$4 million allocated for Newport Co. affordable housing projects. When will building begin?

The dire need for affordable housing in Newport County is about to get some relief, but don't expect to see people moving into new homes soon.

The R.I. Housing Resources Commission recently approved nearly $31 million in awards through the Building Homes Rhode Island program to support 23 affordable housing projects across the state including several projects Newport County.

Once completed, the $4.35 million in Newport County funding, will bring more than 200 affordable housing units to the region. It's the first round of financing since voters approved the $50 million for affordable housing bond funding during a special election in March.

Director of Housing Works Rhode Island Brenda Clement said this first round of disbursements is good news because there's a tremendous need, and she is excited to see some geographical diversity in the applications.

The funding, she said, will increase affordable housing supply, but construction of the units could take a while because bond funds are often one of many funding sources within these developments.

"It doesn't mean that these units will be starting construction tomorrow, and be built and opened in the spring time. We're trying to expedite the process as much as possible, but it still means, and for many of these projects, at least a year plus until we start to see actual units," she said.

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Newport County projects supported by these funds include:

• Armory Revival’s Bourne Mill III project in Tiverton: $2,029,479 to produce 59 affordable and workforce housing units. The project involves the new construction of a net-zero development and is designed for passive house certification.

• Church Community Housing, Fifty Washington Square in Newport: $800,000 to update and rehab 93 apartments, all of which are affordable.

• Church Community Housing, Cottrell Farms in Tiverton: $355,086 to build 3 new two-bedroom, net zero energy homes.

• Church Community Housing, 12 & 15 Bloom Court in Middletown: $184,179 to build 2 new single-family, net zero energy homeownership units to replace two blighted and structurally unsound houses that will be demolished.

• Housing Authority of the city of Newport, Park Holm IV in Newport: $2.55 million to preserve 51 affordable units.

• Looking Upwards / SWAP, Looking Upwards in Jamestown: $1.8 million to create 12 affordable apartments for use by individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities

"Suffice it to say, we've got this demand in the region, so we're really happy to see some competitive applications come in from non-profit and other developers through the region to address the challenging housing needs we have across the state, that you definitely have in Aquidneck Island as well," she said.

Clement said they expect another round of disbursements shortly.

"We did allocate a pretty substantial amount of that $50 million bond this time around, but we do expect that there will be another RFP pretty quickly, so that we can continue to move projects down," she said.

The state funding is the largest funding allocation in years, but Clement said it isn't enough to solve the affordable housing crisis in Rhode Island. Between the bond and the federal passage of the Build Back Better Act, Clements said there's opportunity for extra dollars to come to the state in order to increase the supply for affordable housing.

"It's much more money than we've seen in a long, long time, and it's a lot of money. It's millions and millions of dollars, but unfortunately the housing problem and the shortage problem of housing is a billion dollar problem," she said.

As there's always a need to build and maintain infrastructure, Clement said there's always a need for housing, that it should always be building upon and expanding.

"We just have not been doing that well in Rhode Island for a long period of time, so there's a lot of catch-up work that needs to be done in the housing crises," she said.

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But the state is nowhere near the finish line when it comes to affordable housing, Clement said.

"So we've got to keep the pressure on to get more money and resources to build. We've got to look at ways to expedite the building and developing of these units, so not only from a funding mechanism, a financing mechanism, but to also make sure we take down regulatory and zoning barriers that prevent building and development of these types of housing across the state as well. We've got a lot of work to do on that front as well," she said.

Clement said she is thrilled these funds are being disbursed quickly.

"To have that money getting out the door as quickly as possible, that we're following up on what voters wanted us to do, which is to spend this money to start building some units as quickly as we can, I'm very happy to do that and hope to continue the pace quickly," she said.

Bethany Brunelle-Raja can be reached at bbrunelle@newportri.com 575-644-1223 or @bethanyfreuden1 on Twitter, Insta: bethanyfreudenthal, TikTok: becomingmrsraja, Muckrack: https://muckrack.com/bethany-freudenthal

This article originally appeared on Newport Daily News: Affordable housing in Newport County: $4.3 million allocated