Speaker Shekarchi and Councilmember Anderbois share the stage in Providence

Though the event was about housing, the discussion was far and wide, with subjects such as healthcare, Hasbro, taxing the rich, and the chaos from Washington being discussed.

Rhode Island Speaker of the House Joe Shekarchi shared the Hope High School stage with Providence City Councilmember Sue Anderbois (Ward 3) on Monday to discuss his ongoing efforts to combat the state’s housing crisis. He also answered questions on many other subjects, such as the Life Science Hub, just-cause eviction, rent control, taxing the one percent, the doctor shortage, environmental action, and rent stabilization. The transcript has been edited for clarity, not brevity.

Here’s the video:

Sue Anderbois: Our housing crisis is a top priority when I talk with neighbors. For many years, this has been a top legislative priority of the Speaker and the Rhode Island House of Representatives and he has been working on strong solutions to address this crisis. I was excited for him to join us today because of the way he operates as Speaker - he has been extremely collaborative, insisting on bringing all relevant folks to the table, and pushing for solutions that work. And he doesn’t shy away from the hard issues. I think most of you know that I’m a climate advocate by day - I’m a climate all the time - but professionally, one of the first bills that the Speaker shepherded through the House was the Act on Climate. I remember watching it on Capitol TV as it was moving forward. The floor debate was pretty spicy, and the Speaker let that debate go on for as long as it needed, which I appreciated.

But then, once the debate was done, it was time for a vote. It wasn’t, "Let’s push this off," but "We’re going to make some hard decisions, and we’re going to vote on this." And it passed. I think that was the first bill that you passed as Speaker. This was in COVID, so I had many friends texting [in celebration], along with my neighbors and colleagues. In Ward 3, we’re all about getting things done, having good policy, and getting good results. I’m excited for you to join us today, specifically to talk about housing.

Speaker Shekarchi: I’ve spent the entire day today in Providence with Mayor Brett Smiley. We did a groundbreaking and ribbon cutting for two housing projects simultaneously. Before I get to my general remarks, I want to thank Councilmember Sue Anderbois because in the times we are in, some people are saying, "Do not engage the public, do not go to town halls, do not talk to people - they’re professional agitators." Those people are afraid to face the truth and the consequences of their actions, and this woman is anything but afraid.

I met her earlier this year, and let me tell you, it was an instant collaboration. She is passionate about good causes and is very polite, respectful, and collaborative. It is a pleasure to be here tonight to share the stage with you. I look forward to many great things, and wherever the future goes, I hope you are part of it. You are in Ward 3, so let me tell you something: You won’t have Sue Anderbois for a long time because I think there will be bigger and better things in the future.

So, with that, I want to thank the City of Providence, and it starts with this leader, Mayor Smiley. More than any other city or town in Rhode Island, Providence has embraced the 47 housing bills we’ve passed since I became Speaker. They have embraced the reforms and made housing easier and more affordable for the people of Rhode Island.

I want to accomplish three things with housing: production, production, and more production. What I mean by that is production at every level: market-rate housing, workforce housing, affordable housing, low-income housing, and homelessness. They all have different challenges, but Mayor Smiley, the City Council, and your Providence delegation have supported me.

And let me tell you, it may sound like every [city and town] does it. No, they don’t. There are a lot of communities that push back very hard, and they’re becoming more and more creative. Sometimes, they push back on the merits; sometimes, they use creative ways; sometimes, they attack people who want a good housing policy. But that’s okay because the hotter it gets, the more committed we are, the more committed I am, and the more committed my House representative colleagues are. This problem is not going away.

And by the way, if somebody doesn’t like any of these reforms, I’m all about it. Come and talk to me; let’s work on it. But my first question is, what would you do? What are your solutions? And do you know what I get? Inevitably, "We don’t have any. We don’t need any. We don’t want any. Leave it alone." Everybody wants affordable housing, but nobody wants it in their backyard. Fortunately, there are groups, Good Neighbors and many other advocacy groups, being formed that are working with the two commissions we formed in the House. People ask, "Where do these ideas come from? Where do you think about them?" I don’t. People think that they come from me. I embrace them and use the office of Speaker to support them and push them through the General Assembly.

We have many commissions, but we have [two that deal with this issue.] June Speakman chairs the affordability commission. She’s a State Representative from Warren and a college professor at Roger Williams. She’s pushing a very good housing policy to support affordable housing programs in the state. The land use commission is chaired by Tom Deller, the current planner in Johnston and the former planner in Providence and Central Falls. Tom gets it. He’s represented big, medium, and large municipalities in the state. He understands it.

The committees comprise about 25 extremely talented, bright advocates from cities and towns, including the building community, the environmental community, the city and town planners, the Rhode Island Foundation, the United Way, and people from all walks of life. They come up with good ideas and solutions that work.

It’s very open; it’s very transparent. I welcome participation, and they welcome participation. Then, once they come up with ideas, they present them to the General Assembly. We do a review led by Lynn Urbani, my policy director. She’s outstanding. She’s extremely talented in many areas, but she’s embraced housing. Then, we introduce them to the General Assembly for another round of collaboration, input, and transparency. They go over to the Senate. The same thing happens over there. If we are successful and in sync, we pass legislation and present it to the public.

We’re not always in sync. That’s the truth. Sometimes, the Senate goes along with me; sometimes, they don’t. Sometimes, they modify things. Sometimes, we can live with the modifications; sometimes, we can’t, but we work together. Sometimes it’s hard. Working with partners at the State House, it took us three years to pass ADU legislation.

ADU is an accessory dwelling unit, the number one priority for the AARP, nationally and locally, and the number one priority for the Rhode Island College Democrats. Why? Because it was housing. People could age in place, and young people, coming out of school with school debt, could have a place to stay close to their parents yet independent. We worked very hard, and it passed the Senate with one vote. So I’m very happy with that. That’s how housing policy is initiated under my leadership. I’m proud of that.

I know some of the bills are controversial. I know some cities and towns don’t like them. I know some planning boards don’t like them. I certainly know a lot of planners who don’t like them. But what I ask is, as I said, give me your ideas, give me your collaboration. The ones that do that are few and far between, and we were able to work with them.

I’m proud to say that this year, with new leadership at the League of Cities and Towns, they not only attended our press conference but are supporting this year’s housing package. That may sound pretty benign, but it was very difficult to accomplish. I want to congratulate East Providence Mayor DaSilva and Randy Rossi, the new heads of the League of Cities and Towns, who have been working with us and continue to work with us. We will look at many good housing legislation that makes sense for the state.

That touches on one area I know is the headline of this particular meeting, but there are so many other things happening in state and federal government. We’re going to do our very best to protect Rhode Islanders. That’s our job. We take it very seriously. Not an hour goes by that I don’t hear from a representative about what we can do for healthcare, housing, mental health policy, you name it. We have a bunch of hardworking, creative legislators, and I’m sure there are those in the Senate who work hard every day to make Rhode Island a better place to live and raise a family. That’s what we’re all about, and that’s what we will continue to do.

Beyond that, I’m happy to talk about other topics. I’m honored to be here. Thank you for coming out on a cold and rainy day to listen to me. As long as you keep inviting me, I’ll keep coming back.

Sue Anderbois: You shared a bit about the housing package you’ve supported and that the League came out to support this year. Can you briefly discuss what you’re trying to tackle in this year’s package?

Speaker Shekarchi: It is a continuation, as I said before, of production, production, production, but it’s looking at it in many different ways. How can we make housing more affordable? How can we give density bonuses when there are the utilities that support it? And this is a misnomer for many people who work against the housing package. They say we are forcing housing. "You are forcing housing, Speaker, on our community." Nothing could be further from the truth. The natural impediments to housing remained: We didn’t change DEM regulations, waive anything, or relax anything to make building easier. We didn’t take away any capacity to say yes or no to a project. The local zoning board, planning board, or city council decides every approved project locally. We don’t say yes or no to any project at the State House. We leave it local.

This year’s package extends that and looks at creative ways to make it easier for private developers to come forward and build. And because we have a whole other public component through Rhode Island Housing and the Department of Housing, which I’m proud to say that I sponsored and funded, we originally used 25% of our ARPA money - that’s a quarter of a billion dollars to jumpstart it. We created a transfer tax on homes that sold above $800,000, creating a revenue stream for affordable housing. We’ve done a lot of good things to fund it. We have passed, overwhelmingly by the state’s voters, a $120 million bond, the single largest in the history of Rhode Island for housing, and it passed with nearly 70% of the vote. It’s resonating. Some polls published about a month ago show that housing remains the number one issue.

People ask me, "Speaker, why did you choose housing?" I said, I never chose housing. Housing chose me. It is the issue of the time. It’s the issue that needs addressing. I was looking around, and nobody was doing that much about it. We were playing around the edges. A couple of great nonprofits supported it without any real funding. When some funding became available, like maybe five or $10 million, a big stampede of nonprofit developers was trying to get a piece of that to supplement and build a capital stack. Capital stacks, as we saw today, are a combination of state, federal, sometimes city, sometimes grant, and foundation money to help offset the cost of housing. That’s what has typically been done, but now we have real tools.

We have a funded Housing Department. We are making significant investments in our homeless population. It’s a growing population. As rents go higher, homelessness goes higher. I don’t know how some people feel about that, but that isn’t comforting. And not every one of those people is without a job. There are a lot of issues there. We passed in the House a program called Pay for Success that not only helps people get into permanent or temporary housing but also gives them supportive services to help them because some people who are homeless have other issues. There are a lot of mental health issues associated with that. There are a lot of substance abuse issues. We need to get people the help they need to make them productive, get them into permanent housing, and get on and live a good, long life. That’s what government’s all about, in my opinion. It’s about helping people who need it. I know that’s not popular in Washington today with some of the Republicans, but it doesn’t change me. It doesn’t change who I am. Our mission as a community is to take care of one another, and that’s what we should do.

Sue Anderbois: Can you talk briefly about what you see as some of the biggest obstacles to addressing the housing Crisis and how municipalities can help?

Speaker Shekarchi: Great question. The biggest problem, unfortunately, is a misunderstanding about what affordable housing is. Some people think affordable housing is low-income housing, and that’s not necessarily the case. It’s all different levels of affordable housing. What’s affordable in Barrington and on the east side wouldn’t necessarily be affordable in Warwick or Pawtucket. There’s a formula that comes out yearly, and it’s adjusted, and that’s what affordable means.

Generally, consider affordable [housing serving] as nurses, police officers, firefighters, city workers, plumbers, and electricians. The people who build housing should be able to afford to live in the houses they’re building. Those are the people who need affordable housing, everyday working people.

When I first ran for office, I walked my neighborhood; I walked every door. Parts of my district are very poor; parts are very wealthy. They were talking about housing in the poor area, but there wasn’t enough housing. People were also talking about housing in the wealthy part of the district. I went to three houses in a row. They asked, "What are you going to do for housing?" At the third house, I said, "I’m curious. You live in this beautiful home. Why this interest in housing?"

And they told me, "It’s about our children and grandchildren. We want to be a part of their lives as they grow up, and they can’t afford to buy a house here. We want to be close to our children. Our children can’t find a high-paying job, and they certainly can’t find a house. They can’t afford the down payment. They’re coming out with student debt; they can’t afford a mortgage because they have student debt. That resonated with me. It was a popular issue, and it was affecting many people, not people who needed immediate housing, but their families.

Housing is an economic development issue. It’s a jobs issue. We’re building housing. We’re bringing in Amazon, and Jack Reed, to his credit, is bringing NOAA to be headquartered here in Rhode Island. Those people need housing and jobs. This is a very significant problem.

I was in Newport and Middletown on Friday and met somebody on the planning board. He was elated that we were pushing for housing there. He’s making a 160-unit development in Middletown on a main road that has water and sewer. It’s a large parcel of land. He’s going to put a public park on one side of it. He will put housing and mixed-use on the other side of it. And he was thrilled that people at the State House recognized the need and are pushing it. He was running into a lot of resistance. Still, he continued to address issues with plantings, changing the color, landscaping, screening, and relocating walking paths, and it mitigated the opposition at the second and third hearings. There are still more hearings in that process, but they understand that they need housing and are looking at its benefits.

The biggest thing I can say to solve the housing crisis is to communicate. You’re never going to win everyone over. You have to go with that realization from the beginning. If you think you will walk out with unanimous approval, that doesn’t happen in politics or life. It certainly doesn’t happen in housing. But you can win over the majority by explaining, working with them, and making them understand their voice is heard.

A lot of people are concerned about traffic and schools. The traffic is already there if you’re building on a main road. Look at our school-age children. That’s dropping dramatically because children are expensive, and people have fewer children. There are a lot of factors that go into housing, but the biggest impediment to answering your question is miscommunication and misunderstanding. If people can sit, talk, and collaborate, they will gradually understand and accept it more because it’s needed. You’re building a home for people. You’re not putting in a business. You’re not putting in something that makes noise. You’re not putting something late at night. You’re putting in housing that people like you and I deserve.

Sue Anderbois: You’ve also been instrumental in creating the Life Science Hub, which was created last year or so. Can you share a little bit more about it?

Speaker Shekarchi: It’s a very interesting idea. We talked about meeting the needs of the times we’re in right now, but at the same time, we have to look beyond the immediate to see what the future is - and the future is bioscience. It has worked very successfully in Massachusetts, and when I say Massachusetts, I’m not talking about Kendall Square or Harvard; I’m talking about Mansfield and Worcester. Worcester has created a bioscience hub that throws off one billion dollars of economic activity - the same thing in Mansfield. It’s amazing to me that it has been so successful in Massachusetts. We have the ingredients. Neil Steinberg, who at the time was the head of the Rhode Island Foundation, and I had been Speaker for a short time. I remember going in masked, sitting in a big conference room, and he said, "I have this study that we’ve done, Speaker, and it’s going to take a commitment of money, but we can launch a bioscience hub here, and we’ll be successful."

I asked, "What are the ingredients we need?" He said, "We need a first-rate hospital system. And with Brown Health and Care New England, we have that. They have financial issues, but the quality of care by the doctors and nurses is as good as you get anywhere in Massachusetts or elsewhere. We need great, strong academic partners. We have that with Brown University, the Brown University Medical School, and URI."

And then he said, "We have to have a state that’s interested in partnering, and if you don’t have all three components working together for success, it’ll be a failure. Don’t bother doing it." And he said, "If you can give me a commitment that the state will do its share and continue to do this, they gave me a blueprint to form a quasi-agency that will get it done." Everybody on that board, including Neil Steinberg, serves for free - again, quality people. We wrote some legislation to get top-notch talent from around the country who couldn’t come to Rhode Island for the board meeting, but at the time, we were allowed to do it by Zoom, by executive order. We wrote the legislation and funded it with $45 million.

It is becoming successful. It’s exciting. They have recruited a company from Massachusetts called Organ Genesis to come to Smithfield. It’s a company that makes artificial skin for wound therapy. They’re bringing several hundred high-paying private sector jobs. They got their last approval from the Town of Smithfield last week on a three to two vote - three Democrats voted forward, two Democrats voted against it - but it passed. There’s a lot of activity. I can’t get into the details, but I think it’s public. Eli Lilly is looking at expanding in Rhode Island. There’s a lot of opportunities for that.

Now, is it a good thing or a bad thing? Is it successful? I don’t know, and we won’t know for years to come. I’ll be long gone as Speaker, but we’ll find out if it was right. But it’s exciting. So far, it looks very promising after a year and a half of the board, all the people involved, and all the top-notch talent they’ve recruited. We will continue that - not only because of all the great things I said about the jobs and opportunities for the future but also because of the medical therapies. Ten years ago, there was a little startup - part of a bioscience hub - called Moderna. Look at what they did. Look what they created. I want the next Moderna or whatever it is to come from Rhode Island. It would be great. It would help mankind, and it would help our state immensely.

I’m excited about the future. By the way, I’m the eternal optimist. Some people can look at all the bad things happening and granted, there are not a lot of good things coming out of Washington these days, but I look at Rhode Island, and I see a lot of promise and future, and I think there are good things to come.

Audience Question 1: My name is Penelope. I am a public school teacher and a constituent in your district. I’m also a renter and a member of Reclaim Rhode Island. Thank you for speaking about housing, speaking about it as a top priority. We talked about production, But I want to mention that Representative Cheri Cruz has introduced a bill that offers just-cause eviction protections for tenants, protecting tenants from arbitrary and unfair evictions, limiting extreme rent increases, and addressing the homelessness crisis while protecting small landlords. I would love your thoughts on this bill and if it fits into your legislative plans for this season.

Speaker Shekarchi: It is a great bill. Cheri is very passionate, and it’s under consideration. We’re going to take a look at that. It’s going through the committee process. When they ask me these questions, people think I know all the bills. There are over 1100 bills in the system. But Cheri’s very passionate. She’s a hardworking representative. She worked very hard at her reelection. I was happy to help her in the last cycle. We’ll give it some thought, and if it can work, and we can do all of it or parts of it, I’m all about it. We’re going to look at more of the details; believe it or not, we look at every piece of testimony.

I sit down with staff, senior leadership, and the chairs of the committees, and they give us input. I sit down with everybody and ask, who was it for it? Who was against it? What were the issues? The beautiful thing about the House of Representatives is that we videotape everything. When you send an email, we post it online so we can go back and look at a hearing and see who was for it, who was against it, why, and how come. All that will go into effect, and we’ll look at it.

But I will tell you, we were very lucky. You say you’re a renter. I want to give Jack Reed a shoutout because he works very hard for the people of Rhode Island. He got Rhode Island what they call a small state minimum for Rhode Island Rent Relief. That was during Covid, and Rhode Island got significant rent relief that helped with utilities, internet, and rent. Then, when other western states refused it, Jack returned to Congress and got their money reallocated to Rhode Island. When you talk about rent relief, we’ve done a lot and will continue to do what we can. We’re limited in the state. We’re never going to be able to meet all the federal cuts. But if you see Jack Reed, thank him for that effort.

Audience Question 2: I’m Helen Baskerville-Dukes, executive director of the Mount Hope Community Center. I have a question about the Life Science Hub. What kind of jobs will be available through this? What kind of skill level?

Speaker Shekarchi: These are private companies. We have to recruit them to come here. We have to nurture them and have them grow. But like any new company, somebody from a receptionist to some maintenance help to researchers, high-level executives to lawyers and corporate types, all along that continuum. It depends on how these companies go.

Thank you. I met you earlier about what you’re doing in Mount Hope. How many units of affordable housing are you building? 16? Thank you for that.

I will tell you a little-known fact - Rhode Island has a robust medical device industry. They’re small and build all kinds of mechanical devices and testing equipment. It is being done here in Rhode Island. It’s cutting edge. They are excited about the bioscience hub because they’re looking at partners. In bioscience, as I learned over the last couple of years, there are a lot of hit and misses. New drugs, therapies, and procedures - sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t. Venture capital puts a lot of money into it. So, at the very beginning, to be quite honest with you, there are not a lot of job opportunities. It’s more of a proof of concept. But once you get that proof of concept, venture capital money comes in, as well as angel financing and public IPO offerings. That’s when those companies explode for job opportunities. They’re high-paying, and they’re very successful.

We have CVS here, and people don’t know that CVS is a Fortune 5 company, a very big company. There’s a lot of work in pharmacy. They’re also broadening their base into these minute clinics, where they provide services to people on a walk-in basis, which I think is a good thing.

Amgen is down in West Greenwich doing some good things with arthritis and different medical therapies. If we can bring in Eli Lilly and companies like that, that would be a home run for the state. It is competitive; don’t kid yourself. Connecticut wants them. Massachusetts wants them, so we have to step up our game. But we have the right people in that bioscience hub. If you look online at the bioscience hub board and see who sits on that board on an all-volunteer basis, some of the best and brightest minds in the country are on the list. So, to answer your question, there are not many jobs in the beginning, especially now, but a lot of potential for the future.

Audience Question 3: My name is Joe, and I live in the neighborhood. I was at the April 5th protest, and I saw, at this protest, that there’s legislation pending in the House and Senate to tax the wealthiest 1% of Rhode Islanders to help bridge our state deficit and support Medicaid. I’m wondering where you stand on that.

Speaker Shekarchi: Very good question. At the Chamber of Commerce, I was asked to commit that I would not support that legislation. I wouldn’t make that commitment. I like to say that everything’s on the table, and that’s certainly up for discussion. But with the three branches of government - we have a senate, executive branch, and the house - in terms of passing bills. My other two partners are not as open-minded on this legislation. What I’d like to say is that we’re going to look at, that’s Karen Alzate’s bill. She’s had that in there, and it originally started, I think, at $1 million, and I believe now it’s around $450,000. So, I keep an open mind. I’ll see what the revenue numbers are, but what’s very interesting is my colleagues, and I love them all. Seventy-four of them, 75 including me, and all believe, me included, that if we did that, there’d be X amount of income to go to my cause. That will go to healthcare, education, or RIPTA - when there’s not enough. We cannot tax our way out of the cuts and proposed cuts coming out of Washington.

That bill remains a viable option to raise revenue. I will keep an open mind, and then we will look at where our revenue numbers come in around the second week of May. I have refused to commit to that bill because I think in my mind it’s an in-case of emergency break glass.

We also need to be competitive with our neighbors regarding tax structure because one of the biggest things we are using is to keep Hasbro here in Rhode Island. Many things are going on about Hasbro, and I don’t know where they stand, especially now with tariffs from the Republicans in Washington. If Hasbro leaves and there are tariffs for China, that’s another issue. But we are using, in our promotion to keep Hasbro, that we don’t have the millionaire tax. That’s what the state has been proposing to them. I can’t take it off the table, and I have to say it’s probably more viable or needed now than it has been.

Audience Question 4: I’m Howard Schulman. I’m a general internist. I work in East Providence, and I live here. Three days ago, Anchor Medical Associates, a primary care group, closed up in Warwick for financial reasons. Not only for financial reasons, they couldn’t recruit people here to replace the retiring doctors. Twenty-five thousand patients are scrambling to find a new doctor. Our group is getting lots of phone calls. Three percent of the Rhode Island population suddenly got told they don’t have a primary care doctor. Last year, the Senate had 25 bills to cure healthcare. That didn’t happen. This year, there’s another package. There’s a bill going through the legislature to have international doctors who haven’t had any training in the United States work here without getting training for a year or two. There’s another bill about an interstate medical licensing compact to have Teladoc doctors. It’s mostly to have someone to call. It’s a financial problem. I don’t want you to come up with an answer right now, but I think it’s a major problem in terms of the provision of healthcare.

Speaker Shekarchi: Thank you, doctor. I know it’s a problem. My dad was a doctor; he’s still with us. He’s retired and 99 years old. I know how important it is. When Andrew closed, they emailed everybody in the email, telling them to call their state legislator. That’s okay, that’s our job. But it’s very complicated. People say, "Why are the reimbursements so low?" I didn’t know, either. To his credit, David Cicilline, the former mayor and former congressman who runs the Rhode Island Foundation, did a study at the end of the last legislative year. It said that our premium dollars for healthcare are roughly the same as those in Massachusetts. Just about the same - maybe a little bit less, maybe a little bit more, depending on the plan and where you go. But our reimbursement rates are low, and why is that?

If you read the study or the summary of the study, you’ll see that we cover many more procedures. I am guilty, like all my colleagues. A couple of years ago, I passed a bill mandating coverage, at no cost, for mastectomy supplies and equipment. What happens is that cost gets absorbed by the other people in the system. The General Assembly, myself included, passed a lot of mandates to cover things like EpiPens or this procedure or that procedure. There are only so many premium dollars. If you look at Blue Cross as a bellwether, they lost up to $90 million this past year. I know they’re currently trying to sell their building to raise their reserves.

We have to increase our reimbursement rates, not only on the state side but on the private insurance side. There was a bill last year that would’ve increased reimbursement significantly, but it also would’ve tripled premiums for everybody in this room for healthcare. South County Hospital primarily proposed that and went over like a lead balloon. You talked about the Senate package. Many of those things you discussed don’t have a financial impact. A lot of the Senate package last year, with good intentions, and we had duplicates in the house, cost a lot of money.

When I get a budget [from the Governor], that doesn’t have a lot of money in it and has holes in it this year, that’s a whole nother story, but there are problems in the education budget where there are deficits that have not been disclosed yet - significant deficits. There’s a plan to merge medium and minimum security of the ACI for $6 million in savings this year and $12 million annually. That is wrong. That will not yield any money, and it has been abandoned. I can go on and on. I have to first get to zero to pass a balanced budget before I have any extra money to spend. I’m leaving here at seven o’clock because I’ve got a budget caucus with my colleagues. And I will tell you that despite people wanting money for education, public transportation, and housing, most of my colleagues, and probably most of the Senate, will say that we need to put more money into the healthcare system.

I’m on the phone daily, seven days a week, Saturdays and Sundays, with Attorney General Neronha. We’re very concerned about Fatima and Roger Williams. I know it gives the mayor great constellation because they’re trying to go from a for-profit hospital to a nonprofit, which will be a significant revenue shortfall for North Providence and Providence. But the alternative, right now, is that those hospitals will close, never mind Anchor, which may cause people to look for new doctors. Those hospitals will close, jobs will be lost, and those properties - I don’t know what will happen to them.

They’re in bankruptcy under the jurisdiction of a federal district court in Texas, if you can believe it. They’re trying to get this for-profit hospital turned into a nonprofit hospital. They’re borrowing money to finance the deal with the assets they’re given. Attorney General Neronha gave him credit for holding back $50 million from the Prospect dividend payout. He held back $50 million that will go into this purchase to keep these hospitals alive in the short term.

Audience Question 5: My name is Lisa Jones, and I am curious about affordable housing and plans to convert commercial properties into housing. I’m thinking of unused properties, maybe Memorial Hospital or properties downtown. The commercial sector is very soft, and the likelihood of those buildings being refilled by businesses is very small.

Speaker Shekarchi: We have active legislation; it’s part of our package this year to do that. We’ve done that to a small degree, which we call adaptive reuse. That was part of a previous bill package, where if you look at an old factory, school, or hospital like Pawtucket Memorial, which already has water, sewer, and high density, you can repurpose that. We’ve run into some resistance from the communities. Some communities don’t want it. They feel like they have a shrinking commercial tax base. But you make a good point because, since Covid, things have changed. If you look, offices are being reevaluated and reassessed not just in downtown Providence but all across the country. The workforce is working from home. The worker is much more empowered than the employer these days. People want to work remotely or at home two or three days a week. The offices downtown are making workstations - where Sue’s going in on Tuesday and Wednesday, and I’m going in on Monday and Thursday. We’re sharing a workstation, and we're working from home the rest of the time.

Please come to the State House and testify on that legislation. We’re working very hard. We’re going to continue to work on housing legislation. I want to request, to my good friends in the Senate, that the House has their housing package. If anybody in the Senate wants to duplicate those - Senator Zurier, Senator Mack - we welcome your assistance in the Senate to get those through. Earlier this year, we passed a bill for the Pallet homes - to expedite that. It was ridiculous that they were being delayed in the middle of December when people were freezing to death because it didn’t fit the fire code. It’s not anyone’s fault, but we immediately fixed it in the House. It’s one of the first bills we did this year, and we will continue to do it.

Audience Question 6: I’m Bill Ibelle. I live in Providence in the Summit area and am an environmental activist, among other things. With all the very important issues that we’ve been talking about tonight and all the chaos that’s coming out of Washington, I’m concerned that the environment will get left behind because it feels like we can kick it down the road, so do it next year. Many important bills are pending before the legislature, one of them being Representative Kislak’s building decarbonization bill, which I’m sure you know. A couple of other bills are very interesting because they’re towards the solution of, "How do we all do all this stuff? There’s so little money." There are ways to fund environmental efforts, like the Environmental Superfund bill. I’m wondering where you stand on the urgency of the environment. You can say, "I’m all for the environment," but how urgent is it this year when there are so many other competing things?

Speaker Shekarchi: First of all, thank you for your advocacy. I mean that sincerely. I recognize that, and the young lady sitting next to me is probably one of the premier advocates in the state.

I understand how important it is, and that’s why I brought on Janet Coit to help advise the House. We have a bottle bill, producers’ responsibility bill, and Coastal Resources Management Council reform. We have Representative Rebecca Kislak. She’s here. She asks me every day about the Decarb Bill. We want to work through them. It’s important. I’m proud of my environmental advocacy in several ways.

Act on climate is the most significant piece of legislation that I did in the House. I did that because I wanted to communicate that we mean business and that things have changed, and I was committed to that. We passed significant PFAS legislation, banning PFAS in food and water. We passed lead pipe reform, so kids were’ drinking from lead pipes in our school systems or their homes, for that matter. I’m proud of what I’ve done. I’m proud of what we’re going to continue to do. I’m proud to bring in Janet Coit. Look, it’s important because in Washington, while everyone’s talking about tariffs, the EPA is being gutted, and the Republican administration’s philosophy is a drill, baby drill.

As I understand it, the Superfund legislation has passed in two states. It’s passed in New York and Vermont and is being litigated now. I’m watching it carefully. I’m looking at that. The bills you’ve talked about, they’re all in consideration. We’re looking at ways we can move things along. But I’m equally proud that Majority Leader Chris Blazejewski and I stopped a high-heat bill that came out of the Senate and was heading for the fast train we came out. It’s not always what we do; it’s what we don’t do.

I stand on that record, and that record is second to none. I’m proud to run on that. It takes time. These are not easily understood issues and are not easy to get done. That doesn’t mean we don’t do them or they’re hard. They’re important, and we work twice as hard to get them done.

Sue Anderbois: We are acting on much of that legislation in Providence, where we can. One of the reasons I ran for the council was watching the last council be unable to pass a building benchmarking ordinance, which seemed so basic and obvious. You don’t want to know what the energy use of our commercial and municipal buildings was? If we can’t do this, what can we do? So, the new council unanimously passed that within the first year. I sponsored that with Councilmember Helen Anthony in Ward 2, who wanted to join us tonight but is not feeling well. And then, the next year, we followed up by requiring all municipal buildings to be carbon neutral by 2040.

The city is already doing an amazing job implementing these. Director Priscilla De La Cruz, whom I’m the world’s biggest fan of, gave a presentation to the Special Committee on the Environment and Resilience I created and chaired, talking about the great progress they’re making in implementing this legislation. We’ve already benchmarked the city’s buildings, and then we’re moving forward with all electric construction in our schools and making good progress decarbonizing all musical buildings.

We’re not waiting for the state. We want the state to act because there are places other than Providence, but Providence isn’t waiting. We’re taking matters into our own hands. Priscilla and her team, like David Ruggerio, our energy administrator, are amazing and show that you can do it. And Priscilla, I don’t want to put you on the spot, but I think you said it was $30,000 yearly to do benchmarking, plus half a staff person. It’s not expensive, and it will save a lot of money.

Speaker Shekarchi: It’s unfair, and I’ll explain why. In Providence, there’s strong support for these initiatives. When you get to the State House, I have to represent different communities, 39 cities, and towns in some of the more rural parts of Rhode Island. It’s not quite a priority there as it is in Providence. But I congratulate Providence for taking the lead. That’s important and shows, as Sue said that it’s not expensive or difficult. Many of the bills that come in want a lot of stuff, and I say, if you break it down, we can move it along in pieces. That’s what I’m trying to do.

Audience Question 7: I’m Brandy McKinnon. I live up on College Hill. I have two questions. Are your committees working on changing the building code, removing the second stairwell, or similar things? And the second question is, I live in the densest part of Providence. What are you doing to enforce the laws to make Johnston, Lincoln, and all these towns who are fighting us infill? Because we can’t do it alone. There is no more space in my neighborhood. I would love to put more effort into it, but we need help from other cities.

Speaker Shekarchi: Very good question. The answer comes from people in this room. Many people want me to drop a hammer and penalize them or refuse aid, and I’m not afraid to do that. I’m not saying I won’t do that, but I’d like to try to educate and bring people along so they understand it. Let me give you a couple of examples. In the last election cycle, the Town of Narragansett passed many ordinances that negated what we did at the state level. In the last election, the voters wiped out the town council unanimously. I said earlier that the Housing bond passed by over 70% of the vote. In Coventry, not exactly the east side of Providence, an anti-housing candidate was against the entire "Shekarchi housing package" and ran against Senator Lou Raptakis. Lou overwhelmingly beat him. In Warren, June Speakman was running for reelection against a town councilperson who was very anti-housing. June Speakman won overwhelmingly.

The people are speaking when they vote. Johnston is involved in litigation right now. I met with the mayor over the weekend to discuss it and try to say, "Mayor, is there a middle ground? Is there something going on?" There’s another big development going on in Smithfield. I talked to the solicitor this morning and said, "Find a way to get housing. Even 50% is better than no housing." And to his credit, he said, "Speaker, that’s exactly what we’re trying to do, and we’re getting close to that."

I like to try the collaborative and educational approach. When people see who moves in and what these units look like, they often have this preconceived notion that people who live in this housing are different: bad, poor, criminals, or whatever. It’s very common.

I’ll use an example about vaccines. I don’t know where you stand, but my father was a doctor. I got, much to my chagrin growing up, every shot and vaccine known to man. There is a false narrative going on. It’s the same false narrative that goes on for housing. Hopefully, we can change that by getting people to understand why it’s so important to create housing. It’s working in poll results. It’s working in statewide bond results; it’s working in local elections. People who fight against these projects will have to face the voters. And that’s the best medicine you can tell to any politician.

Audience Question 8 [Aaron Regunber]: So many Democrats are hungry or even desperate for leadership. We’ve got fascists coming after everything we care about in Washington, and we’re seeing a lot of Blue State governors step up in the fight against Trump and their horrific attacks. We’re not seeing that from Dan McKee here in Rhode Island. I don’t know many people who see him stepping up and being the leader we need right now. I’m not asking you to criticize a colleague, but I’m wondering - what leadership would you want to see if you were in that position? How would you be saying?

Speaker Shekarchi: It sounds like a loaded question, but thank you. Look, everybody is different. Everybody has different styles. I want to do what I can do as the Speaker of the House - to be the best possible Speaker I can be and protect Rhode Islanders who are getting hurt - veterans who are losing benefits people, young people who can’t get vaccines, and all the bad things coming out of Washington. I want to protect those people as best as I can. I want to help doctors get adequate reimbursement rates so they stay in Rhode Island and not go to Massachusetts or Connecticut.

I think you stand up and lead by action. For example, do you talk about what’s happening in Washington? Let me tell you, I’m proud that we in Rhode Island passed marriage equality on a personal as well as a professional basis.

I’m also equally proud that we passed the Reproductive Healthcare Act that codified Woe v Wade. We codified equal access to abortion coverage so poor women and state employees can get coverage for their healthcare. We prioritized and passed the Obamacare in-state law and codified that. Whatever happens in Washington, we’ve acted and will continue to act when we can.

I’m not afraid to fight with anybody, but I want to fight a fight that’s worth fighting. I want a fight that we can win. The record of the General Assembly, and when I say that, I’m not bragging about the House because the House can’t do it alone. I need the Senate to partner with us. We’ve stood together and passed a significant amount of gun safety legislation. We’re going to continue to protect Rhode Island as best we can.

I’m not afraid to stand up to anybody on any issue - from the federal government to anybody locally or any misfit, malcontent, anti-housing advocate - and they’re out there. And I pay the price personally in many ways, I don’t want to get into it here, but in many ways - my practice, my office, and all kinds of bogus accusations, but just because they’re made, it doesn’t mean I stop fighting for what I believe in and what’s right. Because if you don’t do that, you don’t belong in elected office. When you become a Speaker, people expect you to stand up and lead. And I’m prepared to do that.

Audience Question 9 [Providence City Councilmember Justin Roias (Ward 4)]: You have been a breath of fresh air compared to previous folks who have taken up the Speakership.

Going back to housing policy, we need to increase the housing supply and implement building reform. However, we can’t rely solely on the private market to solve the housing crisis. Here in Providence, we consider rent stabilization to be a third option. Would you support a preemption law to prevent cities from pursuing rent stabilization, as California did in 1995 when it passed the Costa–Hawkins Rental Housing Act?

Speaker Shekarchi: I’m not familiar with it. If you give that to me, I’d be happy to look at it. I don’t know what preemption you’re talking about, but Dan Denvir has been hounding me about the public housing developer for four years. We did a feasibility study that showed it worked. We put it in the bond as $10 million. I see a developer here who’s very interested in pursuing that.

I agree with you. We cannot rely strictly on the private sector. We share that goal, Councilman. We need to create more production. In the last four years, we have raised the tax on high net sales and ARPA money through bonding. We have made the most significant investment in housing in Rhode Island’s history and have only scratched the surface of the problem.

A public housing developer, if done right now - keep in mind that no one state in the country has done it, though there’s been a success in Montgomery County, Maryland - this is what I challenged Dan Denvir and all my good friends at Reclaim. If you do it right, Rhode Island can lead the country. Find the right land and the right developer. The investment has been made. It’s been approved by the voters. It’s waiting to be initiated. Unfortunately, like many programs in the state, it doesn’t get done as quickly as I would like or want - maybe not with a sense of urgency that you and I both share. But there are alternatives, and I’m open to them. Please email me about that preemption. I’ll take a good look, and I’ll give you an answer.

Sue Anderbois: Dan Denvir and I are scheming to get a public developer to develop on North Main Street. We’re trying to bring that 10 million here.

Speaker Shekarchi: This has been an incredibly rewarding experience. Please stay involved and get involved. It’s more than coming here and talking with me and the councilmember; it’s showing up at the State House, sending an email, calling your state representative or senator, and being involved in your local government because that matters. Tip O’Neill said, "All politics is local." I like to think all the solutions are local. We’re going to continue to do our best.