Woonsocket to get $1.5 million from feds for affordable housing, homeless services

Posted by Wayne G. Barber

PROVIDENCE -- U.S. Senators Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse, and U.S. Rep. David Cicilline announced Wednesday that $2,210,654 in grant money from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) will be given to support affordable housing and provide emergency shelters and services for homeless individuals in East Providence and Woonsocket.

Reed is the ranking member of the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Subcommittee, which funds these HUD programs.

Woonsocket and East Providence have been awarded $1,159,611 and $662,221 respectively from HUD’s Community Development Block Grant program, which aims to grow affordable housing and assist local businesses in urban communities. The CDBG program gives local governments flexibility to use the funds for a wide array of community development purposes.

Woonsocket will receive $286,410 from HUD’s HOME Investment Partnerships program, which funds housing initiatives, often in partnership with non-profit housing organizations. The money may be used for direct rental assistance to low-income residents, building new affordable housing, or rehabilitating affordable housing for rent.

Woonsocket will also receive $102,412 from the HUD Emergency Solutions Grants (ESG) program. ESG provides funds for homeless shelter operations and for services for those who are homeless or are at risk of becoming homeless.

The federal government considers a household that devotes more than 30 percent of its income on housing costs to be "cost burdened," meaning it risks sacrificing spending on other essentials like food, clothing, medical care, or transportation.

According to a 2015 analysis of U.S. Census data by the non-profit housing coalition HousingWorks RI, half of all Rhode Island renter households, and a third of Rhode Island households with a mortgage, were cost burdened in 2013.

The same HousingWorks RI study found that in 2014, a household earning the state’s median renter household income of $30,437 could not affordably rent the average priced 2-bedroom apartment in any Rhode Island city or town.
 Source: Christine Dunn
Journal Staff Writer