A significant majority of Providence residents who submitted testimony SUPPORT rent stabilization
The data also show that the majority of the testimony that was received in opposition to the proposed ordinance came from non-Providence residents.
From a Rent Stabilization Coalition press release:
The Providence City Council received hundreds of testimony submissions regarding its proposed Rent Stabilization Ordinance, but there has been uncertainty about how many of those submissions were from actual Providence residents. The City Council and City Clerk’s Office have now released a breakdown of the listed place of residence associated with the received testimony. The breakdown shows that Providence residents who submitted testimony supported the proposed ordinance by a significant margin. Among Providence residents, 304 pieces of non-duplicative testimony were submitted in support of the Rent Stabilization ordinance. By contrast, Providence residents submitted only 183 pieces of non-duplicative testimony in opposition.
The data breakdown, performed by the Department of the City Clerk and the City Council’s office, was released by the Rent Stabilization Coalition. The Coalition is a citywide alliance of grassroots organizations, tenant advocates, and community leaders working together to advance housing stability in Providence. The members of our coalition include: Direct Action for Rights and Equality (DARE), SISTA Fire, Reclaim RI, Providence Organization of Workers and Renters (POWR), the Olneyville Neighborhood Association (ONA), the Center for Justice (CFJ), and the Rhode Island State Council of Churches.
The Coalition is grounded in direct organizing with tenants across neighborhoods most impacted by rising rents, displacement, and unsafe housing conditions. Coalition members have fought together to bring resident leadership to the forefront in this battle. The testimony breakdown reinforces what Coalition organizers have heard across the city through direct outreach and testimony. Providence residents most impacted by rising rents are leading the call for Rent Stabilization, and City Council data now make it clear there is broad public support for Rent Stabilization among Providence residents.
The data also show that the majority of the testimony that was received in opposition to the proposed ordinance came from non-Providence residents. A significant portion of those were individuals who do not reside in Rhode Island at all. Less than 44% of the (non-duplicative) testimony submitted in opposition to the ordinance came from Providence residents. By contrast, nearly 93% of (non-duplicative) support for the ordinance came from Providence residents.
The ratios of testimony received by the Council had previously been expressed only as raw totals. The breakdown reveals that those raw totals provided an incomplete and misleading picture of the testimony. In total, the Council received 619 opposition letters and 349 supporting letters. However, 199 of those in opposition were duplicate submissions. Only 21 of those in support were duplicate submissions.
Excluding duplicates, around 56% of testimony received by the Council expressed opposition — 420 opposed to 328 supporting. Among Providence residents, however, that ratio was weighted in favor of rent stabilization, with around 62% of testimony in support of the ordinance.
“We listen to residents every day who are living with instability,” said Ditra Edwards, Director of SISTA Fire. “People whose rent jumps hundreds of dollars. People are choosing between rent and food. People are dealing with unsafe conditions with no response. Their lived experience is expertise. Their lived experience should guide city policy. Rent stabilization is a direct response to what residents have already told us they need to survive and stay rooted in their communities.”
“This breakdown perfectly illustrates why we need Rent Stabilization,” said Will Casey, THA Case Coordinator of DARE. “We need to regulate the big landlords because they’ll engage in shady and underhanded tactics to stay in power. Whether it’s rent gouging, speculating, or generating hundreds of duplicate and out-of-town testimony submissions to inflate their numbers, we can’t expect honesty from the corporate landlords who oppose this. This is exactly why we need Rent Stabilization.”
“We introduced Rent Stabilization because we’ve been seeing higher rents across Providence each year, and we needed to protect our community from getting displaced,” said Providence City Councilmember Miguel Sanchez (Ward 6). “What we’re seeing in this data is a clear message from the people of our city, who are demanding that these massive rent increases stop.”
“In our organizing conversations with tenants all over Providence, we hear resounding and near-universal support for common-sense protections like Rent Stabilization,” said Siraj Sindhu, Executive Director of Reclaim RI. “This data breakdown confirms that the working people of Providence strongly support Rent Stabilization. It strongly suggests that the opposition is primarily landlords who often live outside of the city or even in other states, but who have the time and money to disproportionately influence the political process.”
The statements that other cities are failing with rent stabilization or it hurt them in x, y or z manner have never offered up an example from a city that matches the situation here. Most cities with a population about that of Providence, are much larger and less dense, having more room to build low rise housing. It totally changes the housing market when there is abundant land in the city to build on. It is difficult to build in Providence for a variety of reasons, but mostly because there are only a few buildable lots in appropriate locations. Have any of the cities being sited been old dense post industrial cities being over whelmed by gentrification driven by tax breaks and subsidies to the rich, with very limited new housing for the lower income communtiies since the federal governmet got out of building low income housing when the landlords convinced congress (and all other legislators) to stop buildiong housng as it was preventing them from being able to jack up rents, or as it is referred to in economics book, rent seeking. So the landlords seem to want to mess with us coming and going. Eliminating the government money for housing, then working to prevent us from stopping price gouging. Clearly they want it both ways, and the commujnty gets more homeless people ast he landlords snicker on thier way to the bank.
So people opposing rent stabilization, show us postive solutions being put into place in comparable places with limited land and how they are financed. And then show us how you intend for Providence to implement it before more people become homeless? If you have no good answers, at least let us try somewthing with a chance to work.
Important analysis of the breakdown.