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6/3/2025
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Ujifusa honored by Housing Network for launching innovative Ade Bethune House
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 STATE HOUSE – Sen. Linda L. Ujifusa has been honored by the Housing Network of Rhode Island for laying the groundwork for the development of the Ade Bethune House and new senior center in Portsmouth.
The network, which is a coalition of affordable housing development organizations across the state, presented Senator Ujifusa with its 2025 Housing Innovation Award at an event held Monday at the Housing Network’s annual meeting, held at the Providence G rooftop.
When she was a member of the Portsmouth Town Council prior to her election to the Senate in 2022, Senator Ujifusa proposed the idea of a new project that would house both a new senior center and affordable housing for older residents on town-owned land at 110 Bristol Ferry Road. She pitched the idea to Church Community Housing, a nonprofit community development corporation, setting the wheels in motion for the project that is currently under construction to provide the growing older population with both more affordable housing and a modern, appropriate senior center.
“Senator Ujifusa, who was on the Town Council at the time, had the forethought to realize that you could address multiple public goals at once,” said Church Community Housing Corporation Executive Director Christian Belden, who presented the award. “Since that moment, she has been a stalwart supporter…and has gone on to the state Senate where she continues to be a major supporter and advocate for affordable housing in so many different ways.”
Currently under construction by Church Community Housing, the project includes a new building with 54 units of affordable, age-restricted one- and two-bedroom apartments and a new senior center. The town signed a 99-year lease for $1 per year with Church Community Housing for the 5.27-acre site, which also includes the current senior center, housed in the aging former Anne Hutchinson Schoolhouse.
IN PHOTO: Sen. Linda L. Ujifusa, right, accepts the Housing Network of RI’s 2025 Innovation Award from Church Community Housing Corporation Executive Director Christian Belden.
For more information, contact:
Meredyth R. Whitty, Publicist
State House Room 20
Providence, RI 02903
(401) 222-1923
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