Providence, Rhode Island, Mayor Brett Smiley beat back rent stabilization efforts early this year.
After Tuesday night’s Democratic primary, the city may now be on a renewed path toward rent stabilization.
Smiley lost the Democratic primary to state Rep. David Morales, who built his mayoral campaign around bringing rent stabilization to the capital city. Backed by U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, Morales echoed themes New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani used to win.
Odds are strong that Morales will become mayor in November. A Republican hasn’t won since 1982.
Morales has pledged to sign rent stabilization into law within his first 30 days as mayor. That timing tightened during the campaign from his original 100 days.
Like many cities around the country, Providence struggles with affordability and a need for more housing. The City Council passed rent stabilization this spring.
Smiley vetoed the ordinance, and the council couldn’t override the veto in May. It missed by a single vote.
Relying on a housing supply platform
Throughout his campaign, Smiley defended his decision amid a growing wave of rent-stabilization rhetoric. He maintained that adding more housing supply is the best answer to the city’s affordability problem and that controlling rents would lead to less new supply.
He and others opposed to rent stabilization point to where it has limited housing supply and where adding supply worked, notably Austin, Texas.
The failed override vote may no longer be dispositive. Two council members who voted against the ordinance lost re-election, while candidates who support rent stabilization won open seats.
One of those seats went to a former council member who had voted against the policy. But the larger shift favored Morales: A term-limited council member who opposed rent stabilization ran for Morales’ State House seat and lost 3-to-1 to a Morales-backed candidate.
If the new council again approves a 4% annual cap on rent increases, Providence would be the only city in Rhode Island with rent stabilization.
Coming into office with a new governor
Morales would become mayor on Jan. 1 if elected, several days before the new state legislative session begins, just blocks from Providence City Hall. Lawmakers pushed for another round of housing reform to boost statewide housing supply.
But it stalled when House Speaker Joe Shekarchi left the post to seek an open seat on the Rhode Island Supreme Court. He succeeded with five previous housing packages.
His replacement, state Rep. Christopher Blazejewski, stuck with the status quo as the political season heated up.
During this year’s legislative session, the housing package included legalizing single-room occupancy housing, encouraging commercial-to-residential conversions, and allowing faith-based organizations to develop affordable housing on their own land.
Other states have focused on spurring office-to-residential conversions and implementing so-called “yes in God’s backyard.”
The proposals sought to widen the inventory of lower-cost homes, including in communities where zoning and financing barriers have limited development.
There will be a new Rhode Island governor. Helena Foulkes easily beat incumbent Gov. Dan McKee in the Democratic primary.
Foulkes introduced a $1 billion housing plan in March to create 20,000 homes over eight years. It includes a millionaire tax to pay for it.