Providence City Council Committee Passes Rent Control Legislation

Providence City Council Committee Passes Rent Control Legislation

 

A Providence City Council Committee voted unanimously to pass the proposed rent control ordinance.

The legislation will go to the full City Council at its next meeting on April 2.

GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST

The proposal must be approved twice by a majority of the Council before being sent to the Mayor for signature.

Mayor Brett Smiley has repeatedly said he opposed the ordinance. He recently launched his own housing plan.

Smiley announced a new housing initiative and claimed that his previous housing programs have been successful in addressing rental costs.

When questioned about his initiative, Smiley’s spokesperson Josh Estrella wrote in an email to GoLocal, “the housing shortage is a national challenge decades in the making and Providence has only recently started building enough new housing to meet demand. The Smiley Administration is working aggressively to support the development of housing options at every price point, while also investing in and incentivizing permanent affordable housing options because evidence from other municipalities shows that this is the right approach.”

 

Providence Rents Continue to Climb

“Zillow predicts Hartford, Buffalo, New York City, Providence and San Jose will be the hottest housing markets of 2026. In these metros, Zillow expects few price cuts, fast-moving listings and strong price growth,” said the company.

A Zumper report found that, year over year, Providence rents continue to climb.

 

City Council Action

Providence City Council’s Special Committee on Health, Opportunity, Prosperity, and Education (HOPE) vote follows a public process that included community listening sessions across Providence, more than seven hours of public testimony before the full committee, and over 900 written comments submitted to the City Clerk. "Feedback from tenants, property owners, housing advocates, nonprofit developers, and policy experts directly informed a series of amendments that strengthened and clarified the proposal," said the City Council in its press release.

 The members of the HOPE committee are Juan M. Pichardo, Shelley Peterson, Miguel Sanchez, Justin Roias, and Sue AnderBois.

“We’ve taken the time to do this right,” said Pichardo (Ward 9). “We committed ourselves to an open, deliberate process, spending years listening to residents, engaging with stakeholders, and grounding our work in research. The result is a balanced ordinance we are proud to recommend to the full Council—one that brings stability to renters while ensuring property owners can continue to maintain and invest in their buildings. It responds with urgency that matches the scale of the housing crisis, and with deep care for everyone affected, both renters and small, local landlords.”

Prior to the vote, the committee heard a virtual presentation from Tram Hoang, the Senior Housing Associate at PolicyLink. Hoang, a national expert on rent stabilization and tenant protections, gave her testimony as part of the sponsors’ continued effort to ground the ordinance in research and best practices.

The City Council claims that the "amended ordinance limits excessive rent increases, bringing predictability and stability to renters while maintaining clear pathways for property owners to address legitimate operating costs and invest in their buildings. Council sponsors emphasized that the ordinance is part of a broader housing strategy that includes increasing housing supply, protecting existing housing stock, and stabilizing rent costs for Providence residents. Changes made during the committee process include strengthened Rent Board procedures, clearer standards for substantial rehabilitation, and updates to the treatment of new construction."

 

Opposition

Realtors, developers, and landlords strongly oppose the legislation. The business group, Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council (RIPEC), was hired by the Providence Foundation to analyze the issue, and its report found that when studying other cities, rent control legislation caused a chilling effect on the construction of new housing units.

The report found:

    •    Rent Control does not lower rents. It offers no immediate relief for those already struggling with high monthly payments and can incentivize landlords to raise rents to the absolute legal maximum every year.
    •    Rent Control’s benefits are untargeted, tying the largest subsidies to the most expensive housing. In a 3% rent cap scenario, a tenant paying rent of $3,000 per month would realize three times the annual savings ($1,584) of a tenant paying $1,000 per month ($528).
    •    Price caps swiftly chill housing production. St. Paul, Minnesota, saw multifamily permits plummet 86.2% in a single quarter following its 2021 ordinance.
 

It should be noted that the board of the Providence Foundation is comprised mostly of those in the housing industry. Neither the Providence Foundation nor RIPEC would disclose the cost of the report.