Rhode Island
Apartment construction booming across US. Why not RI? | Opinion
Cliff Wood is the executive director of The Providence Foundation.
You might not realize it when driving through Providence, but apartment construction is booming throughout the United States. More units will become available in 2023 than in any year since the early 1970s. Cities ranging from Austin to Charlotte to Nashville have seen inventory growth as high as 90%. But there aren’t many cranes over our capital city. By at least one measure, the Ocean State ranks last in the nation. Why?
The problem isn’t a lack of demand. People want to live here — something that cannot be said for many other places across the country. So why haven’t developers erected more homes in Rhode Island, particularly in the places where demand is greatest, like downtown Providence? That question could elicit a range of answers, but the reality comes down to two — one economic and the other strategic.
More: Rhode Island’s housing crisis is at a breaking point. How did we get here?
The economic challenge revolves around the return a developer gets on any proposed project. Building materials are just as expensive here as they are in Boston, or on Cape Cod — concrete, lumber and the like. The cost of labor is similar as well. But the rents a developer can charge in Providence are a fraction of what he or she will get after constructing the very same unit in, say, Cambridge or Newton, which brings us to the strategic reason development is so often thwarted in Rhode Island: The Ocean State too often neglects to employ the tools that can help to level the playing field to attract investment.
Rents aren’t the only thing that bear on whether a developer chooses to add to a state’s housing supply. Tax burdens, bureaucratic rigmarole and market uncertainty also play a role. If Rhode Island could best Massachusetts on those fronts, developers would surely migrate here. But far from using these tools to level the playing field, Rhode Island is widening the gulf, incenting developers to go elsewhere and leaving renters here to pay the rising rents born from the reality that we don’t have enough housing.
Consider what’s happening in Boston and Providence today. Boston’s mayor is proposing a program that would allow developers who convert commercial buildings into apartments a 75% reduction on their property taxes — so much that, in one example, a building now paying nearly $250,000 in taxes each year would see its bill to the city drop to less than $30,000. Meanwhile, Providence’s City Council is bringing a lawsuit so that the city can renege on a tax agreement they already approved with a local developer building workforce housing downtown, increasing rates that had already been ratified by a judge.
More: Warren cut the density of a proposed housing project by 38%. Now the town wants to undo that
Put simply, the two capital cities are sending vastly different messages to builders equipped to erect more housing at a time when market conditions already favor Boston. And that’s a shame because Providence can get a lot of development done when it works cooperatively with developers. The successful and popular Farm Fresh project would not have been built if the state and city had refused to reduce the tax burden on the underlying lots.
None of these projects would have been possible without partnership between the public and private sectors — meaning financial incentives for those willing to invest in the Ocean State. But if the government treats builders as pariahs, the Ocean State will lag. When growing demand isn’t met with growing supply, rents rise for ordinary families.
It’s up to Rhode Island’s leaders to find common ground that works for the greater good.
(WJAR) — An energy assistance program designed to help Rhode Islanders struggling to pay utility bills has extended its application deadline amid rising demand for financial assistance.
The United Way of Rhode Island announced that residents now have until June 30 to apply for aid through the Good Neighbor Energy Fund.
The program provides one-time emergency utility assistance to income-eligible households that need help paying a bill or avoiding a service shutoff but do not qualify for other state or federal assistance programs.
Demand for help has increased sharply.
According to United Way of Rhode Island, requests for assistance with electric bills rose 182% in May compared with the same month a year earlier. A total of 1,202 Rhode Islanders reported utility costs as a need last month.
BE THE FIRST TO COMMENT
Residents interested in applying or determining their eligibility can call 211 before the June 30 deadline or visit the United Way of Rhode Island website.
The Rhode Island Lottery offers multiple draw games for those aiming to win big.
Here’s a look at June 8, 2026, results for each game:
Winning Powerball numbers from June 8 drawing
03-24-34-43-49, Powerball: 20, Power Play: 3
Check Powerball payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Numbers numbers from June 8 drawing
Midday: 5-1-4-9
Evening: 6-0-8-6
Check Numbers payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Wild Money numbers from June 8 drawing
02-04-17-22-32, Extra: 16
Check Wild Money payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Millionaire for Life numbers from June 8 drawing
20-25-40-50-55, Bonus: 01
Check Millionaire for Life payouts and previous drawings here.
Feeling lucky? Explore the latest lottery news & results
Are you a winner? Here’s how to claim your prize
- Prizes less than $600 can be claimed at any Rhode Island Lottery Retailer. Prizes of $600 and above must be claimed at Lottery Headquarters, 1425 Pontiac Ave., Cranston, Rhode Island 02920.
- Mega Millions and Powerball jackpot winners can decide on cash or annuity payment within 60 days after becoming entitled to the prize. The annuitized prize shall be paid in 30 graduated annual installments.
- Winners of the Millionaire for Life top prize of $1,000,000 a year for life and second prize of $100,000 a year for life can decide to collect the prize for a minimum of 20 years or take a lump sum cash payment.
When are the Rhode Island Lottery drawings held?
- Powerball: 10:59 p.m. ET on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
- Mega Millions: 11:00 p.m. ET on Tuesday and Friday.
- Lucky for Life: 10:30 p.m. ET daily.
- Millionaire for Life: 11:15 p.m. ET daily.
- Numbers (Midday): 1:30 p.m. ET daily.
- Numbers (Evening): 7:29 p.m. ET daily.
- Wild Money: 7:29 p.m. ET on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
This results page was generated automatically using information from TinBu and a template written and reviewed by a Rhode Island editor. You can send feedback using this form.
Pawtuxet River flooding: Study commission weighs potential solution
The Pawtuxet River keeps flooding. Is the Scituate Reservoir to blame?
With time running out and no action scheduled yet, advocates are escalating their campaign to convince lawmakers to pass the Rhode Island “Voting Rights Act” introduced by Senate President Valarie Lawson and House Majority Leader Katherine Kazarian.
But it appears the bill has already been declared dead for the year.
Lawson, House Speaker Christopher Blazejewski and Secretary of State Gregg Amore issued this joint statement on Monday, June 8:
“From the beginning, we have all understood the importance of passing a strong Rhode Island Voting Rights Act. But we also understand that as the federal administration continues to work to make it more difficult to access the ballot box, we have to do it right.”
“Advocates and other parties raised several concerns,” the statement said. “It is imperative that we enact as strong, enforceable, and defensible a bill as possible. With those priorities in mind, we recognize there is more work to do.”
“As drafted this year, the provisions of the Voting Rights Act would not take effect until the 2028 election cycle. Therefore, we will work over the course of the off-session to put forward as strong a bill as possible for consideration in 2027 and will continue to prioritize the Voting Rights Act in the upcoming session,” the statement continued.
The reaction from one angry advocate, Sen. Tiara Mack: “I’m not done fighting.”
How did we get here?
The legislation was introduced in response to thwarted Republican efforts to pass a federal SAVE Act to require proof of citizenship to register to vote and came weeks before the U.S. Supreme Court hollowed out a landmark Civil Rights-era law that has increased minority representation in Congress and elsewhere, opening the door for more redistricting across the country that could aid Republican efforts to maintain control the House.
“This is not abstract. This is about power,” Shahidah Ali, chairwoman of the political arm of the Rhode Island Coalition of Black Women, said at a voting rights rally that packed the State House Library on March 31.
“This is about who gets to participate in our democracy, and who is pushed out of it.”
On Sunday, June 7, Ali reiterated that warning and her frustration that the bill appears, despite its high-powered sponsors, to be in limbo going into the expected final days of the legislative session, saying she didn’t understand why the bill wasn’t moving as quickly as she thought it would.
“I feel like when you’re in a super majority and it’s something that’s needed after … the gutting of the Federal Voting Rights Act, I would think that this would be a no-brainer, that the Democrats in this state would understand the importance and the urgency of a bill to protect voters, especially Black voters,” she said.
Why hasn’t the bill moved?
As of Sunday, Rep. Kathy Fogarty, a co-sponsor of the House version of the bill (H8334), has not given up hope the bill would still pass. But, she said, “my understanding is that they were concerned …. [and] wanted to review” some of Attorney General Peter Neronha’s comments about the bill after Secretary of State Gregg Amore asked him for his input.
Fogarty said the May 7 leadership change in the House put the newly elected Speaker Blazejewski and Kazarian, in her newly elevated role as majority leader, in front of a proverbial “fire hose,” with the finalization of the proposed new $15.2 billion state budget their first priority.
With the need to finalize the budget, which won House approval on June 5, “I think that this just kind of got pushed to the side,” Fogarty said of the voting rights bill.
The backdrop
The proposed Rhode Island Voter Rights Act was introduced to enshrine federal protections against voter suppression, vote dilution and “racially-based gerrymandering” in state law.
The legislation was introduced in response to the push by President Donald Trump and his GOP allies in Congress for passage of the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, known more familiarly as the SAVE Act.
While Rhode Island already has its own Voter ID law requiring prospective voters to show a photo identification to cast their ballot, the SAVE Act would require proof of citizenship – such as a valid U.S. passport and certified birth certificate – to register to vote.
If the U.S. Senate were able to muster the votes to pass the SAVE Act, critics say millions could be disenfranchised, including married women whose adult names do not match the names on their birth certificates.
Speaking at the March 31 Rhode Island rally, U.S. Rep. Seth Magaziner said not enough attention has gone to the proposed requirement that a voter present the same level of documentation to obtain a mail ballot, “but only if they showed up to their board of canvassers in person to prove their citizenship.” This would obviously be problematic for people too ill to leave their homes, hospitalized, out of the country or even, out of state on business.
As currently drafted, the proposed Rhode Island Voting Rights Act would take effect on January 1, 2027.
What were the concerns about the bill?
The edits Neronha’s staff suggested to the Secretary of State’s Office were largely cosmetic – the deletion of an extraneous word here or there, or clarification of a potentially muddy sentences.
In a June 6 letter to John Marion, executive director of the citizens-advocacy group Common Cause Rhode Island, Neronha said: “I do not view our comments on the proposed Act as particularly extensive nor burdensome nor time-consuming to implement, in whole or in part, should there be a desire to do so.”
Neronha’s letter said that his comments on the bill shouldn’t impede its passage, or be taken “even as a suggestion” that he doesn’t support the bill. His office’s role, he said, was to make a “laudable piece of legislation better if we could.”
“We undertook that task because we were asked to, and I agreed because I believe that passage of a Voting Rights Act is important to protecting the rights of Rhode Islanders and our democracy,” Neronha said.
Advocates are not giving up
In recent weeks, Ali said she went on radio to make an appeal to Black and brown men, in particular, to support the legislation, while she and other advocates distributed 3,300 postcards to be mailed to state lawmakers.
The message: “Dear Senator (Representative), The Voting Rights Act is one of the most important statutes we have in this country as it protects everyone’s right to vote and allows our country to function as a true democracy. Until it is codified into Rhode Island state law our fundamental Civil Rights are at risk.”
“We cannot afford to lose our Civil Rights with an election coming.”
This story has been updated with new information.
-
Atlanta, GA2 minutes agoFirst time watching soccer? Here’s what to know before World Cup in ATL
-
Minneapolis, MN7 minutes agoMinneapolis standoff: Deputies fired at while serving arrest warrant
-
Indianapolis, IN14 minutes agoVery humid through Thursday night with more storms on the way
-
Pittsburg, PA17 minutes agoPirates Place Top Prospect on Taxi Squad
-
Augusta, GA22 minutes agoNew system launches in Augusta, offering noninvasive brain tumor treatment
-
Washington, D.C29 minutes agoTrayon White censured and fined for missing financial disclosure deadlines
-
Cleveland, OH32 minutes agoNew York Yankees vs. Cleveland Guardians prediction, pick for Tuesday 6/9/26
-
Austin, TX37 minutes agoTexas rule targeting smokable hemp is back in effect
