Carcieri also taps Noreen W. Shawcross of the Rhode Island Coalition for the Homeless to lead the new Office of Housing and Community Development.

01:00 AM EDT on Friday, July 29, 2005

BY SCOTT MAYEROWITZ
Journal State House Bureau

Governor Carcieri has shuffled parts of state government in an attempt to streamline planning issues and to "address the critical lack of affordable housing in the state."

The governor yesterday announced the hiring of Cranston's planning director, Kevin M. Flynn, as the state's new top planning official.

Carcieri elevated planning to a "division" status -- such as the Division of Motor Vehicles or Division of Taxation -- after his Fiscal Fitness program recommended the change to streamline issues related to housing, land use, energy, and transportation.

Flynn will be paid $91,787 a year as the newly created "associate director," the head of the new division.

Carcieri also named Noreen W. Shawcross, executive director of the Rhode Island Coalition for the Homeless, as chief of the newly created Office of Housing and Community Development. Shawcross started Monday in the job, which pays $75,397 a year.

Shawcross will report to Flynn, who will report directly to Beverly Najarian, the governor's director of administration. Both jobs were added as part of Carcieri's budget for this year.

"We are centralizing the way we deal with these issues and making sure we have the best people to run that more-centralized organization," Carcieri's spokesman, Jeff Neal, said yesterday.

The restructuring is not about saving money, Neal said, but "about finding better ways to deliver services to the taxpayers."

The Office of Housing and Community Development was created to bring together housing programs dispersed throughout state government. Shawcross will oversee everything from efforts to end homelessness, the Neighborhood Opportunities Program, Community Development Program and a program that helps educate people about the danger of lead paint and other household hazards.

"I just felt -- as wrenching as it was, and it truly was to leave the Coalition for the Homeless -- I would have a role in implementing what I've been advocating for," Shawcross said yesterday.

The Division of Planning will oversee, among other issues, a five-year strategic plan for housing. The strategic plan is part of a public-private partnership with the United Way and the Rhode Island Foundation. Two housing experts will be also added to the Statewide Planning program to assist communities in their development of affordable housing plans.

Shawcross, of East Greenwich, headed the coalition for the past seven years. She received a master's degree in social work from Rhode Island College and a bachelor's degree from Boston College.

Flynn, of Cranston, spent the last 20 years as the city's planning director, previously working as its senior and principal planner. He began his career as a planner in East Providence. Flynn received a master's degree in community planning from the University of Rhode Island and a bachelor's degree from the University of Massachusetts.