Block Island Times: Expanding eligibility for affordable housing

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.

Speaking at the Town Council's August 1 informational exchange work session, Housing Board Chair Cindy Pappas said expanding the applicant pool would mean regrouping Block Island in the same income limit category as the towns of Newport, Middletown, and Portsmouth. She noted that the median income limit for Newport, Middletown, and Portsmouth is higher than Block Island — currently grouped with the towns of Hopkinton and Westerly — which have lower income limits.

According to the State of Rhode Island's median income limit chart for 2017, regrouping Block Island with Newport, Middletown, and Portsmouth would raise the town's income limit for, as an example, a married couple from $77,100 to $89,950. Anyone making more than that would not be eligible for the town's affordable housing units.

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Courtesy of The Block Island Times