DARE rallies in support of Rent Stabilization

"They're destroying people's lives right now. They have made a lot of people homeless and they have a lot of people paying over 50% of their budget in rent. That has to stop."

As rent in Providence has increased over the last year more than anywhere else in the United States [see here and here], housing advocacy groups¹ are pushing to pass rent stabilization in the city, despite indications from Providence Mayor Brett Smiley that he would likely veto such a bill.

Led by Direct Action for Rights and Equality [DARE] and with the help of the Rhode Island Center for Justice, model legislation has been sent to the Providence City Council.

In their petition to the City Council, advocates write:

“Providence has seen massive rental increases over the last few years. This year alone we posted a rent hike of 7.5%- the highest in the entire country. It’s created a situation where a huge portion of Providence residents cannot afford to continue living in the city, especially without roommates. To avoid being cost-burdened (paying over 30% of your income towards rent), tenants have to earn an annual salary of at least $80,000 in a city where the average renter is making closer to $40,000 a year. It is unsustainable. As it stands now, according to HousingWorksRI’s 2023 Factbook, 46% of all Providence residents are considered cost burdened and homelessness has increased by 72% percent since 2019 across Rhode Island.

“We believe it is time for a comprehensive Rent Stabilization ordinance for the City of Providence:

1. Annual Rental Increase Limit: Limiting rental increases to once per year at no more than a 4 percent increase is a crucial step to ensure tenants are not subjected to exorbitant and unpredictable rent hikes. This provision promotes stability for tenants, allowing them to plan their housing expenses.

2. Renewable, Year-Long Lease Guarantee: The guarantee of a renewable, year-long lease provides tenants with the security and stability needed to build and maintain their lives in our community. This provision recognizes the importance of stable housing for the overall well-being of individuals and families.

3. Creation of a Rent Board: Establishing a Rent Board to resolve disputes outside of the court system is pivotal. This board will serve as a fair and efficient mechanism for addressing rent conflicts between landlords and tenants, promoting a balanced resolution process.

4. Resources for No-Fault Evictions: Moving costs are an expense many cost-burdened families have trouble paying for. The creation of resources to assist tenants in the case of no-fault evictions will alleviate these costs; doing so demonstrates a commitment to supporting vulnerable individuals and families during challenging times.

“We believe Rent Stabilization will help bring about a more equitable rental housing market and improve the well-being of our communities. No one can survive or thrive without the basic need for stable, affordable housing. A city that refuses to acknowledge this will eventually push most of its residents into poverty-stricken conditions or out of the city completely. We demand the Providence City Council address the housing crisis with the vigor it deserves–and pass Rent Stabilization.”

Around three dozen people gathered near the carousel in Roger Williams Park Friday evening to pass out flyers and rally for rent stabilization. Kinverly Dicupe, an organizer with DARE, emceed the rally. Here’s the video:

Kinverly Dicupe [DARE Organizer]: We know the rents in Providence are high. The average is $2,000 right now, without utilities, and that's just way too much for what people make in the city. The minimum wage here is pretty low. It's like 12 bucks and people can't afford this.

Diana [DARE member]: The rents are too high. People working in Rhode Island can't afford to pay their rent. They're getting kicked out in the street. They're working people. They're on welfare, they're on the SSI. There are all kinds of people getting kicked out. We should freeze the rent and get people more income so they can get caught up with the rent. Give the people in Rhode Island more money.

You've got to put a freeze on the rents now. You have to make the rents lower. You have to stop them.

A landlord was taking down the signs we put up for this event. They're threatened by their rents going down, which is exactly what needs to happen. We need our signs to stay up. We need to put more signs up. We need to take and fight the landlords. We need to get our rents lowered and get the landlords to take and stop. We need them to leave the rents as they are.

Joe Benton [DARE member]: I'm not only on the DARE board, I'm a concerned citizen. First of all, I want to distinguish between low-income and affordable housing. There's a big problem trying to sort out this ambiguity. Mayor Smiley sold us a bill of goods down here in South Providence. He pulled the wool over our eyes. He bamboozled his community. That's right. His husband is into real estate, so they want to maintain the status quo - but we need to stabilize the rents.

There's a direct correlation between homelessness and rent. The rent is so high that it's pushing people and families into the street. People are living in encampments, and under bridges and the mayor vetoed a [bill to regulate 8-Law.]

I wonder if Mayor Smiley cares about the people in our community. When he became the mayor, everybody was excited about him and then he turned around and put a knife in our back. The governor wants to build housing, but I don't know what his motives are. They could be for higher rent. I watched my community dissolve into nothing. They moved all the minorities out and then they put another class of people. There's a small corner now near Broad St Elmwood Ave that's the only place you're going to see minorities. [Gentrifiers] seem to be encircling this community.

I don't know where we're going to draw the line, but rent has to be stabilized or lowered. We need more money because we need to eat and feed our families.

I'm very disappointed and I hope the mayor gets to see this because he did this community wrong. He only cares about a few people in this community. What about the rest of us who freeze and go to bed hungry at night? He did us a disservice man.

We're continuing to push this issue. We need and demand rent stabilization and we can't wait for it.

Kinverly Dicupe: Once we pass rent stabilization, rent control is going to keep the greed away that these landlords have become used to. Fuck the landlord class. They're destroying people's lives right now. They have made a lot of people homeless and they have a lot of people paying over 50% of their budget in rent. That has to stop.

A lot of people are working regular jobs - they're not making over a hundred thousand dollars. Once you pay your rent, a huge chunk of your money goes away.

Trent Manning [DARE member and owner of Down the Road Movers]: Once I pay my rent, I'm broke. That is probably the truest statement you're going to hear.

I am a business owner of a moving company. So I'm going on my third year and I have to say, in 2022 and 2023 I'm seeing a steady, rapid decline in homeowners and renters in general. Look around. In Providence, Rhode Island alone we've built three, maybe four storage units. I'm constantly moving people into storage units. No one is buying homes like the American Dream suggests. People are constantly downsizing - going from their three bedrooms to two bedrooms to one bedroom. They're moving into attics and basements. Everyone is scrambling to do what they can. We're looking at an average of $1600 for a one-bedroom. It's crazy.

I don't know what is going on with Mayor Smiley. I don't know what's going on with the politicians. He's greedy. He's beyond greedy. They are all homeowners and they are all profiting off of this. They are not at risk and they do not care. They're going to continue doing this unless we put pressure on them.

This is an insane moment in history. We had the pandemic, we had the bailout, but there is no more bailout, there is no more help. There is no justice. It's just us. .. People are moving back into their mother's house or they're moving out of state.

It's like watching a pilgrimage. It's like seeing the Stone Age all over again, - how as humans, we had to migrate from land to land. That's what it feels like. I'm watching a lot of people who were born here, raised here, grew this foundation that we call Rhode Island, worked here, built families, and made friends having to get up and go because they're being pushed out. This is beyond gentrification. We have industrial complexes completely taking over, profiting off of the property and the buildings being built, but no one's living in them. It doesn't make sense to me.

Kinverly Dicupe: There is a lot of profiting off housing here, and a lot of those lofts are empty. Nobody is living in them. They're luxury, but they're built with cheap materials. We've regularized the fact that we're using bad materials to build housing so it breaks down and then we charge people a lot of money for that housing.

There are a lot of people in Providence who don't know who their landlord is. It's very hard to hold people accountable when you don't know who your landlord is. That's why we support the rental registry.

When I got to Rhode Island in 2003, you could afford to rent an apartment, with three bedrooms, for $900 and everything was included. Why could we afford it back then but we can't now? Is the United States less rich than it was in 2003? That's not what they're saying because the rich had the best year of their lives last year.

Mayor Smiley needs to be held accountable.

Harper [DARE member]: I'm a Providence renter and a member of the Tenant and Homeowners Association [THA], which is a branch of DARE. I was feeling nervous about talking, so I made a list of [9] points that I wanted to say today.

1. Number one. The rent is too high. Providence had the highest increase in the country last year and the trend is continuing. It was up 16.5% last year and almost 50% since 2019. How did this happen? How are people paying 400, 600, a thousand dollars more in rent?

2. Renters in Providence are unprotected. There are currently no limits on how often and how much landlords can raise your rent. There's nothing to stop your landlord from increasing your rent at any point by any amount. There are no just cause eviction protections, which means that you can be evicted at any time for any reason. There isn't even a record of who is renting what or at what cost.

3. An unregulated, profit-driven market produces inhumane conditions. Is this a surprise in 2024? No one likes a broken record, but this is what profit over people looks like.

4. We need rent stabilization. The housing crisis is complex but at the same time, the situation is clear. This can't continue. We know how this movie ends. Renters deserve to know if they'll be able to afford to stay in their apartments from month to month and year to year. And they deserve to be treated as more than a disposable source of income. They deserve to be not living in a state of constant instability and anxiety.

5. The mayor doesn't want rent stabilization. Brett Smiley has promised to veto any rent control bill because he thinks they don't work. Cute of him, but he's not cute. We think they do work. Please come to the THA meetings to talk more about the research behind DARE's bill. But more broadly, this is a familiar pattern. It's that thing where a group says that the current system isn't working, that it's ruining and ending lives, and then uses precious energy and time to suggest something different. People in power say, “Tell us how it will be perfect. How will this solve the problem?” Bitch, grow up. Of course, it's hard. It's delicate. Of course, rent stabilization alone won't solve the housing crisis. And of course, it won't work if something toothless and underfunded is passed or if it's actively sabotaged. Ideally, it would be enough for somebody to say, “We can't afford shelter or food” and for that to matter more than a rate of return on an investment. But that's not our current reality.

6. The point is, is this working now? Is it working to have no limits on how often or how much rent can be raised? No. Does it work to have a 650% increase in homelessness since 2019? Who does it help to have private developers building luxury apartments that no one can afford while people are spending northeast winters in tents? In what world is it fair that some of the largest property holders in the city, Brown, RISD, and Lifespan, with their billions in resources, pay no property taxes? Only someone actively profiting from the exploding rents could say that this is good or that it's what we want.

7. We're here to build support for DARE's housing bill. The THA, a branch of DARE, with assistance from the Center for Justice, has spent the last five years researching, writing, and revising a housing bill that would control costs and offer tenants needed protections based on successful programs elsewhere in the country. The details are important. It calls for a 4% rent cap, meaning that your rent could only increase 4% per year if you pay a thousand dollars, that's $40 per year. Unlike other measures, like public development that would take years to be felt, a rent cap would offer immediate relief to people in danger of being forced from their houses. The bill offers other protections for renters, including an elected rental board to set rates and mediate disputes, and moving assistance in the case of no-fault evictions.

8. There is right now a window of opportunity to do something at the city level because there's a progressive city council this year. It's possible to pass a substantial housing bill.

9. There are things you can do to help make this happen. Sign up on the DARE list going around to learn about future actions like this or just come to meetings. 6 pm every Tuesday at DARE. There's free food and twice a month, free lawyers who can help with eviction or housing disputes. Don't like meetings? Talk to your city council member or write to them to say that you support rent stabilization. This is probably the most effective thing you can do because the mayor has promised to veto. We need a super-majority to pass, which is 10 votes. Without pressure on council members, it won't happen. Don't like local politics? Come to our next cookout event in May.

Kinverly Dicupe: Those are the main points of our ordinances. We want to make sure we limit rent increases right now. Your landlord could come by tomorrow and say, “Next month you have to pay an extra $300.”

We want to limit rent increases. We want everyone in Providence to have a lease. We want a rental board. The justice system is complicated. A lot of people are afraid to walk into the courthouse and a lot of the judges don't enforce the rules on the books. We have rules around condition issues, but if you've ever been to a courthouse - anyone who's trying to battle their landlord over roaches or whatever - the judge rarely rules in favor of the tenant, even though we have rules on the books that they're supposed to be enforcing.

For that reason, we want to get a rental board with a majority of tenants on it where people can solve disputes with their landlord through the rental board as opposed to going through the justice system.

We want to have funding for people who are evicted through no fault of their own. It costs a lot of money to move. I'm sure most of you have had the experience of moving and it's very expensive. You've got to pay by the hour so if you have a lot of stuff, you better have saved up a lot of money - and they're going to break some of your stuff too. Unless you hire Trent. They're gentle with your stuff.

Trent Manning: That's right. We do a sliding scale for how much it's going to cost you if you need to move.

Kinverly Dicupe: Hit up Trent if you have to move, it's going to cost you way less. They're going to take care of your stuff. Down the Road Movers.

Day Lee: I am a member of Ocean State Student Workers Alliance and I'm also a member of Food Not Bombs. I am from Providence. I live in Federal Hill, and I think that I speak for my neighbors and myself when I say that we know very deeply how impactful it is that the rents here are too damn expensive. I don't know anyone in my generation who has less than three roommates. I struggle with rent every single day. Yesterday they cut off my heat, while I was showering. They didn't even have the decency to let me know.

I can see the Superman building from my house. It's 468 feet tall. It is the tallest building in Providence. It is fully capable of housing many of the homeless people who live right across the street in Burnside Park. And yet it is completely vacant. It is vacant because they want to show us - not just that they do not care about us - but that they care enough to demonstrate to us how little they respect us. They are showing that they will keep the rents high and the wages low. They will raise the rents as they continue to stagnate our wages. Ultimately, this is the responsibility of so many landlords like Joseph Paolino; Joseph Shekarchi who shut down Enrique Sanchez's bills and put them into the Bill Cemetery; and Brett Smiley - fuck that guy - who continues to gentrify the city, disregards the needs of us, and continues to show us how little he cares about and respects us because that is the goal.

They do care about us. They are terrified of us. That is why they keep trying to shut down our bills, shut down our actions, and pay so much attention to dismissing us that we feel ultimately rejected... It is simply shameful. But I want to make a larger point, which is that we are still here. We're gathered out here, and I'm so proud of you guys for showing up because it ultimately shows us that they did not win. We won. We won for showing up here.

I've been all around Providence today. There are so many protests going on. There was one at RISD showing support for Palestine. There's the encampment of Brown. And there is the RIPTA campaign going on. I highly encourage you guys to support that. And there's been a lot of actions from Food Not Bombs. There are so many movements going on in Providence that I cannot keep track of them all. That shows how much we are willing to show up and how much we are willing to be here to stand up to these freaking landlords.

Kinverly Dicupe: A lot of these problems are connected through capitalism, a profit-making system. That's the reason housing is so expensive right now. People are making a lot of profit and for a lot of our politicians, the profit that those people are making is more important than housing people in Providence and across the state. They don't care if you have to go into the street because they're counting on Boston professionals moving down here and taking your home.

But we're not going to let it happen, at least not without a fight. We do know that Rent Stabilization has a great chance of being passed by the Providence City Council this year, and that is what we need. It's not going to cure the problem indefinitely. We need to build rent-controlled apartments where you only pay 30% of what you make in a month, sometimes known as public housing. I'm a big believer in public housing and taking housing out of the private market. Once the United States stopped building public housing, this is what we got - shitty housing for a lot of money. A lot of the housing in Providence is very old and it's very hard to get it updated because most landlords don't want to pay that money. They just want you to pay their mortgages.

1. Groups in support include Direct Action for Rights and Equality, Reclaim RI, Working Families Party, George Wiley Center, Rhode Island Democratic Socialists of America, Roots2Empower, Sunrise Providence, Groundwork RI, New Urban Arts, Sista Fire, Haus of Codec, Providence Organization of Workers and Renters, and the Childhood Lead Action Project.