Lincoln is still short of Rhode Island’s 10 percent low- and moderate-income housing goal, but not by the margin it once was. The 2026 Housing Fact Book puts that housing at 8.35 percent of the town’s year-round homes and says Lincoln needs 157 more qualifying homes to reach the benchmark.
A 72-unit project in Manville is the nearest addition, though it does not count yet. Town Planner Stephanie Davies told The Valley Breeze she is hopeful Village at Manville will bring the share close to or just past 9 percent. She had not calculated the new figure, and the apartments would enter the total only after a certificate of occupancy.
What Would Actually Count
Village at Manville is at 40 Bouvier Ave., beside St. James’ Church, with one- and two-bedroom apartments. RIHousing lists Connolly and Partners, LLC as the developer.
All 72 homes are intended for households earning up to 80 percent of area median income, and eight are set aside for households at or below 30 percent, according to RIHousing. That is a different scale from a mixed building where only a slice of the units qualifies.
Davies expects the certificate of occupancy by the end of 2026. After that, she said, all 72 apartments would count toward Lincoln’s affordable-housing total. The project website has said it was accepting waitlist applications, with occupancy expected to begin in fall 2026. Neither statement establishes that residents have moved in.
Even on a frozen inventory, 72 homes would not erase a 157-home gap. The inventory is not frozen. “The number is always a moving target as market rate units continue to be constructed,” Davies said.
A Pipeline, Not One Building
Manville is only part of what Lincoln permitted last year. The Fact Book says Village at Manville and Walker Lofts accounted for 196 of the 237 housing units the town permitted in 2025.
Walker Lofts is still under construction: 124 apartments, one through three bedrooms, in an adaptive-reuse project, Providence Business News reported. Davies said 32 of those apartments are expected to count once certificates of occupancy are issued. Cobble Hill Crossing is expected to add another 20 affordable units.
Those later units are not a substitute for the Manville calculation, and they do not automatically close the 157-home gap. Market-rate construction changes the denominator at the same time affordable units are trying to move the numerator.
Lincoln has been climbing toward this point in stages. A 2023 count found 642 affordable residences, 6.76 percent of the housing stock and 307 homes short of 10 percent. The Valley Breeze later reported a gain of 1.25 percentage points, or 118 units, to 8.01 percent. The 2026 book now has the town at 8.35 percent. RIHousing has also pointed to Lincoln Lofts, which opened in 2020 with 45 units.
The Rent Math In Lincoln
A qualifying unit and an affordable rent are not the same household problem. HousingWorks RI says a household is cost burdened when housing takes more than 30 percent of income. In Lincoln, four in 10 renter households — about 974 — are already at or above that line.
The Fact Book puts the town’s average two-bedroom rent at $1,884 a month, including utilities. HousingWorks estimates a household would need about $75,000 a year to pay that without crossing 30 percent of income. Rhode Island’s median renter household income was $50,251.
That gap is statewide, not a Lincoln quirk. For the second straight year, the Fact Book found no Rhode Island community where the average two-bedroom was affordable to a household earning the median renter income. About one-third of Rhode Island households — 148,766 — spend more than 30 percent of income on housing, Rhode Island Current reported. Since 2018, wages rose less than 30 percent while housing costs climbed more than 60 percent.
A Moving 10 Percent
Rhode Island State Law 45-53 sets a goal that 10 percent of each city or town’s housing stock qualify as low- and moderate-income housing, according to the Rhode Island Department of Housing. HousingWorks RI publishes the Fact Book each year and tracks costs and affordability in all 39 cities and towns.
Among communities still under 10 percent, only Johnston, at 9.01 percent, and North Kingstown, at 8.82 percent, were closer than Lincoln. North Smithfield stood at 8.20 percent of year-round homes.
Brenda Clement, executive director of HousingWorks RI, welcomed Lincoln’s progress. She also drew a practical line through the eligibility rules: households may generally qualify at up to 80 percent of area median income, but the limit depends partly on household size and can differ between a person living alone and a family of four.
Statewide permitting has picked up around that local arithmetic. Rhode Island issued permits for 3,778 housing units in 2025, a 34 percent increase from 2024, the 2026 Housing Fact Book reported. Permits are not occupied affordable homes, and Lincoln’s percentage will not move until certificates of occupancy put the qualifying apartments on the books.
The next hard date is the end of 2026, when Davies expects Manville’s certificate. Until then, the project’s own waitlist is the practical door, and 9 percent remains her hope, not a calculated share.
