June 12, 2026
Affordable housing should be at the center of East Providence’s economic development strategy.
East Providence has an opportunity to turn its housing shortage into an economic advantage. We have valuable land, established neighborhoods, access to Providence, major transportation corridors, waterfront assets, and existing commercial centers. What we need is a development strategy that brings these assets together: new housing, new businesses, better infrastructure, and stronger neighborhoods.
Build a Housing Ladder for Every Stage of Life
Housing policy should recognize that people’s housing needs change throughout their lives.
A young person starting a career may need an affordable rental. A growing family may want a larger home and eventually the opportunity to build equity through homeownership. An older resident may want to downsize without leaving the community they have called home for decades.
East Providence should create a housing ladder—a pathway of housing affordability and opportunity for all stages of life.
That means encouraging a mix of affordable and market-rate rentals, condominiums, townhomes, and other forms of “missing middle” housing alongside traditional single-family neighborhoods. It means creating opportunities for people to move up the housing ladder without having to move out of East Providence.
This is more than a housing policy. It is economic development.
When people can find an affordable place to live, they can take jobs here. When families can afford to remain here, they support local businesses. When older residents can downsize here, they free up larger homes for the next generation. And when people have a pathway from renting to homeownership, they have a pathway toward greater economic stability and wealth-building.
We should make it possible for people to come to East Providence, build a life here, and remain here through life’s changes.
Create the Economic Cycle That Makes a City Grow
Economic development and housing are not separate issues. They are part of the same cycle:
Jobs bring people. People need homes. Homes create neighborhoods. People spend money in their neighborhoods. That spending supports local businesses and creates more jobs. More jobs bring more people.
That is how a healthy local economy grows.
If East Providence attracts employers but does not have enough housing, workers will live somewhere else and commute here. If we build housing without creating economic opportunity, residents will have to leave the city for work and take their spending with them.
We need to do both.
The objective should be a city where housing, employment, transportation, businesses, parks, and public spaces reinforce one another.
Use Infrastructure Investment to Make Good Development Possible
One reason desirable development can be difficult or expensive is the cost of infrastructure. Rather than simply asking developers to absorb every infrastructure cost—or asking taxpayers to subsidize development—we should aggressively pursue state and federal resources that make better projects financially feasible.
The Rhode Island Infrastructure Bank provides programs that can support municipal infrastructure, including stormwater improvements, green infrastructure, energy efficiency, renewable energy, solar and battery systems, urban tree planting, and other resilience investments.
We should build a citywide strategy around these resources.
For qualifying developments, the City should look for opportunities to use Infrastructure Bank financing and grants to reduce the cost of:
- energy-efficient and renewable-energy infrastructure;
- solar generation and battery storage;
- green stormwater infrastructure;
- improved drainage and flood resilience;
- tree canopy and other nature-based infrastructure;
- pedestrian and bicycle connections;
- transit-supportive infrastructure; and
- infrastructure necessary to unlock appropriate housing development.
Public incentives should produce public benefits.
When public resources help make a project possible, we should expect measurable returns in affordable housing, environmental performance, public access, transportation connections, and long-term economic value.
Build Neighborhoods, Not Isolated Developments
The best development should connect to the city around it.
New housing should incorporate green space, sidewalks, safe crossings, bicycle connections, and access to public transportation. Where appropriate, developments should contribute to improvements to nearby bus stops, pedestrian infrastructure, bike paths, parks, and neighborhood amenities.
That approach is not anti-development. It is better development.
Residents who can walk or bike to a bus stop, grocery store, restaurant, park, school, or job are less dependent on a car. Businesses benefit from a larger pool of nearby customers and workers. The city benefits from infrastructure that supports more activity without requiring every trip to happen by automobile.
And importantly, these are the kinds of neighborhoods that make East Providence more attractive to both residents and employers.
Make Development Strengthen the Tax Base
Economic development should ultimately strengthen East Providence’s fiscal position.
New housing and commercial activity can bring new property-tax revenue, support local businesses, create construction and permanent jobs, and put underutilized properties back into productive use.
The City should therefore evaluate development not simply by asking, “How many units are being built?”
We should ask:
What kind of neighborhood are we creating? What public infrastructure does it require? What public benefits does it provide? How many people can afford to live there? How does it connect residents to jobs, businesses, transit, parks, and one another? And what long-term economic value does it create?
That gives us a better standard for deciding where incentives make sense.
Build the East Providence Economy Around People
I want East Providence to compete for development—not by giving away the store, but by becoming a city where good development is easier to build.
We can make affordable housing the centerpiece, infrastructure investment the catalyst, environmental sustainability a requirement, and transportation connectivity a design principle.
We can create a housing ladder that gives people an affordable pathway through every stage of life.
We can attract jobs and make sure the people those jobs bring have a place to live.
And we can build neighborhoods where those residents spend their money, support local businesses, raise families, participate in their community, and create demand for even more economic activity.
More homes people can afford. More people working here. More customers for local businesses. More jobs and investment. Better parks and public spaces. Cleaner, more resilient infrastructure. Safer streets for walking and biking. Better access to public transportation. And, ultimately, a stronger East Providence tax base.
Economic development isn’t just about building more buildings. It’s about building the neighborhoods—and the economic future—that East Providence deserves.
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