Published January 21, 2026 by Wheeler Cowperthwaite
EAST PROVIDENCE – In the steel shell of a former dormitory and, more recently, nursing home, water collects in buckets as construction crews hammer and drill, saw and weld, and heavy machinery works to cover a series of underground water retention systems, consisting of huge pipes.
Next door, the masonry elevator shaft rises three stories above construction crews working on the first floor below.
The two buildings are becoming 95 units of income-restricted housing, built by One Neighborhood Builders, in a partnership with Servicio Familiar de Rhode Island, Encrucijada Rhode Island y Foster Adelante.
[…]Of the units, 40% will be for people making 30% or less of the area median income, while the remaining 60% will be restricted to people making 80% or less of the area median income.
The 95 units spread across the two buildings should start having people living in them by February 2027, while One Neighborhood Builders has put in a request for funding to the state for the next round of income-restricted housing loans and grants. Those awards are expected to be announced in April 2026.
[…]A mixture of units
The building is a mixture of large studios and one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments. One studio configuration involves a combined kitchen and living room with a bedroom off to the side but without a door. Another apartment configuration comes with a “bonus room,” a bedroom-sized room that doesn’t have a window or closet, the legal requirements for calling it a bedroom.
“It’s a funky building setup,” Valcourt said. “So how do you use the middle of the H? Because the building’s a big H. So how do you use that? You take a little bit from the sides for the units and a little bit from the side from you and you get left with a long narrow unit. It’s kind of broken up. You got some columns.”
The first floor of the old building will have a few residential units while most of the space will be offices.
How low is low-income?
For the very-low-income units, where people make 30% or less of the area median income, that means:
- $24,050 a year for one person
- $27,450 for a family of two
- $30,900 for a family of three
- $34,300 for a family of four
For the 60% of units where families make 80% or less of the area median income, that means:
- $64,050 a year for one person
- $73,200 for a family of two
- $82,350 for a family of three
- $91,450 for a family of four
