PROVIDENCE – Years ago, when I worked as an assistant news editor at The Greenfield Recorder, an afternoon daily newspaper in Western Massachusetts, one of my jobs was to copy edit the police logs from the various small towns across Franklin County. My day normally began at 5 a.m. in the morning, and my desk was located under a chronic leak in the roof, which produced a steady drip, drip, drip of water onto my computer whenever it rained.. It was easy to lose concentration at the task at hand.

One of the worst mistakes I made during my copy editing regiment was not correcting a typo from a police log, which said: “Four houses were reported wandering down Main Street in Montague Center.” It was supposed to have said “horses.”

The typing error had been made by Dot, known affectionately in the newsroom as “Mort du Jour,” the person responsible for typing in police reports and the stream of daily obituaries from the local funeral homes into the newspaper’s computer system.

That typo produced a severe scolding from the managing editor but lots of mirth among readers, who wrote letters to the editor, one asking how the newspaper’s photographer could have missed such a great opportunity – four houses wandering down Main Street. Another reader suggested that the houses may have been trying to jumpstart their oil furnaces because of the bitter cold weather.

Every year at this time, when HousingWorks RI releases the data from its annual Housing Fact Book, and data records how it has become harder and harder to find the rare occurrence of a Rhode Island community which possesses an affordable home to buy, I recall my copy editing mistake, wondering: Has anyone reported to the local police that they had seen four affordable houses wandering down Main Street in a Rhode Island community? Certainly not in 2024.

A rite of fall.  
Each year in spring, ConvergenceRI reports on the release of the annual Rhode Island KIDS COUNT Factbook, labeling it as “a rite of spring,” a data hub of all the factors affecting and afflicting the health and well being of children and families in Rhode Island.

Similarly, every year in the fall, ConvergenceRI reports on the release of the Housing Fact Book, conducting an interview with HousingWorks RI Executive Director Brenda Clement. [See link below to last year’s story, “It’s all about the data, the data, the data.”]

Here is this year’s interview with Clement, who provides an insightful approach on how to move forward to address Rhode Island’s housing crisis in the midst of terrible numbers. She offered sage advice on how to change the equation: “Stop talking and start building.”

ConvergenceRI: Here we are again.    
CLEMENT: Do you remember the old movie, “If it’s Tuesday, it must be Belgium?” If it’s October, it must be Housing Fact Book Friday.

ConvergenceRI: Right. There have been a couple of interesting developments regarding housing. And I wanted to talk with you about them and the way that they may provide context to this year’s Housing Fact Book.

 Recently, you and Jennifer Hawkins, formerly of ONE Neighborhood Builders, were having coffee at Seven Stars on Point Street.    
CLEMENT: I think it was, yes.

ConvergenceRI: Jennifer, one of the leaders of affordable housing development during the past decade, has moved on. You may know what she is doing next. She has been a leading force with housing.      
CLEMENT: She has definitely been contributing to the cause and doing some interesting work, for sure.

ConvergenceRI: She’s been forthright in her recent commentaries on the need for organizations such as ONE Neighborhood Builders to develop their own narrative – and not take on the narrative of the status quo. What does it mean to create your own narrative when it comes to housing?    
CLEMENT: I think that one of the things that is clear is that the problem is not getting any better, right? In fact, as the data shows, it is getting worse, again.

What we’re doing isn’t enough. And so, we have to push ourselves, to try to experiment with different models and doing work differently than what we have been doing, because it’s not been giving us the results that we need.

ConvergenceRI: How would you recommend that things change?    
CLEMENT: One, obviously, is a lot of what the Legislature has been doing over the past couple of years, which is really tinkering and changing some of the ways that we look at growth and development in our local communities.

As you know, the funding for housing, particularly for affordable housing, comes largely from the federal government, with some money from the state.

But what you build, how your build, and where you build are all controlled at the local level. And, so, that [requires] a partnership and a capacity at the local level to plan growth and development and to look at where housing makes sense at the local level – and then to do it. It is critical for us to get past this problem and this crisis.

We need to continue to build that muscle and to build that capacity at the local level. I hope we continue to get support from the General Assembly, and that we continue to look at zoning and land use – not only make changes to existing laws but also to give the tools that communities need to allow growth to happen.

ConvergenceRI: I was disappointed with the narrative that the new RIPEC report took, which seemed to undercut all of the changes and investments that are being made. As I read the report, it seemed to say that we weren’t going to get enough housing out of all of the new investment by the state.    
CLEMENT: And, obviously, doing affordable housing, where we layer lots of requirements on housing to meet energy goals and to meet housing standards, all of which are all good things, but they all add costs. And, in a market where costs are already high, it makes it difficult to do it well and not pay for it in the long term.

But in my view, it is what it costs now, but this is going to be somebody’s home for 30-to-40 -to-50 years, and when you spread that investment out, just like you would with a mortgage, it doesn’t look as high; it is not as high as you think.

But I think that the RIPEC report has some interesting information in it, and it has lots of points that need further debate and discussion. I think we also have to look at varying tools, other tools, to create more housing opportunities.

Like, building and land use reform. But also to look at local property tax incentives and other things to help encourage rebuilding and redevelopment of existing housing.

So, I welcome any and all thoughts about how to move, as you said, how to shift the narrative and looking at ways to allow for more housing. As other groups have said, trying to move from NIMBY to YIMBY. And, to look at where growth and development make sense.

ConvergenceRI: On the other side of the equation, I was impressed by the report that came out of Woonsocket.    
CLEMENT: I have seen it and I will be on a call next week to dive in a little deeper on it.

I think there has been some very thoughtful planning and talk in Woonsocket, and we’re hoping that that will become a model for other areas and other communities. [See link below to ConvergenceRI story, “When hope, history rhyme in Woonsocket.”]

ConvergenceRI: They clearly said that you had to begin with the concept of “housing first,” and if you read my in-depth story on it, they knocked down all the misperceptions around homelessness and housing. Which I thought was very helpful, given the tenor of the Presidential campaign and a lot of the things that have happened underneath the conversation about housing.    
CLEMENT: And again, I think it is definitely a good template and a good blueprint for their community. Now, as I say to everybody, implement it. And do it. The plans are great. But until we actually start to do it, and start to build units, people like me are never going to be happy.

ConvergenceRI: How do we do it? How do we tie the bell on the proverbial cat?    
CLEMENT: Again, I think it is about timing and money and resources. As we have more of that, there are obviously opportunities for voters to approve some additional funding in he November election with the Vote Yes on 3. All of that is helpful and useful.

But working to identify sites, working on trying to get local partners to be able to move projects faster, so that we can cut costs that way as well, too. You’ve heard me say it before: There is no Staples’ “Easy” button in housing. A lot of things have to work “right” at the same time in order to get this done.

And that’s why the nonprofit developers such as ONE Neighborhood Builders, who have done this work for years, are, in my opinion, some of the most sophisticated real estate developers around. Because they have to cobble together all of these systems and these programs in order to make projects work.

ConvergenceRI: You said earlier that the way we compare budgets that it is often comparing apples to oranges, because we are talking about an investment that will last 30-to-40 years.    
CLEMENT: Right, so when people say upfront costs are $500,000 a year, whatever the amount is. I agree that trying to do things more efficiently and more cost-effectively is a good thing as well, too.  But when you spread that over time – and look at it as a long-term investment and not a short-term investment, then the cost is not so out-of-whack.

ConvergenceRI: How do you think the debate over housing needs to change? How would you like to see the conversation change.  
CLEMENT: I would like to stop talking and start building. More of trying and doing. Knowing that we may get things wrong and that we may have to make adjustments and changes as we go along. But trying to find ways to get communities to implement and to do things directly is how I would continue to push and build some examples of what we are talking about.

The irony of our work on the zoning atlas is that 87 percent of Rhode Island is zoned single family, with most of those single-family communities having large lot requirements as part of their single-family requirement. Which means that a lot of what we like about Rhode Island and denser development in Pawtuxet Village or Wickford Village or denser development around transit lines like on North Main Street or Broad Street, cannot be replicated under existing zoning ordinances, without going through a huge process at the local level.

Looking at what are going to be the changing needs of our population as they age and want to age in place or age in communities, what types of housing are they looking for in the future is part of what we need to be pushing hard on at local communities, and say: This is what we need to plan for.

I mean, it is a little late, but we have finally have started a fairly robust state housing planning process. We need to continue to work on that and get as many of the details right, but also to start to think and do at the same time. And to start to implement pieces or ideas, so that we can start to meet our current and growing demand.

ConvergenceRI: If you had a billboard that you could put up along Route 95 next to the Big Blue Bug, Nibbles Woodalot, what would it say?    
CLEMENT: Everyone needs a home. Nothing works right in your life if you don’t have someplace to get up from every day, or to go back to every night. Every single person needs that.