State officials tell Senate housing is the central constraint on economic growth
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Summary
Agency leaders told the Senate Economic Development, Housing & General Affairs committee that housing shortages are the single largest barrier to economic growth, outlined multiple programs to speed housing supply and asked the committee for policy and budget support ahead of the Jan. 29 committee-bill deadline.
Madam Chair convened the Senate Committee on Economic Development, Housing & General Affairs on Jan. 7 to hear agency updates and to set priorities for the legislative session. Lindsay Curley, secretary of the Agency of Commerce and Community Development, and Alex Farrell, commissioner of the Department of Housing and Community Development, told senators that housing is the state’s primary constraint on economic growth and emphasized aligning housing investments with workforce and infrastructure needs.
"Housing is probably the single largest barrier impeding our economic growth objectives," Lindsay Curley said, urging close coordination between housing and economic-development efforts. Curley said the agency has focused on increasing housing supply and better aligning investments and infrastructure across the state.
Alex Farrell outlined programs aimed at both bringing existing units back online and accelerating new construction. He highlighted BEHIP (a rehabilitation program) as a low-cost, high-velocity tool that can convert vacant or dilapidated buildings into rental units and said property owners typically contribute at least a 1:1 match to those projects. Farrell also described MER, a manufactured-home improvement and repair program that received permanent base funding and includes home-repair awards intended to prevent households from falling into homelessness.
Agency leaders said they are tracking federal funding changes that could affect state programs and noted several tools to reduce permitting delays — including off-site construction pilots, preapproved design catalogs and data dashboards to measure throughput. Curley and Farrell said CHIPs and other federally enabled programs are important but that some funding streams remain uncertain.
The committee and agency also discussed Rhode Island-style land banks and tax-sale reforms as options to return offline properties to productive use; Farrell said the agency’s forthcoming land-bank progress report will advise against using eminent domain for a state land bank and instead explore capitalization and tax-sale approaches.
The chair reminded members that the committee-bill deadline is Jan. 29 and asked commissioners to provide language and memos on proposed statutory changes and non-budget measures so the committee can consider bills this month. The committee recessed for a scheduled break and planned follow-ups on CHIP guidelines and the land-bank report.
