Residents call for rent stabilization at Providence City Hall rally

"This rally is just the launch," said Providence City Councilmember Miguel Sanchez. "This is going to be a fight. So I would say get the boxing gloves ready, folks.”

Nearly 100 people rallied outside and inside Providence City Hall on Thursday evening to demand that the city institute an annual four percent cap on rent increases.

“I've heard about opposition and fear from landlords arguing that they should be able to raise the rent to whatever they want to cover, the cost of increased taxes or maintenance prices,” said Nina Harrison, Policy Director at the Economic Progress Institute (EPI), who spoke at the rally. “However, it does not seem that landlords are basing rental increases on these costs. [Under state law] the property tax in Rhode Island is capped at four percent per year. They can't increase it by more than four percent per year. I don't see why homeowners should be entitled to more financial protection and stability than vulnerable renters.

“Our homes and neighborhoods set the stages for our lives, and housing instability affects almost every facet of our lives, including health, educational outcomes, economic mobility - even your lifespan,” continued Harrison. “Rhode Islanders value family safety and fairness, but our policies and laws do not always reflect those values...

“Evictions are not only catastrophic for families, they're catastrophic for communities. They're usually seen to increase crime and disinvestment in communities. As Rhode Islanders continue to struggle, we've also seen a huge increase in homelessness...”

You can watch the entire rally here:

“The rents in this state are ridiculous. Nobody can afford this unless you're making a hundred K, and that's a problem,” said Direct Action for Rights and Equality (DARE)'s Kinverly Dicupe, acting as emcee, as the rent stabilization rally got underway. “People live in shitty housing. It's disgusting and they have to pay $2,000 for that. That's why we're here today to start pushing back against these greedy landlords finally. We don't need these people. These people don't build the housing. They just have the capital to buy it and it's time for them to go.”

“This is something that we're going to need the community - people power - behind,” said Providence City Councilmember Miguel Sanchez (Ward 6), the only elected official to speak at the event. “We know what the special interests - the housing lobbyists - bring to the table, but I'd rather have people power all day any day. This rally is just the launch. This is going to be a fight. So I would say get the boxing gloves ready, folks.”

“We call on Mayor Brett Smiley and the city of Providence to 'freeze rents, not people' until we have rent stabilization,” said Sucely Murillo, an organizer with POWR (Providence Organization of Workers and Renters). “We demand immediate help to [end] rent increases to prevent evictions of working-class families like mine. Rents must be frozen and lowered. High rents shouldn't evict people into homelessness.”

“This is going to be a hard fight," said Jai Chavez from the Independent Socialist Group. “We have massive lobbyists against us, and as I think has been said by several speakers, we should see rent stabilization as step one, a very important step one, to stop the bleeding that is these massive skyrocketing rents, but it's just that - it's step one.

“We need massive raises in the minimum wage. We need to revitalize old buildings that are being left decrepit and turn them into permanent affordable housing. Not affordable the way the Superman building means but actual, real affordable housing that regular people, regular workers, including those who don't have any income, can have. We need to be rehousing our unhoused brothers and sisters who are currently freezing on the streets as we speak, while the governor and our local city politicians do nothing to help them.

“We need to tax these so-called nonprofit universities -like Brown, like Johnson and Wales - that have been buying up massive amounts of housing stock in this city, and force them to use it to house people who need housing and use the taxes they aren't paying to help fund more housing.

“We also need straight up for housing to not be a commodity. It should not be something that people are profiting off of. It should be a right that people have, that people should have a right to live and exist and safety.”

“I want to talk about a massive issue that is plaguing our community - the lack of the fundamental right to stable and affordable housing,” said Jordan Garces, Secretary of the Rhode Island Democratic Socialists of America. “Rent stabilization is not just a buzzword. It is going to be the lifeline for our community. The unchecked rise of rent is suffocating the essence of what it means to have a home in this state. This is not just an economic issue, it's a matter of basic human dignity. People are facing the choice between having a roof over their heads or having food on the table and that is ridiculous...

“I want to be clear, the fault does not lie with any single person that has been kicked out of their home. The landlords will tell you, ‘You've got to work harder, go get a second job.’ ... I want people to envision a future where landlords are not a thing... They don't provide anything. All they're doing is just taking your hard-earned money and they're going to make you feel like you're the issue for not working hard enough. And what are they doing? Literally nothing.”

“Housing is incredibly important to me, mainly because growing up in this state, my family was always housing insecure,” said Kinverly Dicupe. “After the 2008 crash, it was a monthly struggle to decipher how we were going to pay rent for that month, mainly because jobs pay very little nowadays, especially if your parents are immigrants and they have a language barrier.

“We eventually had to move into public housing... and it saved us from homelessness, in part because public housing is essentially already rent-controlled and stabilized and they can't charge you more than 30% [of your income]. I'm eternally grateful for that because we were the kind of family who would've been on the street if not for that subsidy.

“Some folks talk about how nobody wants to live in public housing. That's news to me considering we have massive wait lines for public housing across the state. People wait five years to get into public housing.

“The truth is no one wants to live in a $2K month apartment that is falling apart and not up to code. That's truly what nobody wants. People have mushrooms growing out of their ceiling, lead in the paint, hazardous stairs, infestations - you name it. [There are] dangerous landlords, especially if you are a single mother. And of course, after dealing with all that, you have to shack up with randoms just to afford your rent.

“What kind of society are we building when most people make around $40,000, but you need to make 80,000 to rent an everyday apartment? Who is this for? Who are these policies for? Who are these luxury apartments that we keep building and granting tax breaks for? It's for deep-pocketed developers. We all know what it is - and many of them are not even from the state.

“Let it be known that this housing crisis is only going to be solved by us everyday people who struggle under the tutelage of those who have it all and yet hunger for more. These landlords and corporations blackmailed the public threatening to pull capital out of our state if we the people use democracy to solve the problems that we face. And to that, I say, "Good riddance, get the fuck out."

“I want you to think about who builds the homes they sell for $600,000. That's what they were selling a home in Pawtucket for. Who builds the apartments they rent for $2,000? The people who do the actual building are the carpenters, the builders, the people in the trades, and the people who struggle to survive themselves who at the age of 50 find their bodies sore and broken down by the labor they've supplied to our society. The workers build the homes and the speculators rake in the profits.

“In times past, folks would tell young folks, ‘If you don't want to pay rent, just buy a home. Your mortgage would be lower than the rent that you're paying.’ But with the home prices being what they are today, they're way out of range for the average wage earner. It's not even a possibility anymore in this state. To think you can own a home in this climate feels like you're in the movie. Parasite. A spoiler's coming if you haven't watched it. The son deludes himself into thinking that he could afford the home his dad resides in. The son is poor and will never land a job that can afford him a home - that's easily over a million dollars.

“It reminds me of a conversation I recently had with my father that caught me off guard. My dad has always dreamed of buying a home in this country, the way many people do, because it's the American dream. I had this conversation with him and he said, "I want to buy a house before I die and I need someone to believe in me. Just tell me that you believe in me. I need someone to say that."

“And it sucks because I want to believe - in my heart and in my soul I want to believe. But I know the numbers and I know that for a working family like ours, we'll probably never own a home. At least not in this state. But that's what life is like for most working people, right? That's why we're here today - to advocate, to fight together - so that our dreams will become one and climb the obstacles that individuals cannot.

“There's power in numbers and we know we're the majority. We have the numbers here. We need to exercise that power and our strength to begin to chip away at a housing crisis that has devastated a lot of people in the state and which has turned our state not into a shining city on the hill, but into a graveyard for the dreams of the people who live here.

“It's time for rent civilization and much more.”

After the speaking portion of the event ended, Andira Alves, an organizer with the Rhode Island Party for Socialism and Liberation led a march inside Providence City Hall.

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A bill before the General Assembly H7049 “would limit rent increases to no more than four percent annually and would provide tenants with a civil action to recover damages for any violations.” There does not seem to be an appetite at the General Assembly to pass such a bill, but the housing crisis is dire, and worsening.