The Independent: South Kingstown facing pressure to build affordable housing

By Ryan Blessing | Staff Writer Aug 23, 2019

SOUTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. — The Town Council in South Kingstown met Aug. 13 with members of the town's Housing Authority to review challenges the body, and the town, face in trying to provide affordable housing.

“Affordable housing is a problem nationwide and here in Rhode Island,” Town Manager Rob Zarnetske told the council in the hour-long work session. “We have a dramatic shortage of housing in Rhode Island and in South Kingstown.”

For several years, affordable housing officials have focused on development in the villages such as Wakefield and Kingston while trying to preserve rural character in the outlying areas, Zarnetske said.

“Our challenge is to figure out how to continue to improve those villages while addressing this problem,” he said.

The town has 612 units of affordable housing as defined by state law, according to Rhode Island Housing. That's 5.6 percent of total housing stock in town.

It's slightly more than half of the state's directive that municipalities should provide 10 percent of housing stock as affordable.

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Courtesy of The Independent