The appointment of an interim — and, eventually, permanent — secretary will be at the discretion of governor. They will be tasked with trying to solve a housing crisis that has snowballed over three decades.
McKee’s office has repeatedly told the Globe the governor’s pick for housing secretary will be announced on the day Pryor officially leaves office. Though Pryor was not asked to resign, McKee did not request that he remain in the position for any length of time after his resignation, governor spokeswoman Andrea Palagi told the Globe.
Pryor’s resignation came as a shock to staff within the Housing Department and the governor’s office, according to copies of text messages and emails obtained by the Globe as part of a series of public records requests. Pryor told some reporters on June 27 that he was resigning, and the governor’s office had to scramble to write a statement, according to messages between Palagi and Antonio “Tony” Afonso, the governor’s chief of staff.
The governor’s office did not receive Pryor’s resignation letter until members of the media asked for it, according to copies of texts between Pryor, his spokeswoman, and the governor’s staff.
Until the governor’s office appoints an interim secretary, many in the housing sector have begun floating their own ideas — or raising their hands for the job themselves.
“I’ve been working on this space for a long time in a number of capacities,” said Brenda Clement, the executive director of HousingWorks R.I., who was one of 38 applicants who applied for the role that eventually went to Saal. She said she never got a call back. “I want to get it right. It’s not about me, but it’s about tackling our housing problems. But first, we need the right structure and system.”
Clement said she wants to mend the department’s relationship with the housing sector. Providers and advocates have long been frustrated due to the department’s lack of transparency, trust, and collaboration, she said.
She already has a few ideas. For example, the state knows it lacks units among all income levels. But how many units are available for adults who are 65 and older in each town, and how many more need to be built? It’s unknown. “How can we measure progress if we don’t know what our starting point is,” she said.
She also noted that the department itself is still not completely set up. There isn’t any legislation or policy that completely connects the housing department with Rhode Island Housing, a quasi-public agency, and the Housing Resources Commission, a 28-member board created in 1998 to be the state’s planning, policy, standards, and programs agency for housing issues.
Bianca Policastro is also vying for the top housing job. Currently the director of planning and redevelopment in Pawtucket, she has been focused on building the city’s economic vibrancy while also helping open year-round homeless shelters. She said she has been talking to lobbyists, lawyers, staff in the offices of Senators Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse, General Assembly leaders, unions, and others about what she would bring to the department.
“It feels like I’m running a political campaign. That isn’t my intention,” Policastro said with a laugh during an interview. “But Rhode Island needs someone who knows this space, who has stood on a construction site, walked through a homeless encampment, can read construction specs, knows how to do value engineering, and can look at this on a national level for the best practices that could be implemented and amended in the state of Rhode Island.”
The governor has not said whether he would elevate anyone currently in the housing department to be interim secretary, though his spokeswoman, Olivia DaRocha, told the Globe “all options will be considered in the search.” Deputy housing secretary Deborah Flannery, who was hired in December 2023, is a 30-year veteran of the housing field who previously served as vice president of lending for Evernorth, a nonprofit that helps low- and moderate-income households in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont to access affordable housing. Michael Tondra, director for community planning and funding, has worked for the department since 1989, when it was called the Office of Housing and Community Development and was a division within Rhode Island Commerce. Hannah Moore, who serves as the assistant secretary of housing and had previously worked for Pryor at Commerce, is another possibility.
Jennifer Hawkins (left) is the executive director of ONE Neighborhood Builders.Matthew Healey for The Boston Globe
Other names have long been floated as potential picks, such as Jennifer Hawkins, who had led ONE Neighborhood Builders for more than a decade and will step down at the end of September. When asked if she would be willing to serve if offered the housing secretary job, she bluntly replied: “No.”
“I am all in on the need for a Department of Housing, and we need to find a leader who understands housing,” said Hawkins, who called Flannery “a logical choice” to serve as interim secretary.
Carol Ventura, the executive director of Rhode Island Housing, has been seen as a steady hand leading the quasi-public agency since 2019. Through her spokesperson, she declined to comment for this story.
Richard Godfrey, who previously worked at Rhode Island Housing starting in 1993 and worked his way up to serve as director until he left in 2015, said he believes the next person to serve as housing secretary should have 15 or more years of “high level and broad-based housing finance experience.”
“The person must also be able to negotiate a highly fraught political environment and be able to make the toughest decisions when there is only enough money to fund about 20 percent of our housing needs,” said Godfrey, who is now the executive director of the Roger Williams University Cummings Institute for Real Estate. He said he has “no interest” in taking over Pryor’s role.
Under Pryor’s leadership, the housing department has tried to navigate challenges with a very small staff, and faced criticism from advocates and politicians over the state’s response to tent encampments, the lack of shelter beds, and Pryor’s involvement in the redevelopment of the Superman building deal that requires public subsidies. Pryor notes he has helped increase the number of shelter beds for those experiencing homelessness by 32 percent, gained the support of many political leaders, and a $120 million housing bond will go before voters in November.
Still, the next housing secretary will have the daunting task of coordinating the efforts and interests of a number of different entities — advocates, nonprofit leaders, homeless providers, and affordable housing developers to lawmakers, municipal leaders, and town zoning boards.
Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi told the Globe on Monday he hopes a “full and wide-ranging search is thoroughly conducted” for the next housing secretary. “The General Assembly has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in housing initiatives, and this is a critical position that needs to be filled with a highly qualified individual,” he said.
The next secretary “needs to come in and provide stability, credibility, and leadership to the team that’s there, and empowering them,” said Melina Lodge, the executive director of the Housing Network of Rhode Island and a vocal critic of the state’s response to the housing crisis over the years.
“At the end of the day, this is just about the work. It’s not about individual people,” said Lodge. “This work is in service to people who very much need us to figure out our housing crisis, and get it right.”
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Alexa Gagosz can be reached at alexa.gagosz@globe.com. Follow her @alexagagosz and on Instagram @AlexaGagosz.