Rent control doomed this mayor’s re-election campaign. He has no regrets

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Brett Smiley was elected mayor of Providence in 2022 on a pledge to build more housing and get things done in Rhode Island’s capital city.

Smiley worked closely with city and state leaders to relax restrictive zoning laws and cut red tape to make it easier to build. This textbook Yes in My Backyard (YIMBY) strategy was fueling a development boom in the city. Providence added more apartments in its latest fiscal year than in any year in two decades, 40% of them affordable.

But there was one policy that Smiley wouldn’t get behind: rent control.

Locked in a tight re-election campaign against a democratic socialist, Smiley vetoed a rent control bill passed by the Providence City Council in April. His position put him on the wrong side of a bedrock progressive policy in one of the most liberal places in America.

“I believe it is a false promise,” he said in a phone interview earlier this month. “But it’s good, cheap, easy politics.”

Smiley lost the election. It wasn’t close.

He became the first mayor in Providence’s history to lose in a primary , falling in September to David Morales, a 27-year-old state lawmaker and member of the Democratic Socialists of America. Morales, who called the veto “absolutely shameful,” is a near lock to win the general election next month. Morales pledged to sign rent control in his first 100 days.

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Struggling renters across America are angry over soaring housing costs and tired of waiting. Many are desperate for quick help in the form of rent control offered by a rising generation of leaders like Morales and Zohran Mamdani of New York City — not Smiley’s hard, laborious approach of adding new supply that takes years to make a difference.

Rent control remains potent politically in big cities like New York and Los Angeles and smaller ones such as Portland, Maine, and St. Paul, Minnesota, even as the policy has a checkered history. Rent controls have been shown to limit rents for people who live in regulated apartments , but raise them for people who don’t and push down new housing construction.

Smiley, previously the chief of staff to former Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo, took a hard line against rent control. He refused to negotiate with the City Council over the issue.

Providence would have become the only city in Rhode Island with rent control, and Smiley thought many developers would choose instead to build in other communities without these restrictions. The bill would make it harder to build the housing that Providence desperately needed, he said.

Rhode Island has lagged far behind other states in building housing since its peak in the 1980s. From 2008 to 2015, builders received fewer than 1,000 permits a year in the state.

Providence’s rental market has come under stress from college students and higher earners from Boston, Connecticut and New York moving into the city, said Brenda Clement, the executive director of HousingWorks RI, a research and policy organization at Roger Williams University. Providence also has one of the oldest housing stocks in the country. Many apartments have become unlivable, further cutting into supply.

Providence was ranked last year as the least affordable metro for renters. Median rents have increased 40% since 2020.

The City Council hoped that capping annual rent hikes at 4% would bring some relief to renters, with carveouts for many landlords. Landlords who live in one of their properties would be partly exempt from the caps on rent increases, and new apartments would be exempt for up to 20 years. Existing apartments also would not be subject to the rent limits until five years after they were built.

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“I’ve been unapologetically supportive of capping rent hikes at 4% a year because I believe our neighbors deserve that basic stability,” Morales said in an interview. Providence residents “want to make sure that they have a mayor who’s looking out for their interests, not those of corporate donors.”

The exemptions included in the bill will help ensure that developers have incentives to keep building in the city, Morales said.

Portland and St. Paul were seen as models for Providence’s version of rent control. In 2020, Portland voters approved caps on annual rent hikes tied to inflation. New home construction has continued to grow in Portland after the caps went into effect, but Portland’s mayor has expressed concerns that rent control has made it harder for landlords to maintain existing apartments.

St. Paul told a different story. In 2022, St. Paul capped annual rent increases at 3% for most apartments. New construction plunged and rents increased. St. Paul is now walking back some of its law.

Smiley and his team studied rent control policies in these cities and talked to leaders. He came away convinced that rent control “perversely would exacerbate our affordability challenges” in Providence.

Smiley isn’t sure what work he will do after leaves office. But he won’t be endorsing Morales.

“I personally don’t believe that that we should be welcoming the DSA into the Democratic Party with open arms,” Smiley said. “I’m very worried that this is a little bit like the Tea Party on the right years ago.”

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布雷特·斯迈利于 2022 年当选普罗维登斯市市长，他承诺在罗德岛州首府建造更多住房并完成各项事务。

斯迈利与市、州领导人密切合作，放宽了限制性的分区法规，简化了审批流程，使建筑开发更加便捷。这种教科书式的“邻里友好”（YIMBY）策略推动了该市的开发热潮。普罗维登斯市在最近一个财政年度新增公寓数量超过了过去二十年来的任何一年，其中40%为经济适用房。

但有一项政策是斯迈利坚决反对的：租金管制。

在与一位民主社会主义者的激烈竞选中，斯迈利否决了普罗维登斯市议会四月份通过的一项租金管制法案。他的立场使他在美国最自由的地区之一，与一项根深蒂固的进步政策背道而驰。

“我认为这是个虚假的承诺，”他本月初在一次电话采访中说。“但这却是简单、廉价、容易得手的政治手段。”

斯迈利输掉了选举，而且输得很惨。

他成为普罗维登斯历史上首位在初选中落败的市长，9月份败给了27岁的州议员、美国民主社会主义者成员戴维·莫拉莱斯。莫拉莱斯称市长的否决“绝对可耻”，他几乎肯定会在下个月的大选中获胜。莫拉莱斯承诺在上任后的100天内签署租金管制法案。

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全美各地苦苦挣扎的租房者对飙升的房价感到愤怒，也厌倦了等待。许多人迫切需要像莫拉莱斯和纽约市的佐兰·马姆达尼这样的新一代领导人提出的租金管制方案，而不是斯迈利那种需要数年才能见效的、增加住房供应的艰难而费力的做法。

尽管租金管制政策的历史褒贬不一，但在纽约、洛杉矶等大城市以及缅因州波特兰、明尼苏达州圣保罗等小城市，租金管​​制仍然具有强大的政治影响力。研究表明，租金管制可以限制居住在受管制公寓中的居民的租金，但会推高未受管制公寓居民的租金，并抑制新建住房的建设。

斯迈利曾任罗德岛州前州长吉娜·雷蒙多的幕僚长，他对租金管制持强硬立场。他拒绝就此问题与市议会进行谈判。

普罗维登斯本将成为罗德岛州唯一一个实行租金管制的城市，斯迈利认为许多开发商会选择在其他没有这些限制的社区进行建设。他说，这项法案会使普罗维登斯急需的住房建设更加困难。

自上世纪80年代达到顶峰以来，罗德岛州的住房建设一直远远落后于其他州。从2008年到2015年，该州每年发放的建筑许可证不足1000份。

罗杰·威廉姆斯大学下属研究与政策机构HousingWorks RI的执行主任布伦达·克莱门特表示，普罗维登斯的租赁市场正面临压力，因为来自波士顿、康涅狄格州和纽约的大学生和高收入人群纷纷涌入该市。普罗维登斯还拥有全美最老旧的住房存量之一。许多公寓已不再适宜居住，进一步减少了住房供应。

普罗维登斯去年被评为租房最难负担的大都市区。自2020年以来，租金中位数上涨了40%。

市议会希望将年度租金涨幅上限设定为4%，以此减轻租房者的压力，同时为许多房东提供例外情况。居住在自己房产中的房东将部分不受租金涨幅上限的限制，新建公寓的租金涨幅上限可豁免长达20年。现有公寓在建成五年后也不受租金限制。

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莫拉莱斯在一次采访中表示：“我一直毫不妥协地支持将租金涨幅限制在每年4%，因为我相信我们的邻居应该享有这种基本的稳定性。”普罗维登斯居民“希望确保他们的市长是真正为他们着想，而不是为企业捐助者着想。”

莫拉莱斯表示，法案中包含的豁免条款将有助于确保开发商有动力继续在该市进行建设。

波特兰和圣保罗被视为普罗维登斯租金管制模式的典范。2020年，波特兰选民投票通过了与通货膨胀挂钩的年度租金涨幅上限。租金上限生效后，波特兰的新房建设持续增长，但波特兰市长表示担忧，认为租金管制使房东更难维护现有公寓。

圣保罗的情况则截然不同。2022年，圣保罗市将大多数公寓的年租金涨幅限制在3%。新房建设大幅减少，租金上涨。如今，圣保罗市正在撤回部分相关法律。

斯迈利和他的团队研究了这些城市的租金管制政策，并与当地领导人进行了交流。他最终确信，租金管制“反而会加剧普罗维登斯的住房负担能力挑战”。

斯迈利不确定卸任后会从事什么工作。但他不会支持莫拉莱斯。

“我个人认为我们不应该张开双臂欢迎民主社会主义者协会（DSA）加入民主党，”斯迈利说。“我很担心这有点像多年前的右翼茶党运动。”