Even before the pandemic cost families their lives and livelihoods, even before inflation began wreaking havoc on Rhode Islanders’ bank accounts, and even before Providence became one of the cities with the highest rent increases in the country, Rhode Islanders still had too few homes available to buy or rent.
We often use numbers to quantify Rhode Island’s housing crisis. We know that homelessness grew in our state by nearly 50 percent from 2020 to 2022, and that over 150,000 households — more than one third of the households in the state — are putting too much of their income toward housing. But as lawmakers who are well-practiced in defining the problem, we must also be able to articulate a clear vision of the future we want, the people and policies getting in our way, and how we move forward together.
Luckily, this one is clear. We agree that families deserve a roof over their head and a safe place to live. We believe that everyone should have a home to call their own regardless of how much money we have. Housing is a human right. And we need to work toward a future where it’s treated as such for the people of Rhode Island.
Together Rhode Islanders can curb displacement and foreclosures, reduce evictions and homelessness, and rein in corporate landlords. We can build a future of housing stability for renters, low-income homeowners, and manufactured housing residents across the state — and that starts by closing the gap in housing available to working families.
There are four bills on the docket this session that would help close the gap. Three of them would bring families immediate relief, if we choose to implement them: legalizing accessory dwelling units — a fast and affordable way to get more people in homes and to keep families together; increasing the number of days’ notice a landlord is required to give a tenant when they are raising their rent; and guaranteeing everyone a right to legal counsel in eviction proceedings.
And if we aim to fully exit our current disaster, we will be required to think outside of the box. That’s where the final bill comes into play, a piece of legislation that makes us, the public, the developer.
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In our current housing system, Rhode Islanders whose incomes fall below a certain line live separately from those who make more. We know this kind of sorting and separating of neighbors by a different name: segregation.
What makes this bill work is that in a social housing system, all people — high earners, middle class, and working families — can choose to be neighbors in the same building. Market-rate rents subsidize affordable units, replacing a predatory system based on profit with a system based on everyday people coming together to create vibrant, diverse and affordable communities.
It’s a housing model that makes the public a profit, and it gives us, not the developers or Washington, D.C., the authority. If the state, acting as a developer, built or bought an apartment building, instead of those rents going to a corporate investor, they could fund more homes for all kinds of people. Instead of hoping Congress will support a big new grant every few decades, we’d be setting up a stream of income by collecting high-income households’ rent checks every month.
We are clear-eyed on what it will take to win the fight against system-wide challenges that have created this crisis. We know that, like in years past, we can come together and pass major reforms to meet the housing needs of Rhode Islanders who need help now. We know that we must do this work year after year, until we lift ourselves out of this crisis and move toward something resembling a fair society.
This year, that work has taken the shape of the above four bills, all of which the General Assembly has the power to pass this session. We urge our colleagues to join us in supporting them and making the lives of Rhode Island’s working families less stressful.
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Cherie Cruz is a State Representative from District 58 in Pawtucket. Jennifer Stewart is a State Representative from District 59 in Pawtucket. June Speakman is a State Representative from District 68 in Warren and Bristol.