R.I. has millions to spend on housing. Should this stealth committee decide where the money goes?

Gov. Dan McKee wants to put the four-member Housing Resources Coordinating Committee, working in consultation with the Rhode Island Department of Housing, in charge of funding decisions to address homelessness and create more affordable housing. The obscure committee has been relatively inactive for the last 15 years. (Getty)

The Housing Resources Coordinating Committee has only met three times in the two years Kyle Bennett has served as its chairperson.

“I am still learning the ropes,” said Bennett, who also works as senior director of policy and equity for the United Way of Rhode Island.

Now, Gov. Dan McKee wants to put this mysterious panel in a prominent role, working in consultation with the Rhode Island Department of Housing to dole out millions of dollars to address homelessness and create more affordable housing. McKee’s April 22 memo proposes a host of changes to who’s in charge of state housing and homelessness funds and how the money can be spent.

Kyle Bennett is senior director of policy and equity at the United Way of Rhode Island. He also serves as chairperson of the Housing Resources Coordinating Committee. (Courtesy of United Way of Rhode Island)

Among them: Shifting oversight of an affordable housing fund away from RIHousing to the state housing department with input from the committee. McKee also wants to give the housing department power to administer a separate restricted receipts account dedicated to housing and homeless initiatives, now overseen by the Housing Resources Commission. 

“The governor has made it very, very clear he wants it to be one entity to be accountable for how we use state and federal taxpayer dollars to improve housing outcomes,” Brian Daniels, director of the Office of Management and Budget, said during a May 8 State House hearing. “There are so many funding sources and funding streams that support housing. A consolidated approach allows for streamlining and transparency … to better track the effectiveness.”

But transferring authority from two groups with long track records of success and deep-rooted community ties to an infant department and barely-existent committee has raised red flags among housing advocates.

“We are very troubled about the accountability and transparency that will be possible, especially when a handful of people will have oversight of that money,” Melina Lodge, executive director of the Housing Network of Rhode Island, told lawmakers. “How do we hold these people accountable to the shared vision and shared policy goals?”

Created under the state’s Housing Resources Act in 1998, the four-person Housing Resources Coordinating Committee was intended to “provide coherence” between state housing programs, specifically between the quasi-public financing arm, RIHousing, and a separate, policy-focused volunteer group, the Housing Resources Commission. 

In practice, the committee hasn’t done much, or even met, for the better part of the last 15 years.

Melina Lodge, executive director of the Housing Network of Rhode Island, speaks at press conference at the State House in March 2024. Lodge has raised questions about accountability and transparency in the governor’s proposal to give a handful of people oversight of state funding for affordable housing. (Courtesy of Housing Network of Rhode Island)

A single-page summary of minutes

The committee awakened from a 12-year hibernation in November 2021 to discuss guidelines for the newly created state housing production fund and a separate state affordable housing bond, according to meeting minutes filed with the Department of State. Since then, members have met in March 2022, February 2023, and then twice this May.

Despite serving on the Housing Resources Commission for 12 years, Lodge said she has never been notified about when the committee meets. She attended her first committee meeting on May 9, scrambling to the downtown Providence meeting, having learned it was happening minutes before it was scheduled to start.

A single-page summary of minutes from the 31-minute meeting was filed with the Department of State.

“It feels a bit disingenuous to give oversight to the coordinating committee, implying that it would bring some kind of transparency to the process, given its history,” Lodge said in an interview on Wednesday.

Laura Hart, a spokesperson for McKee’s office, referred specific questions to the state housing department, but offered a general statement via email Wednesday.

“Coordinating resources through the Department of Housing will not impact transparency but should improve consideration, effectiveness and overall outcomes,” Hart said.

Housing Secretary Stefan Pryor was not available to be interviewed over a three-day period this week. Instead, Emily Marshall, a department spokesperson, offered to answer questions by email.

“The proposal deliberately ensures that the Department would consult with a key council, the HRC Coordinating Committee, which holds its publicly posited meetings in public regarding these funding activities” Marshall said.

Lodge also has concerns about the committee’s makeup. By statute, the panel’s membership includes the chairperson of the Human Resources Commission, a role held right now by Bennett; the state administration director; and the executive director and chairperson of the board of directors for RIHousing. 

Pryor, who was appointed state housing secretary in March 2023, is also the chairman of RIHousing’s board.  So he is a member of the four-person panel that, as proposed by McKee, would be the watchdog for the state agency he leads.

Rep. Teresa Tanzi, a South Kingstown Democrat, pointed to Pryor’s dual roles on the committee and as housing secretary as cause for pause.

“I don’t know how this strengthens coordination or transparency,” she said during the May 8 hearing. Speaking to Pryor directly, she added, “It’s like you’re on there twice.”

Bennett declined to comment on Pryor serving both roles. But logistically, he was unsure if the committee, which has no paid staff, was up to the task of helping oversee millions of state and federal funding for homelessness and housing.

“I am not exactly sure the HRCC is staffed to do the work in the way that would allow for true oversight,” he said.

RIHousing has more than a dozen staff members and decades of evidence in its ability to successfully manage a $2.5 billion annual budget of state and federal funding. Since 2021, that has included about $3 million annually from a second-tier real estate conveyance tax, used to support affordable housing, including projects for very low income residents who earn below 30% of the area median income.

Carol Ventura, executive director for RIHousing, was unavailable to comment on the proposed removal of the housing production fund from RIHousing’s purview. She is also one of four members on the Housing Resources Coordinating Committee.

The Housing Resources Commission separately oversees a restricted receipts account generated from the base real estate conveyance tax used for rent subsidies, shelter, lead mitigation and other housing initiatives. Its 28-member structure offers a unique opportunity to combine administrative and advocacy voices, including a dedicated seat for a representative of the homelessness community.

Rep. Teresa Tanzi, a South Kingstown Democrat who has experienced difficulty in getting timely information from the Rhode Island Department of Housing, questions the secretary of housing’s role on the Housing Resources Coordinating Committee. (Alexander Castro/Rhode Island Current)

Mission ready?

Bennett, who also chairs the Housing Resources Commission, said he did not want to second-guess McKee’s proposal to shift funding authority away from the commission. 

But, he added, “The HRC was designed to be an integrated approach, with 28 voices including state department heads and stakeholders. It’s effective because of this integrated approach that ensures Rhode Island can continue to build safe, healthy, affordable housing for all Rhode Islanders.”

Created in 2022, the state housing department got off to a rocky start mired in missing reports and the resignation of the first housing secretary, Josh Saal, one year into his tenure.

Since Pryor’s appointment in March 2023, the nascent agency has continued to struggle filling the 12 budgeted, open positions, and managing the $321 million in federal pandemic aid awarded to state housing programs, more than $70 million of which remain unspent at the start of this year, according to a report by House fiscal staff.

“This isn’t deciding who buys baseballs for Little League,” Tanzi said in an interview on Wednesday. “This is literally the life and success of individuals. It’s serious.”

She continued, “Putting all of this in a new agency, I just don’t think they’re ready to handle it. They have not proven to the House Finance Committee that they are ready to take on the budgets of these pots of money.”

Tanzi blasted the housing secretary during the May 8 meeting, alleging he had continued to ignore her requests for basic information about the number and location of available shelter beds throughout the state. Pryor responded with an array of percentages and estimates, none of which appeared to actually be what Tanzi was asking for. He eventually acknowledged that the department’s previous emails may have misinterpreted Tanzi’s request.

Marshall said in an email the department responded to Tanzi’s request two days after the May 8 hearing.

Tanzi confirmed she had received another email but had not reviewed the information in-depth to verify if all her questions were answered.

Lodge also pointed to Pryor’s track record as former state commerce secretary, a role which included oversight of the state’s housing and community development program, as reason for her concerns with transparency.

“We have a history with him that is difficult to overlook … of sometimes excluding those people who have been working in this sector and toiling away at this issue for a very long time,” Lodge said in an interview. “Until this department can demonstrate the ability to be a good partner and to work collaboratively and transparently, I am going to have concerns.”

House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi, an influential backer of housing-related policy and funding on Smith Hill, declined to comment on specifics of the governor’s budget proposal or subsequent amendments, including changing authority of state housing funds. House fiscal staff are still reviewing these proposals, with the House Committee on Finance expected to address them in its revised budget, slated to be unveiled on Friday, Shekarchi said in an email.

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