Providence city councilors are proposing a form of rent control that would limit annual rent increases to 4% in much of the city’s housing market.
The ordinance carves out exemptions for newly constructed units for 15 years, and permanent exemptions for small-time landlords who live in duplexes or triplexes with their tenants.
If the ordinance passes, other landlords would need approval from a newly created Residential Rent Regulation Board to raise rents above the prescribed limit.
The proposal met quick resistance from Providence Mayor Brett Smiley after councilors publicly released it on Tuesday. Smiley said he would veto the ordinance as it is written today.
The council could still pass rent control by overriding the mayor’s veto with a supermajority vote, which would require 10 of the council’s 15 members. Council President Rachel Miller said a vote is still likely months away.
“I’m really looking forward to digging into this proposal in the coming months with public hearings and conversations with renters and landlords to educate folks on what’s in the ordinance and hear what’s missing,” she said. “I will always work with people who are coming to us in good faith to make our laws the best they can be.”
Miller said capping annual rent increases would be just one part of a broader strategy to slow the rising cost of housing in Providence, where she said rent has increased 40% since 2020.
“Will rent stabilization alone fix the housing crisis? Absolutely not, and we know that,” Miller said. “We’ve got to build more, we’ve got to protect what we have, and we have to stabilize rent.”
City Councilor Juan Pichardo, who co-sponsored the ordinance, said rent control provides an immediate form of relief while longer-term housing solutions play out.
“Building our way out of this crisis will take time, but our families cannot wait,” Pichardo said.
Pichardo said they crafted the ordinance to target “large-scale corporate entities,” while protecting mom-and-pop landlords “who treat their tenants like family.”
Miller and Pichardo introduced a series of speakers at a press conference announcing the ordinance in Providence’s Elmwood neighborhood. Gabe Long, a landlord who lives near Miller on Providence’s West Side, said he owns two rental properties, and lives in one of them, which means he would be exempt from the cap on annual rent increases.
“These councilors have carefully crafted an ordinance that is not going to interfere with new construction, that is going to protect small, local landlords,” Long said in a speech at the press conference.
As the speeches continued, tenants filed out of an apartment house on Hamilton Street overlooking the commotion. One of them, Carmen Diaz, said she hadn’t heard about the rent control ordinance until today, though she immediately supported it. She said her rent has increased from $1,200 to $1,850 over the past six years — which calculates to about 7.5% per year, close to double what the ordinance would allow. Diaz, who relies on federal Section 8 funding to pay part of her rent, said she owes about $300 in back rent now and is facing eviction.
“The rent is wicked high,” she said. “It’s the reason there’s a lot of homelessness.”
The mayor released a statement on the rent control ordinance later in the afternoon.
“There are many lessons that we should learn from other cities where this has been tried unsuccessfully,” Smiley said. “A cap on future rent increases will lower no one’s rent and can disincentivize property owners from building and managing new residential properties, leading to a worsening of the already low supply of housing.”
“I remain committed in continuing to support policies that create lasting affordability and housing security for every single Providence neighbor,” Smiley continued, “but I cannot support this approach.”
The draft ordinance will go before the city council for an initial discussion on Thursday, kicking off what’s expected to be a monthslong fight over a proposal that has won popular support in many other progressive cities. Several councilors whose support is needed for a supermajority are still considering their votes.
