Facing budget shortfalls and the potential loss of 1500 beds for the unhoused, Housing Secretary Goddard said, "I don't know what kind of gymnastics we can do to keep nearly that many beds."
Thanks as always Steve, a few comments/observations:
We all need to tell our state reps to get that $20M dedicated homelessness funding stream so we can keep the same number of shelter beds, at least.
I’ll be waiting for Goddard to finish creating a universal portal (like they have in Massachusetts) so that everything is listed in one place: where the unit is, unit types, rent, whether it has a rental voucher, etc. The way she spoke about it sounds like this is in the works so it should be done soon. This needs to be done and shouldn’t be that difficult.
Doesn’t sound like Goddard supports public option housing developments. This is concerning – the non-profits have already said they can’t meet the goal of 375 permanent supportive housing units and 500 deeply subsidized units by 2030. The state needs to step in as a developer – not for-profit developers. But Goddard seems to favor for-profit developers. This is the wrong direction. The for-profit market is absolutely why we have a housing crisis. Same thing is happening in Middletown: we are trying to get the for-profit developer there to build more affordable housing -- on town-owned land too -- and they are resisting. The Middletown Town Council isn’t taking a united stand either, which is very concerning.
I’ll be watching carefully to make sure Goddard stays focused on her primary commitment, when she says, “Our commitment in the state plan is to produce housing for extremely low-income households and permanent supportive housing.”
I’m also going to reach out to Rhode Island Homeless Advocacy Project and find out when and where similar meetings are held. I’d like to attend.
The state gave everyone the run around again.
Make the wealthy PAY THEIR TAXES!
Thanks as always Steve, a few comments/observations:
We all need to tell our state reps to get that $20M dedicated homelessness funding stream so we can keep the same number of shelter beds, at least.
I’ll be waiting for Goddard to finish creating a universal portal (like they have in Massachusetts) so that everything is listed in one place: where the unit is, unit types, rent, whether it has a rental voucher, etc. The way she spoke about it sounds like this is in the works so it should be done soon. This needs to be done and shouldn’t be that difficult.
Doesn’t sound like Goddard supports public option housing developments. This is concerning – the non-profits have already said they can’t meet the goal of 375 permanent supportive housing units and 500 deeply subsidized units by 2030. The state needs to step in as a developer – not for-profit developers. But Goddard seems to favor for-profit developers. This is the wrong direction. The for-profit market is absolutely why we have a housing crisis. Same thing is happening in Middletown: we are trying to get the for-profit developer there to build more affordable housing -- on town-owned land too -- and they are resisting. The Middletown Town Council isn’t taking a united stand either, which is very concerning.
I’ll be watching carefully to make sure Goddard stays focused on her primary commitment, when she says, “Our commitment in the state plan is to produce housing for extremely low-income households and permanent supportive housing.”
I’m also going to reach out to Rhode Island Homeless Advocacy Project and find out when and where similar meetings are held. I’d like to attend.