Currently, Providence residents are struggling to afford their rent. When our city is faced with a problem as severe as unaffordable housing, political action which aims to protect citizens’ ability to stay in their homes ought to be encouraged. On Jan. 22, a majority of the Providence City Council introduced a rent stabilization ordinance which aims to address these concerns. While detractors might argue that policies similar to Providence City Council’s recent rent stabilization ordinance have often fallen short, these arguments fail to recognize the much needed, immediate relief that such a policy would provide for the city. The housing crisis demands swift and decisive action, and stalling progress in pursuit of long-term sustainability ignores the present needs of Providence’s residents.
As of now, housing in Providence has reached critical levels of unaffordability for renters. Rent stabilization is needed most as a safeguard against eviction and homelessness. Since 2018, rental prices across Rhode Island have gone up by 60%, and since 2020, the number of homeless people in Rhode Island has doubled. Increases in homelessness have extremely adverse health and economic impacts for both the individual and their community. As of now, nearly 2,600 Rhode Island residents spend each night unhoused, and this growing number is especially concerning given the recent intense snow storms across the region.
According to one analysis of the 44 most populous U.S. cities, Providence is the least affordable for renters. A 2025 City Council report found that half of Providence renters are housing-cost burdened, spending more than 30% of their annual income on housing. The result is catastrophic: With lower disposable income, cost-burdened households are forced to cut funds allocated towards food, education, healthcare and other absolute necessities, further slipping into cycles of inequality. These conditions warrant immediate action.
The ordinance protects renters from rent surges above 4% each year — with exceptions for those who renovate their properties. These restrictions on price increases ensure that renters can afford to stay in their homes, slowing the worrying trends of displacement and homelessness that face Providence residents. Empirical studies on rent control have shown its ability to help residents remain at their existing homes.
When the City Council announced its plans in January to introduce a rent stabilization ordinance, The Providence Foundation, which represents Rhode Island property and business owners, commissioned a report examining the effects of rent control in other U.S. cities. The report argues that rent caps fail to address the underlying housing shortage, distort incentives for landlords by discouraging maintenance and investment and ultimately suppress new housing development, worsening affordability over the long term. The only suggestion that The Providence Foundation provided in its paper was to “let the market build while the government subsidizes the individual renters who are struggling,” but rent subsidies have extremely complex and competitive approval processes that leave low-income renters confused and without any aid at all.
Mayor Brett Smiley, who promised to immediately veto the City Council’s ordinance, shares the concerns of The Providence Foundation. “The root cause of our unaffordability crisis is a shortage of housing. What I’m most focused on is understanding what we can do to lower costs for our residents,” Smiley said. “I have deep concerns that this policy will make that problem worse and not better.” Smiley’s alternative proposal includes a series of zoning ordinance changes intended to allow “bigger, more dense buildings in most of our neighborhoods to make it easier to build and to build bigger.”
While Smiley’s “upzoning” provides the foundation for stimulating development in the years to come, it does nothing to address the immediate needs of Providence’s residents. Adding to this, since the speed of new housing construction in Rhode Island was ranked last in the continental United States, even if new development began now, it would take years for the new housing to become available.
Rent stabilization and zoning reform need not be treated as competing visions for the future of Providence’s housing market. In fact, the ordinance’s 15-year exemption for new construction directly addresses concerns that rent caps will deter the increased development Smiley aims to generate via his upzoning. By shielding newly built units from stabilization for over a decade, the policy preserves incentives for builders while providing immediate protections for existing tenants. Upzoning can expand the city’s long-term housing supply, but those units will take years to permit, finance and complete. Rent stabilization might be seen as a bridge policy — cushioning current residents from displacement while the supply-side reforms take effect.
When rent increases, it is not just a number, but a legitimate social concern for both individuals and communities. Rent increases of just $100 a month have been associated with a 9% increase in homelessness. Even before renters are evicted, the stress of preemptively missing rent causes physiological stress for renters. These effects are compounded when eviction occurs and residents are forced to rehouse. Providence has seen 5,100 evictions in 2025, and this number will increase if rent continues to climb as it has been, pushing renters to the brink of their payment abilities and increasing the risk of renters ending up unhoused.
Smiley and The Providence Foundation’s long-term thinking is important in the analysis of any policy, but we cannot let economic tunnel vision obscure the critical humanitarian problem at stake.
Editorials are written by The Herald’s editorial page board, and its views are separate from those of The Herald’s newsroom and the 136th Editorial Board, which leads the paper. A majority of the editorial page board voted in favor of this piece. Please send responses to this column to letters@browndailyherald.com and other opinions to opinions@browndailyherald.com.
