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3/2/2026
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Media Advisory: Committee to hear bills from Speaker’s housing package Thursday
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STATE HOUSE — The House Committee on Municipal Government and Housing will meet Thursday to hear several bills from Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi’s (D-Dist. 23, Warwick) nine-bill package of housing legislation. Speaker Shekarchi will also testify before the committee in support of the bills he is sponsoring.
The committee is scheduled to meet Thursday, March 5, at the rise of the House, sometime after 4:30 p.m. in Room 101 on the first floor of the State House. The committee is scheduled to hear several bills, including these from Speaker Shekarchi’s housing package:
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2026-H 8000 — This legislation introduced by Speaker Shekarchi would add a requirement to Rhode Island’s existing Homeless Bill of Rights that at least a 15-day notice be given to the individuals and families impacted by disbanding an encampment, subject to emergency and safety exceptions.
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2026-H 8001 — This legislation also introduced by Speaker Shekarchi would enable cities and towns to allow Supportive and Functional Emergency units—such as pallet shelters—on a temporary basis during a declaration of an emergency.
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2026-H 8002 — This legislation introduced by Rep. June S. Speakman (D-Dist. 69, Warren, Bristol) would modify the state building code to allow for single staircase construction in residential buildings up to four floors and 16 units but the construction would still be subject to all applicable fire code requirements.
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2026-H 8003 — This legislation introduced by Rep. Thomas E. Noret (D-Dist. 25, Coventry, West Warwick) would allow the adaptive reuse of state-owned vacant buildings by right. The legislation would enable the adaptive reuse of vacant municipal buildings into housing and amend the redevelopment program for converting municipal schools.
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2026-H 8005 — This legislation introduced by Rep. Joshua J. Giraldo (D-Dist. 56, Central Falls) would establish maximum parking requirements for multifamily housing in areas accessible by public transit.
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2026-H 8006 — This legislation introduced by Rep. Scott A. Slater (D-Dist. 10, Providence) would provide limits on the tax rates for the new construction of residential rental units which include certain percentages of affordable housing in either new construction of adaptive reuse projects.
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2026-H 8007 — This legislation introduced by House Municipal Government and Housing Committee Chairman Stephen M. Casey (D-Dist. 50, Woonsocket) would allow property owners in areas with water and sewer capacity to subdivide property for single family residential development under certain limited conditions and requirements.
Written testimony must be submitted to HouseMunicipalGovernmentandHousing@rilegislature.gov. Testimony must include your name, the bill number, and your viewpoint, whether for, against, or neither. Sign-up sheets for in-person testimony will be available in the hearing room.
The meeting will be televised by Capitol Television, which can be seen on Cox channel 61, on i3Broadband channel 15 and on Verizon channel 34. It will be live streamed at capitoltvri.cablecast.tv.
For more information, contact:
Tristan Grau, Publicist
State House Room B20
Providence, RI 02903
401.222.4935
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