I experienced firsthand how difficult it is to find a rental or a starter home in this area. We are seeing fewer families here and more out-of-towners who only come during the summer. The cost of everything: housing, gas, food, healthcare, childcare, is stretching many families’ budgets. I will work hard to make sure that people who have roots here can afford to stay here.

Here is what I will work on for housing & healthcare:

• Take an inventory of vacant buildings in the area and work with relevant commissions to evaluate which ones can be repurposed for multi-family units.
• Bring federal and state housing funds down to South County so that we can work on housing needs down here, particularly senior housing.
• Bring down the cost of prescription drugs. There was a bill in the RI legislature last year to cap the cost of insulin. Cost should not be a barrier to getting life-saving drugs and treatment.

• We can get more Rhode Islanders back to work by making sure that parents have affordable options for childcare. There are many ways to do this: offer loans or grants to reopen childcare centers and keep existing ones afloat; build more childcare centers to meet demand; and encourage more people to enter and stay in the childcare profession.