As a renter for a number of years, I experienced firsthand how difficult it is to find a year-round rental in South County. 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 continue to work hard to make sure that people who have roots here can afford to stay here.

2026 highlights:

• Seniors aged 62-67 will now be exempt from taxes on their Social Security income. Seniors must have incomes under $107,000 for single filers and $133,750 for married filers in tax year 2025, to qualify.
• Child Tax Credit: Families will get a refundable tax credit of $330 per child
• More families will qualify for assistance paying for childcare (up to 285% of the federal poverty level) and childcare providers’ pay for caring for infants will increase, in order to attract more providers

2024 highlights:

• Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) legislation that I sponsored and passed allows more homeowners to have ADU’s for family members or offer them as long-term rentals (see victoria4ri.com/affordable-housing-mar-2023 for more details)
• Airbnb legislation that I cosponsored will tax Airbnb’s at the same rate as the hotel tax (currently for whole houses it’s only 1% but the hotel tax is 6%)
• Airbnb legislation that I sponsored would allow towns to regulate Airbnb’s. That did not pass but there is a House study commission on Short Term Rental regulation that will give their recommendations soon

2023 highlights:

• Reduced consumer taxes by $35 million for electricity and natural gas bills
• Passed a bill to cap the cost of specialty prescription drugs at $150/month. Cost should not be a barrier to getting life-saving drugs and treatment.

Ongoing work in the community:

• Working with Representative Seth Magaziner, RI Senators, and RIDOT to secure funding for upgrades to Westerly Station, which would enable Connecticut’s commuter rail to stop at Westerly and offer an affordable transportation option
• Taking an inventory of vacant buildings and town or state-owned land in South County and working with affordable housing commissions and the RI Department of Housing to evaluate which ones can be repurposed for housing.
• Bringing federal and state housing funds down to South County so that we can work on housing needs down here, particularly senior housing.

• 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.