick.

• Provided over $1.8 million in assistance to 73 homebuyers across 12 municipalities through RIHousing’s FirstGenHomeRI program, which offers $25,000 in down payment and/or closing cost assistance for first-generation homebuyers living in Central Falls, East Providence, Pawtucket, Woonsocket, and parts of Providence and Newport. The assistance is a grant that does not need to be repaid if the homeowner keeps their home for five years as their primary residence.
• Created a Transit-Oriented Development Technical Assistance Program in partnership with RIHousing and awarded over $600k to municipalities to expand housing opportunities by making zoning changes near transit.
• Initiated the development of Housing Forward, a housing education and training program aimed at building capacity at the local level, and the new Housing Visualizations Program, a tool that helps analyze where housing should be built and illustrates the state’s best options through renderings and visual tools.
• Invested $18 million in Crossroads Rhode Island’s Summer Street Apartments development, which created 176 new permanent supportive housing units for households experiencing homelessness or at risk of experiencing homelessness with incomes at or below 30 percent AMI.

• Established the Executive Office of Housing as a new state agency and appointed a Cabinet-level Secretary of Housing, underscoring a strategic shift towards prioritizing housing and ensuring a collaborative, statewide approach to addressing housing and homelessness challenges, increasing housing production and homeownership across Rhode Island, and having a comprehensive approach to supporting community development.
• Completed Housing 2030, a comprehensive statewide housing plan that provides an in-depth analysis of Rhode Island’s current housing landscape as well as a roadmap of the state’s long-term strategy for housing by setting concrete housing production goals for each of the 39 municipalities
  • Committed to having 15,000 new homes produced or in the pipeline by 2030, supporting a full spectrum of housing needs, including affordable rentals, middle-market housing, and homeownership opportunities for first-time buyers.
  • Secured approval of Housing 2030 as a State Guide Plan element by the State Planning Council on December 11, 2025, establishing it as Rhode Island’s official housing policy framework and guiding housing development over the next five years.

• Streamlined the state’s housing governance structure through statutory changes included in the Governor’s FY 2026 budget that centralized policy and strategic planning within the Executive Office of Housing, improved funding mechanisms, and established direct leadership connections with key entities, including RIHousing, the Interagency Council on Homelessness,  a newly created Interagency Council on Housing Production and Preservation, and the Advisory Council for Homelessness and Housing Production.
• Awarded more than $640,000 in predevelopment technical assistance grants through the Rhode Island Housing Development Corporation (RIHDC) to help advance nine affordable housing projects in six communities. When completed, these projects will produce between 350 and 425 new units of housing and preserve an additional 27 units.