ProJo: Lawmakers examine state of affordable housing in R.I.

Lawyers provide overview of existing law and appeals process to special commission charged with delivering report to the General Assembly by May 30.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Since the General Assembly passed the state's affordable housing law in 1991, only five communities have met the law's basic requirement: a housing stock that is at least 10-percent affordable.

Two lawyers met Tuesday with a special legislative commission working to deliver a report on the law to the General Assembly by May 30.

The commission won't be proposing changes to the law, but the report may point to ways it could be improved, said State Rep. Shelby Maldonado, D-Central Falls, who chairs the panel, officially called the Special Legislative Commission to Study the Low and Moderate Income Housing Act.

The act became law when the General Assembly determined that there was “an acute shortage of affordable, accessible, safe, and sanitary housing for citizens of low and moderate income” in Rhode Island.

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