The Narragansett Town Council voted to increase the maximum number of students allowed in rentals, bringing changes and opportunities in the off-campus housing landscape for University of Rhode Island students.
The council voted to expand its three-person housing ordinance to five people to comply with state zoning laws on March 2, according to town council minutes. The vote was highly debated, requiring multiple hours of deliberation.
The change itself would come with multiple specific conditions, according to the minutes. To comply with state zoning laws passed in 2024, landlords are only able to increase the occupancy number of their dwelling if there would still be one occupant per bedroom.
At the request of the planning board, the council added the word “legal” ahead of “bedrooms,” according to The Independent. This would encourage developers to revisit what makes a bedroom “legal” in Narragansett, a distinction that would safeguard against loopholes.
An under-explored dynamic of this vote is the definition surrounding what a student is, according to Narragansett Town Council President Alex Menzies. The vast majority of students are “unemployed 20-something-year-olds” from URI who may be compelled to overstay their welcome, but that’s not the case for every student in Narragansett.
Menzies conducted research to determine if that statement is true for the majority of students. His picture of non-traditional students in Narragansett included people who have a full-time job, are parents, or are taking online classes at a university nowhere near URI.
Through this research, Menzies claimed that having an ordinance that even mentions the word “student” is a discrimination issue if the term remains undefined.
There are two primary reasons to bring on the change, according to Councilwoman Donna Vignali. The first is that while the maximum number of unrelated people in a dwelling increases, it still disincentivizes larger homes from packing in students. Second, the ordinance would be easier to enforce because the number of leases would always have to be equal to or less than the number of bedrooms.
For URI students, the new ordinance has positives and negatives, especially for those that were already living in five person houses, according to second-year Mattingly Alaimo.
“The rent would be cheaper,” Alaimo said. “Cheaper rent, but there would be less room for everything else.”
For a larger group of students, looking for housing that accommodates five people was difficult, according to Alaimo. The difficulty will hopefully be lessened by the new ordinance.
“[Looking for housing was] kind of frustrating,” Alaimo said. “There was a lack of houses that do have five bedrooms, and the ones that did were definitely more expensive.”
The number of five-person student rentals was sparse, according to second-year Taylor Lilly.
“[The ordinance would make this] completely easier.” Lilly said. “There were only four houses that we looked at.”
For Alaimo, the increase in the ordinance will allow for more flexibility moving forward.
“Going from a three bedroom to a five bedroom, you’re adding more money,” Alaimo said. “With that, it gives us more flexibility to split things like bills and utilities. It ends up evening out.”
Students are hopeful the ordinance will truly add more flexibility in picking places to live, according to Alaimo. With work still to be done, students will await to see the impact the change has on the off-campus housing market.
