As poverty soars to record levels, Providence celebrates the holiday season
POWR [Providence Organization of Workers and Renters] brings a protest about housing to Mayor Smiley's tree lighting...
“I'm calling from Mayor Brett Smiley's office,” said Emily Crowell, the Mayor’s Chief of Staff in a message left for POWR [Providence Organization of Workers and Renters] the day before their protest. “I was calling regarding tomorrow's community speak-out and I wanted to see if some members of the group would be interested in meeting with the mayor prior to, so we can kind of talk through some things the city is doing and healthy responses to what I've seen online. If you could give me a call back in advance, he has some things in the schedule, but is happy to move some stuff around.”
When Olivia, an organizer with POWR, called back, her message went to voicemail. “I said, hey, we're a democratic group. This is pretty last minute for us. We won't have a meeting to talk about this and make a major decision for another few weeks. We would be down to talk, but we already know that the Mayor opposes what we're about, so we don't know how fruitful a meeting will be.” Olivia added that she found the line about “healthy responses” rather patronizing.
The protest went as scheduled, with around 30 people holding signs and challenging the Mayor to do something, anything, about rising rents, rising evictions, and rising homelessness. The Mayor, meanwhile, was celebrating the lighting of the Christmas Tree outside City Hall.
“Santa, I’m proud to say, Providence has been very good this year,” said Mayor Smiley to the large crowd of holiday revelers, “and all of the children of Providence deserve to have a big pile under their tree, or celebrate during Hannukah this year… This is the best Christmas celebration we’ve had in years!”
That said, since Mayor Smiley’s inauguration the City of Providence has suffered from record food insecurity, homelessness, and evictions. As for children hoping for presents, “households with children are much more likely to be evicted or to face eviction than households that don't have children,” said Grace Hartley, from Princeton’s Eviction Lab. The Mayor also continues to target encampments of unhoused people for eviction. As a guest of extreme right-wing shock jock Gene Valicenti this week [12-minute mark], Mayor Smiley said his administration was attempting to contact the owner of a piece of property where unhoused people are currently living so that eviction proceedings could begin against them.
In a statement ahead of the protest, POWR wrote:
“Our group POWR, composed of former Tenant Network RI members, has been calling to freeze rent increases since the beginning of the pandemic and has demanded more tenant protections for years now. This past May 1st is when we first demanded Mayor Smiley, the City Council, and the City of Providence freeze and lower rents. We started our explicit campaign to FREEZE RENTS NOT PEOPLE over two months ago. There has been an eerie silence by most city and state leaders. Looking for a meeting a day before this action is too short notice for our membership.
“We are a directly democratic group who vote on important decisions together in person at our monthly meetings every third Tuesday. While we’re sure our membership would be open to meaningful dialogue, we’re not sure how meaningful it could be when Mayor Smiley has publicly and explicitly opposed many of our demands, like a rent freeze i.e. rent control, and halting evictions. His campaign took substantial donations from the landlord lobby.
“Our ‘7 Demands for Housing Justice’ are immediately needed to face our current housing crisis. The private market won’t build our way out of this crisis and we can’t depend on mere eviction diversion programs or rent assistance programs landlords defraud to lead us out either. Landlords raise the rent to astronomical heights and tenants keep getting evicted through no fault of their own. Actions speak louder than words, and it’s time to act, we need real action NOW!
“Considering this we won’t be deterred from speaking out about the drastic rise in rents, as Zillow reported this week the highest percentage increases year over year in the nation! Price gouging and neglect of tenants' homes by their slum landlords, the evictions and displacement that are kicking people out to freeze on our streets, have to end! We ask all people of conscience to join us!”
The protest was respectful of performers and those attending the tree lighting. Members and allies of POWR chanted only when there was no performance, not even interrupting the Mayor when he spoke.
Here are the group’s Seven Demands for Housing Justice:
NO RENT INCREASES: We demand an immediate halt to rent increases to prevent further displacement of working-class families. Rents should be frozen and lowered. Rent controls should be implemented to prevent rents from reaching outrageous heights again.
NO EVICTIONS: We demand an immediate eviction freeze. The intersecting crises of COVID-19, houselessness, and climate change are making overcrowded shelters and sleeping outside even more dangerous. No one should be evicted amid these crises because they are unable to pay the unaffordable rent increases pushed down our throats over the past three years.
NO UTILITY SHUT-OFFS: We demand an immediate end to utility shut-offs. Home heating and electricity costs have been allowed to skyrocket in recent years. As the climate crisis escalates, extreme cold and heat are becoming regular occurrences during Rhode Island winters and summers. No tenant or homeowner should have their utilities turned off due to the inability to pay unfair and effectively unregulated utility prices.
NO RENT FOR SLUMLORDS: We demand legal immunity for tenants who withhold their rent from negligent slum landlords If an apartment has unhealthy and unsafe minimum housing violations or if there is no lead certificate, then the landlord should be prohibited from collecting rent or retaliating against tenants who withhold rent.
NO EVICTIONS BLACKLIST: We demand the immediate un-listing of publicly viewable eviction filings by the district court. Currently, filings haunt tenants desperately searching for new housing. Landlords discriminate against tenants with filings regardless of whether they were evicted. Often, filings are retaliation for reporting slum conditions or the result of "no-fault" terminations of tenancy caused by unaffordable rent gouging. Furthermore, landlords brought to municipal court for housing violations are shielded from public exposure, why not tenants?
NO RAIDS OF ENCAMPENTS: We demand an end to the eviction and criminalization of those forced to live outside. Recent raids and arrests are illegal violations of the Homeless Bill of Rights. We demand immediate aid for our houseless neighbors including rapidly deployable pallet shelters, community centers to avoid street living or bad weather, and quality transitional housing with wrap-around services for the 600+ Rhode Islanders sleeping outside.
PERMANENTLY AFFORDABLE HOUSING: While immediate aid is needed, emergency shelters, community centers, rent assistance, and transitional housing are not a lasting solution. We demand the immediate seizure of vacant buildings and land by eminent domain to rapidly develop publicly owned and rent-controlled housing democratically governed by residents themselves.
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