Rhode Island is the latest U.S. state to consider the implementation of a new public development office aimed at increasing the government’s role in land acquisition, construction, and financing as it faces a housing shortage. 

The move would place it alongside fellow New Englanders Vermont and Massachusetts as well as New York (where the New York State Homes and Community Renewal was created in 2010) and Minnesota (the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency). Several other states (incl. California and Oregon) have some version of the office as well.

According to Governing.com, "It’s a model for a type of social housing — broadly defined as publicly developed housing for people with different incomes — that has been slowly percolating in other cities as well. [...] given the uncertainty around federal housing policy under the second Trump administration, state and local governments may have more incentive to use their own money and power to address their housing challenges."