National Guard Sgt. Ted Chambers returned to Rhode Island in June from special operations duty only to begin mission impossible: finding an affordable East Bay house or rental when his income is about $50,000.
"It was hopeless," he said. But months later, he hopes a program he's enrolled in may help him go from renting a room in Tiverton to owning a home in Newport.
Raeleen McManus, 25, couldn't believe the three- to five-year waiting list for federally subsidized Section 8 housing. She and her son, 5, roomed at friends' places and then with an aunt -- and the aunt's seven children. They finally caught a break through East Bay Coalition for the Homeless, one of several nonprofit housing agencies that may prove the only way for many people to afford to live here now and in the future. Last month, mother and son celebrated their first year in an East Providence apartment.
Or consider James and Keverne Layfield, who owned homes for 29 years, including one on Nantucket, where they saw the $50,000 lot they bought in 1991 surrounded by $395,000 lots several years later. They moved to North Carolina, but when their business idea didn't work out, they sold their $191,000 house in a country club setting there and came to Rhode Island. Keverne works full-time at a bank and James drives a limousine three days a week, a cab once a week and drives for another transportation service.
They make enough to rent their Newport house, but not enough to own one.
They are some of the voices of what officials and housing advocates call Rhode Island's housing crisis: a menacing trend from 1999 to 2004 in which the sales price of the median home soared by 110 percent while median income grew just 10 percent, according to Rhode Island Housing, the principal state agency offering low-interest loans to first-time homebuyers. Median is not the same as average price, but rather, if you lined up homes from lowest to highest, it is the middle one.
A $50,000 household income no longer pays for the median priced home anywhere in the state -- the mortgage, insurance and taxes that must be met separate from living costs such as food and clothes, according to a report this month from HousingWorks RI, a coalition that advocates for improving the housing situation.
"And so, what we've got is a growing affordability gap," said Chris Barnett, spokesman for Rhode Island Housing. "Not just homebuyers, but it also trickles down to rents."
The problem is pronounced in the East Bay, which includes desirable communities, including top-flight school districts such as Barrington and Portsmouth. The report from HousingWorks RI puts the median single-family home in Barrington at $390,000, in Bristol at $336,750, in Portsmouth at $345,000, and in Middletown at $341,000. The report says a household income of $125,000 would be needed for that Barrington home; a $108,640 income for the one in Bristol and an $110,000 income in Middletown.
Still, a recent check of Rhode Island Realtors Association sales listings, on its Web site, may invite skepticism of the report at first glance.
There was a $55,000 mobile home listed in Middletown with 780 square feet of living area, including three beds and one bath. In Tiverton, one mobile home listed for $115,000 with 1,056 square feet of living area, including three beds and two baths. And several communities had homes listed that fell below the median. In Portsmouth, 29 homes were listed for sale below the $345,000 median price, ranging from a $49,900, two-bedroom, one-bathroom, aluminum-sided mobile home with 576 square feet of living space to a $339,900 home with three bedrooms and two bathrooms.
And a look at the listings suggests that, for those of very limited income, while two communities' median house prices are close -- and out of reach -- one of those communities may offer some cheaper housing by virtue of a mobile home neighborhood.
"Median does not equal affordable," acknowledged Barnett.
But he and other affordable housing officials warned that the number of houses listed at any one time can be misleading -- it pales in comparison to the larger number of people seeking affordable housing in each East Bay community.
"Even if people do see $50,000 or $60,000 or $70,000 mobile homes ... there are not enough mobile homes for everyone who needs place to live at a price they can afford," said Barnett.
There are other concerns, too, such as whether homes listed on the lowest rung are in disrepair and would need significant investment to make them livable. And most lenders can only lend to the buyer of a mobile home if that home is considered "real property," meaning that it is considered, under a complicated definition, to be attached to property. Some mobile homes do not pass that test and must be financed with consumer loans that can be more expensive, according to Barnett.
Barnett suggested one measure of affordability: Check to see how many people who graduated from Portsmouth High School eight years ago can afford to live in the town now.
"Good luck to them," he said. "Because rents and real estate prices are forcing them out."
So innovation has tried to close some of the affordability gap.
Church Community Housing, a nonprofit group in Newport, uses a land trust model. It buys land with existing housing on it, continues to own the land and sells only the house to a first-time homebuyer whose income is not more than 80 percent of median income, said Tom Gallagher, of Church Community Housing. Each lease lasts 99 years, compared to the conventional 30-year mortgage that market-rate homebuyers often pay. The mortgage is calculated on the house value only. A regular mortgage, in comparison, would include land value, a potentially enormous difference in the East Bay.
"It's really been the land prices that have put buying a house out of touch," said Gallagher. "We have a sale agreement pending on a house now where it is slated to go for $135,000. If it were selling on the open market, it would be close to $300,000."
But this new model includes an educational component, so that homebuyers are not simply left on their own to tackle mortgages. Gallagher teaches a class for prospective homebuyers in the Church Community Housing program. When the organization has housing available, it contacts people in the class to see if they are interested.
Church Community Housing also offers family rental housing, elderly housing and housing for people with disabilities. It is not the only model for getting people housing that they can't afford on the open market or that might put them on waiting lists in a government program.
With offices in Newport, Tiverton and East Providence, the East Bay Community Action Program includes the East Bay Coalition for the Homeless, which provides housing for some families with children. Based in Bristol, the nonprofit East Bay Community Development Corporation, which has existed for 13 years, is seeking housing. A proposal for dozens of affordable units in Barrington is headed to the state Supreme Court after the local Zoning Board turned it down, but a state board overturned that denial.
Organizations that provide less-expensive housing don't have enough houses to meet demand. Church Community Housing officials expressed dismay in interviews that a potential affordable housing location, the former Navy housing in Middletown known as the Anchorage, remains elusive. Church Community Housing and Middletown have worked together to establish the existing homes as affordable, only to be thwarted, in Church Community Housing officials' view, by the Navy.
"Our federal government is not cooperating with the local community," said Gallagher.
Advocates on the front line of the affordable housing battle said that some of those who need inexpensive housing do the jobs everyone depends on.
"When you got to the supermarket, the person who is working behind the cash register needs to be able to afford to live in your community," said Gallagher. "The plumber and the plumber's helper, when they come to unclog your drain, need to be able to live in your community."
Yet it now appears to include the ranks of people from more walks of life.
Sgt. Chambers, originally from New York, came to Newport in 1981 for Navy duties. Eventually, he joined the National Guard and his unit deployed in July 2004 to a region covering Southeast Asia and Africa. Shortly before he deployed, the owner of the house he was renting in Middletown sold it to someone who did not want tenants.
When he returned, Chambers found himself renting the room from a Tiverton friend. He scanned newspapers and brochures for something he could afford on his own, wanting to live in Newport County, but came up empty. The rest of the state's prices were not encouraging, either. In September, he stopped in at Church Community Housing, which he had done work for in the past, and is set to begin the homebuyer class; he has already seen a house he is interested in.
Chambers has a daughter attending the University of Rhode Island, who he said will live with him at the house, and he pays child support for a younger daughter. In the Guard, Chambers said, his income can fluctuate year to year.
"Obviously, I'd love to make the move into the house," said Chambers, "and for it to be affordable, where I'm not struggling."
In Newport, the Layfields pay about $1,400 monthly rent for a Van Zandt Avenue house as they work toward buying a home through the Church Community Program. They have three daughters living with them and a fourth who lives on Nantucket.
Keverne Layfield said the Church Community Program "gives us a little bit of hope." She added that "we would just like a little tiny house" given that in a few years their children will be independent.
They've been on the other side of the ownership/rental equation. On Nantucket, Keverne Layfield said, they rented out an apartment in their home for $1,500. After having been homeowners, she said, it can be difficult to be a tenant, as it was when they first lived in Newport.
Raeleen McManus recalls how her hourly wages used to be gobbled up entirely by a $499 rent, with nothing left for living expenses. And rents just go up.
"When I first graduated high school, to live on my own, the highest rent out there was $500 for a two-bedroom and now you're lucky to get that for an efficiency apartment," she said. "You are working so much and you have to care for this child of yours."
She's had part-time employment that paid $11 an hour and an offer of full-time work for $7 an hour. She and her little son tried rooming with a friend, but they were very different people.
McManus considered herself lucky when she was referred to the Rhode Island Coalition for the Homeless, which offers some subsidized housing and education about mortgages and repairing credit. She wants to study to become a nursing assistant and someday work in a hospital helping people with mental disabilities.
Looking back on her past situation and what some people still face, McManus summed it up.
"Almost desperation," she said.
Staff writer Michael P. McKinney can be reached at (401) 277-7447 or at mmckinneATprojo.com
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