Current Projects
Annual legislative agenda
Learn more about our 2024 legislative priorities:
Increasing funding for housing
As a multi-sector coalition of organizations focused on increasing the supply of safe, healthy, and affordable homes across Rhode Island, Homes RI is pleased to see Governor Dan McKee’s January 2024 proposal for a $100 million housing bond included in his FY25 budget recommendations. This investment is essential to maintain progress on building and preserving more affordable homes for Rhode Islanders – and advancing towards a future that we all want and deserve.
If we want to truly address our housing needs as a state, we must not only make historic investments, we must make transformational ones. State leaders now have the opportunity to build upon the strong foundation of the Governor’s proposed bond and increase financial resources to meet the vast and critical need for safe, healthy, affordable homes in communities across Rhode Island.
Voter Engagement
In 2022 the Housing Network of Rhode Island was awarded the Our Homes, Our Votes grant from the National Low Income Housing Coalition to expand our voter mobilization, engagement, and education activities. As we prepared to ramp up voter and candidate engagement in anticipation of the 2022 election cycle, we recognized the importance and significance of permanently expanding voter access and modernizing our elections at a statewide level. This is one of the reasons that our backbone organization, HNRI, joined the RI Voter Access Coalition (RIVAC) in 2020, and actively supported the Let RI Vote Act, legislation that would accomplish these goals, signed by the Governor in June 2022.
In addition to supporting voter access legislation, our team engaged directly with residents and Homes RI partners to strengthen voter education and mobilization within our communities. By providing regular updates and reminders to our network, we were able to encourage more Rhode Islanders to participate in the 2022 elections and make their voices heard. We know that housing opportunities are directly tied to the choices we make at the ballot and we are encouraging everyone to #Vote4Homes.
We also strived to create more visibility of candidates’ housing platforms by creating questionnaires and collaborating with our partners on candidate forums. Finally, by drafting a Housing Policy Candidate Guide, we are helping to shape concerned Rhode Islanders’ discussions with legislators about informed strategies to improve our State’s affordable housing.