Tonight, the Providence City Council Housing Crisis Task Force (HCTF) approved a report making recommendations for legislative action to address our city’s housing crisis. In the report, the Task Force, chaired by Councilwoman Mary Kay Harris (Ward 11), presents a legislative blueprint for urgently needed housing reforms and recommends a number of specific policy goals to the city council, including rent stabilization, inclusionary zoning, taxing vacant properties, creation of a municipal public developer for social housing, and expansion of the city’s emergency shelter capacity.

The HCTF 2025 Report represents the culmination of more than two years of work, which began in March 2023 when the Providence City Council created the Task Force to seek new and creative solutions to the city’s housing challenges.

“This report lays out a bold vision for housing in our city, which is exactly what this moment demands,” said Chairwoman Mary Kay Harris. “I could not be prouder of my colleagues on the Task Force and our incredible staff who have spent countless hours listening to residents, researching solutions, and determining the best ways for this council to address the overlapping crises of homelessness and housing affordability that we all see and feel each day. The time to act is right now.”

The numbers speak for themselves. In January of this year, a Redfin report named Providence the single least affordable city for renters, who make up more than 60% of city residents. In 2024 and 2025, Providence ranked first and second for highest average rent increase in the nation, according to rent.com. Along with a 35% increase in homelessness between 2023 and 2024, more than 24,000 evictions since 2020, and Rhode Island’s position as 50^th for new housing permits, the need for urgent and decisive action could not be clearer.

The specific recommendations made in the report fall into four major categories, reflecting the overlapping problem areas confronting the city:

• Expanding Housing Supply
• Rental Market Regulation
• Strengthening Tenant Protections
• Homelessness and Emergency Shelter

In each section, the report explores the underlying causes of the most acute challenges and presents thoroughly researched policy proposals to address them both immediately and over the long term.

The proposals laid out in the HCTF report represent a natural next step following this council’s efforts over the past two years to provide relief to the city’s overburdened housing market. During this time, under the leadership of City Council President Rachel Miller, the council has waged a relentless campaign against the out-of-state corporate interests who have profited from the outrageously high cost of housing in Providence at the expense of working families. In May of this year, for example, the city council made Providence just the sixth city in the country to ban the use of predatory, price-fixing rental algorithms, and set a limit on the bulk purchase of properties through online tax sales, a favorite tactic of large, out-of-state private equity firms. The recommendations made in the HCTF report will build upon this progress to ensure Providence remains a place where its residents can afford to live and thrive.

The report will be received by the full council at this Thursday’s regular council meeting.

Read the full report HERE.