Addressing Housing through Zoning Updates
Newport This Week asked all candidates to submit letters on their municipality’s housing concerns. See all submissions on their website and read mine below.
Housing underpins so many other issues. If people can’t afford to live here, then our economy, our schools and our quality of life suffer. We must pull local and state levers to ensure folks can rent, own, and remain in Newport.
As a renter, I am familiar with the struggle of finding and maintaining affordable housing. My partner and I rent and are now in our second apartment in six years. Even with advanced degrees and full-time jobs, it has been a challenge to find housing within our budget. We are among the nearly 60 percent of rental households in Newport that are housing cost-burdened, defined as spending at least 30 percent of our income on housing, according to Housing Work RI’s Housing Fact Book, 2025. If we fit this designation with two full-time salaries, how can we expect hourly workers, early-career professionals, or similar people to afford to live here?
The good news is that, while the housing crisis is national, change can be local. We can update our zoning to reflect modern best practices and prioritize long-term housing. This type of policy work is what I have been dialed into as a community member, and it’s the area I would most like to dig into as a councilor. I will prioritize implementing strategies toward this goal, as detailed in the comprehensive plan housing chapter updated in 2024.
Top of my list is making multiunit housing, such as two- or three-family homes, easier to build and making conversions from multiunit to single unit housing more onerous. Our zoning standards are more suited to a suburban area than the city we are. Density has become a dirty word for some when we talk about urban planning, but this quality helps us know our neighbors, develop a sense of community and be a more walkable city. Updating our zoning to reflect Newport’s actual space constraints and to include mixed-use areas will encourage building year-round housing that people actually want to live in.
Housing is a topic that people often wring their hands over. We know the situation is bad, but what can we do about it? There are more local solutions than we think, including those that I outlined above. I hope to earn your vote so that I can work with our planning department and fellow councilors to make a difference for those who call Newport home.