Rhode Islanders searching for a home in today’s housing market experience a cruel game of musical chairs. With too few homes available to rent or buy, wealthier families who can win a bidding war or pay rising rents get better access to limited opportunities. Those with fewer resources at their disposal are left to make do, move further away from their job or community or even leave the state entirely. 

The fact that Rhode Island has a housing shortage is well documented. We need to build approximately 24,000 additional homes just to meet the demand of our current residents. The good news is that there are tested and popular solutions to the problems we face. 

According to March survey data, Rhode Island voters overwhelmingly support allowing more housing to be built in commercial zones near existing shops (87%), legalizing single-family townhomes (70%), and allowing homes to be built on smaller lots, particularly where transit and infrastructure are available (81%). 

As the General Assembly enters the final stretch of its 2025 session, we call on our representatives and senators to prioritize bills before them that would make it easier to build exactly these types of homes, which residents need and want. Our neighbors in New Hampshire and Connecticut recently took action to pass similar bills, underscoring how Rhode Island will fall behind in the region if it fails to take proactive steps.

In New Hampshire, for example, the legislature has passed HB 631, which allows homes to be built in nearly any commercial district statewide, with some health and safety exceptions. Building new units above retail or in converted office spaces will shorten workers’ commute times, create more walkable neighborhoods and revitalize underutilized commercial spaces, all while steering development away from the state’s farmland and forests. Rhode Island has a similar but narrower bill pending that would require cities and towns to allow residential development on at least 30% of commercial land, which local officials would have the authority to designate. We hope that our legislators take a cue from New Hampshire and pass this key legislation this session.

Connecticut is also modeling determined action. In the last week, both of the state’s legislative chambers passed an omnibus bill, HB 5002, that legalizes more homes in areas where shops, restaurants and offices are allowed as well as expanding incentives to build near transit. 

Addressing the housing shortage is critical to the health and future of our communities. Will we be a state in which workers and families of many different backgrounds and incomes can afford to live? Or one in which certain residents must pack their bags? Rhode Islanders cannot afford to wait, and the state cannot afford to fall further behind. The General Assembly must embrace common-sense and popular solutions to build homes and opportunity. 

Claudia Wack is president of Neighbors Welcome! Rhode Island