Need more like this.
Adapted from Robert Whitcomb’s “Digital Diary,’’ in GoLocal24.com
There’s a bad “affordable housing” problem in Rhode Island, as in many other states, most famously in California. But the state does have some assets, for example, hotels that are closing because of what appears to be a permanent drop in business travel. Most of these could be converted to temporary and/or permanent housing.
Consider the former Cru Hotel at T.F. Greene International Airport. It’s being converted to a 181-unit building for workforce housing.
Closed schools, though more challenging to retrofit, also offer space for housing.
Meanwhile, zoning laws need to be revised to allow more and denser housing to be constructed, boosting supply and thus reducing cost pressures. This should include letting people put up “little houses” in backyards for family members in places where zoning now forbids it. And loosening some local rules mandating a large number of parking spaces as a requirement with housing construction would help, too.
Rhode Island remains the second-most-densely populated state, after New Jersey, another reminder of its housing challenges.
