Thank you
Rhode Island voters have now spoken, and they overwhelmingly said YES to Question 9. The $50 million housing bond passed on Tuesday with 66% of the statewide vote. Voters in every single Rhode Island community approved Question 9.
 
According to our research, this is the largest margin of victory for an affordable housing bond ever in the country. (Another victory: California voters on Tuesday passed a $2.85 billion bond for housing with 57% of the vote.)

The results come after many months of hard campaigning and many years of laying the groundwork.

Since August, we traveled the state, collecting more than 50 Stories, erecting billboards on Rhode Island’s major highways, hitting the airwaves, holding regional events from Newport to Lincoln, setting up lawn signs, and talking to voters. For a final push, over 120 volunteers were stationed at polling places in most of Rhode Island’s cities and towns on Election Day.

To the very end, the Vote Yes On 9 campaign received exceptional media coverage and endorsements from local media outlets across the state. Just last week, pro-9 editorials ran in the Barrington Times, Bristol Phoenix, Coventry Courier, Cranston Herald, East Side Monthly, Newport Daily News, Providence Phoenix, Sakonnet Times, and Warwick Daily Times.

Thank you to everyone who was a part of this campaign. Thank you for volunteering, sharing your story, writing a letter to the editor, inviting us into your workplace or home, and talking up Question 9 with family, friends, and co-workers.

$50 million is not enough to end Rhode Island’s housing crisis. But Question 9 – the work that went into its passage, the reception it received across the state – will bring us a giant step closer to quality, affordable homes for all Rhode Islanders.