Providence, RI — Tonight, a majority of the City Council formally introduced the highly anticipated rent stabilization ordinance. This proposal was announced at an event on Tuesday, January 20th, with Council President Rachel Miller (Ward 13) and President Pro Tempore Juan M. Pichardo (Ward 9), other sponsoring councilors, landlords, renters, and housing advocates. Together, they emphasized the urgent need for this policy proposal. The ordinance was referred to the Special Committee on Health, Opportunity, Prosperity, and Education (HOPE), where there will be a robust public process including considerable opportunity for public input.

Just days after Brown University students returned to campus for the first time since December’s tragic shooting, councilors unanimously approved a resolution recognizing the countless first responders and community members who supported distressed students and neighbors during and after the attack. The heroic, generous efforts of the Providence Police Department, Brown University Department of Public Safety, RIPTA bus drivers, Brown staff, mutual aid networks, and others helped our community navigate this unprecedented tragedy with care and grace.

In addition, councilors unanimously approved a resolution supporting General Assembly legislation to raise the maximum reimbursement from PILOT aid from 27% to 30%, bringing much-needed revenue to the City following last year’s court settlement on school funding. The resolution was introduced by Councilman John Goncalves (Ward 1).

Councilman Goncalves also introduced a resolution urging passage of the 2026 Save RIPTA Legislative package in response to a $10 million budget deficit that affected 45 of the system’s 63 routes and reduced overall service by 15%. If enacted, the package would support the long-term health of the bus system and those who depend on it by providing reliable funding avenues and addressing capital improvement issues. The resolution was referred to the Committee on State Legislative Affairs.

The Council approved a resolution from Councilwoman Jo-Ann Ryan (Ward 5) establishing the Special Commission on the History of the Providence City Council. The commission will be tasked with the preservation of the Council’s institutional, legislative, and structural history, and with assembling and organizing records of the Council’s past actions, development, operation and governance practices to ensure their accessibility to the public and to current and future City leaders.

Rent Stabilization 

Providence has the fastest rent growth in the country, even while the national median rent decreased. The median rent in Providence is 40% higher today than it was in 2020. Rising costs have forced working families out of the city and have directly contributed to rising rates of homelessness. Since March 2020, Providence has experienced more than 24,000 evictions. Between 2023 and 2024, Rhode Island experienced a 35% rise in homelessness, the second-highest increase in the country.

Sponsoring councilors developed the ordinance in order to create stability and predictability for Providence renters while supporting a healthy housing market. It allows owners of covered properties to raise rents up to 4% annually, includes exceptions for major tax increases and substantial capital improvements, provides for exemptions for a variety of properties including new construction and small owner-occupied buildings, and establishes a Rent Board to enforce tenant protections, grant exemptions to property owners, and resolve disputes. The ordinance is a balanced, Providence-specific approach—one that stabilizes housing for Providence families while ensuring property owners achieve a fair rate of return.

“Providence renters are cost-burdened—we are the least affordable city for renters in the country. We have to act now to create some stability for Providence families,” said Council President Miller. “This ordinance takes immediate action to give residents the breathing room they need. It stabilizes costs, slows a runaway rent pricing problem that will not regulate itself, and prevents our residents from being forced out of our city, all without slowing growth.”

Notable features of the Providence Rent Stabilization Ordinance include:

• Caps annual rent increases at 4%. A landlord cannot raise the rent by more than 4%, absent a special circumstance, in any 12-month period.
• Sets base rent as the rent charged 180 days before the ordinance takes effect, preventing last-minute price spikes before the law goes into force.
• Establishes a Rent Board to administer and enforce the rules. This five-member board and their staff will review landlord petitions for larger increases, hear tenant complaints, and ensure the ordinance is followed fairly.
• Tenants can report suspected violations and are protected from any landlord retaliation for exercising their rights. The Rent Board can roll back unlawful rent hikes, order landlords to refund overcharged rent, and the City can levy fines for serious violations.
• Exemptions for small, owner-occupied buildings with one to three units, such as duplexes and triple-deckers where the owner lives on-site. A narrow exemption for one additional small property owned by the same individual (not a corporation).
• A 15-year exemption for new construction, including currently existing buildings, to ensure that rent stabilization does not interfere with housing production or financing.
• Built-in flexibility for landlords to address major expenses. Owners can seek approval for a higher rent increase if they make significant capital improvements or have other special circumstances where a larger increase is necessary to ensure they can earn a fair return.
• Automatic flexibility for large property tax increases, allowing landlords to pass on a fair portion of unusually high tax hikes above a 5% threshold using a clear formula.
• Rent can only be increased one time by 4% when a tenant moves out and a new tenant moves in, maintaining stability through vacancies.
• Complaint-based enforcement, allowing tenants to report violations without creating a large new bureaucracy or annual reporting burden on property owners.
• Utility charges must reflect actual costs, ensuring that landlords may only pass through the real price of utilities and not mark them up.
• Properties must be up to code to qualify for annual rent increases, meaning landlords must maintain safe, habitable buildings in order to apply the standard 4% increase.

Since the start of the term in 2023, the City Council has invested $55 million in the City’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund, overhauled the City’s zoning policy to increase density citywide, and incentivized private development through tax stabilization agreements. These policies have brought hundreds of housing units to the City—in both deeply affordable income restricted developments and market rate new construction. The Council has also increased annual budget allocations to the City’s home repair program that provides forgivable no cost loans to residents to maintain their properties and made a one-time $3 million allocation to the program with American Rescue Plan dollars.

Last year, the Council’s Housing Crisis Task Force concluded a two-year investigation into the issues residents—including those at risk of homelessness—face in finding and keeping stable housing with the release of an extensive report, which included rent stabilization among its recommendations.

For answers to commonly asked questions, the councilors sponsoring the ordinance have put together an FAQ, which will be updated on the City Council’s website at council.providenceri.gov/housinghub/rentstabilizationfaq/. You can also read Council President Miller’s opinion piece in The Boston Globe from January 20th on how rent stabilization could help solve Providence’s housing crisis.