Title 45
Towns and Cities

Chapter 53
Low and Moderate Income Housing

§ 45-53-10. Repurposing of vacant schools for affordable housing program.

(a) There is hereby established the repurposing of school buildings for an affordable housing program (the “program”). The program shall be administered by the secretary of housing as set forth herein.

(b) The purpose of the program shall be to provide guidance and assistance in the repurposing of vacant and unused school buildings as identified and existing as of July 1 of each year, commencing October 1, 2022.

(c) The department of elementary and secondary education (the “department”) shall, commencing on October 1, 2022, on an annual basis, provide to the speaker of the house, the president of the senate, and the secretary of housing a list of all school buildings that have been abandoned or are no longer being used by a school district.

(d)(1) Each municipality shall provide the department with a complete list of buildings abandoned or no longer being used by the school district for the purposes of conducting a feasibility assessment to repurpose the building as affordable housing. The department shall also include and identify in the list those school buildings that the department anticipates will become abandoned or no longer used by a school district within the next six (6) months following the issuance of the list.

(2) The secretary of housing shall convene a task force comprised of the Rhode Island housing and mortgage finance corporation, the department of environmental management, the department of health, and a fire marshal to develop assessment criteria to conduct preliminary assessments to determine if a building may be repurposed into affordable housing. Once the preliminary assessment criteria are established, the executive office of housing shall conduct the assessments for each school on the vacant schools list.

(3) If the executive office of housing finds that the assessed building meets the preliminary assessment criteria, the office may, contingent upon program funding, facilitate a feasibility study to determine the anticipated costs to repurpose the building for affordable housing. This feasibility study shall be completed within one hundred eighty (180) days after the executive office of housing has been notified of the availability of a vacant building pursuant to this section.

(4) Once a building is determined by the executive office of housing to be appropriate for repurposing as affordable housing, through a completed feasibility study, the executive office of housing, in collaboration with the respective municipality, may invite prospective developers to submit proposals for redevelopment of the site through a competitive process, with the goal of repurposing the building into affordable housing.

(e) The executive office of housing shall maintain on its website a separate page related to the repurposing of buildings for the affordable housing program. This website shall contain a listing of all buildings for which a feasibility assessment was conducted and the outcome of the assessment, including a general statement of the condition of the property, an estimate of the types of renovations, if any, that must be performed to the property, a copy of the feasibility study, and an estimate of the costs thereof. Provided, it shall be made clear on the website that these are estimates to repurpose used buildings, and that neither the state, the corporation, the division, the commission, or any instrumentality of the state or of a municipality or school district shall be liable for any estimates that are incorrect.

(f) The executive office of housing may seek to assist and facilitate persons and developers who or that want to repurpose former buildings as affordable housing. This assistance may include, but need not be limited to, technical and financial assistance, all to assist in the repurposing of the school building.

(g) The Rhode Island executive office of housing shall promulgate rules and regulations for the implementation and enforcement of this section.

(h) The secretary of housing shall provide an annual report on or before December 31, commencing with calendar year 2023, including, but not limited to, the number of schools that are vacant and include a status report of any development and/or feasibility to repurpose a vacant building.

(i) As used herein, the term “affordable housing” means housing that meets the definition for low- or moderate-income housing in § 45-53-3.