There is a widely used statistic that most of the towns in Rhode Island do not provide adequate affordable housing. Little Compton, for example, supposedly only has fewer than 10 units that qualify as affordable. This statistic is based on a 30-year-old state law that requires a property owner to place a 30-year deed restriction on that property as a precondition for it to be considered “affordable.” Under this restriction, the property can only be occupied by people approved by the state.

This 30-year requirement has no basis in the financial factors affecting affordability. It is simply a glaring example of government overreach.

The same law sets a target of 10 percent affordable housing, that must meet this particular definition, for each and every town in the state. At the same time, the state has selectively provided resources only to certain towns, that make building affordable housing feasible. They have provided them with municipal water and sewer resources which are a significant portion of building costs. These services also allow for denser zoning, which also lowers land cost per unit. 

I would challenge our politicians to tell us just how many of the affordable units in the urban towns that do meet their requirements, would have been viable projects had the state not provided these resources. I would then ask them why they believe it is equitable to demand that those towns that have not received these benefits are being held to task for not meeting these arbitrary ratios, which are numbers based on data "not supported by facts in evidence."

We need to realize that these targets are not merely guidelines. We should not forget that in 2016, RI H 7985 was proposed that would have imposed a penalty on each town of $2,000 per year for each of the number of units below this threshold.

A variation of Gresham's Law addressing this situation might state, 'bad political mandates are driving workable solutions from the marketplace.'

There are a lot of people working towards trying to provide affordable housing.

Their efforts are being hamstrung by this Damoclean sword which is deterring what might be sensible, realistic solutions.

It is time this law is repealed.

Bob Rottmann

Little Compton