06/06/2002

Gubernatorial candidates and top state legislators will meet with an expected 400 members of religious congregations and labor union locals of the Rhode Island Organizing Project tonight to hear the organization's request for a $10-million line item in the 2004 state budget for the Neighborhood Opportunities Program.

The meeting will be at St. Theresa of Avila Catholic Church, 275 Manton Ave., Providence, from 7:30 to 9 p.m.

Project members propose that the state budget include $10 million for the Neighborhood Opportunities Program, so that 200 new housing units can be constructed in 2004.

"The current two-year bond initiative for $5 million per year runs out at the end of 2003," says Deacon John Strodder of the Ebenezer Baptist Church, in Providence. "Five million is a good start, but we need to increase the number of affordable housing units being built in Rhode Island -- 100 per year is not enough to address the shortage."

Project leaders also intend tonight to propose development of a comprehensive housing initiative for Rhode Island.

"It is clear to us through our research that the state does not have a long-term vision for responding to the housing crisis," says the Rev. Campbell Lovett of the Newman Congregational Church, in East Providence. "Rising housing costs are a serious problem for working people as well as for the homeless. We need a plan to unite the public and private sectors around this issue."