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State must lead in addressing housing barriers

Housing Board Chair Cindy Pappas opened up the group’s most recent meeting with updates on the Cherry Hill Lane affordable housing project. The Housing Board met on Tuesday, March 9 at Town Hall.

There was some speculation that affordable rental units were more of a necessity by the town’s working class families and individuals than affordable homes.

Construction of the New Shoreham Housing Board’s Cherry Hill Lane affordable housing development project has received final approval and is now underway.

Pariseault Builders, Inc. of Warwick, R.I. was selected to build the five single-family homes in the B.I. Housing Board’s Cherry Hill Lane affordable housing subdivision on a parcel off Cooneymus Road.

The Block Island Housing Board has revised the bidding process for its Cherry Hill Lane subdivision project. The board said at its most recent meeting that the budget for the project will be $1.4 million and the new RFP will consist of two parts: one for site work and the other for construction.

For the past 17 months, members of the Harbor Church and many, many members of the Block Island community have worked very hard to convert the third floor of the Harbor Church into four year-round, affordable apartments.

The process to apply for one of the four apartments currently under construction on the third floor of the Harbor Church has opened.

The Block Island Housing Board is seeking to expand the affordable housing applicant pool on Block Island. In order to do so the board needs to do something that might seem counterintuitive; raising the island’s median income bracket. Increasing the medium income limit could provide more people on the island with the opportunity to apply for affordable housing.

The Ocean View Foundation is converting its two rental properties into affordable housing units. The non-profit is splitting a minor subdivision located off Cooneymus Road into two separate lots to establishing two single-family dwellings that will go toward the island’s affordable housing inventory.