The Boston Globe34%
Providence mayor slams City Council for stalling $3K rent relief 48%
By Steph Machado0%
7/16/2026, 9:55:00 AM
BS Summary: This article contains 28 faulty reasoning types, including Availability Heuristic, Negativity Bias, and Slippery Slope, with Appeal to Emotion as the most egregious example at 14.1% saturation with 126 hits. Analysis detected 1,334 faulty-reasoning hits from 892 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 49% and a BS Rank of 48% (8,667 of 16,550 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 52.40% of the article peer group.
PROVIDENCE — With election season in full swing, Mayor Brett Smiley took aim at City Council leaders on Wednesday, accusing them of failing to approve an emergency rent relief fund that could provide up to $3,000 for people at risk of eviction.
“This act by the council can’t be viewed as anything other than a baseless political ploy aimed at obstructing progress during an election year,” Smiley said in a press conference.
“Our neighbors are the ones that have to pay the price for it.”
But council leaders said they have concerns about the program being too beneficial to landlords, and need more time to consider it.
Council President Rachel Miller said she wants to tackle the issue this fall.
“I don’t play politics with people’s lives, which is what I’m being accused of, and I really take offense to that,” Miller said.
The dispute is just the latest war-of-words between the mayor, a moderate Democrat, and progressive council leaders who have endorsed Smiley’s left-wing challenger, state Representative David Morales, in the Sept. 9 primary.
Smiley is seeking a second term after first being elected in 2022.
And it comes after Smiley recently vetoed Miller’s signature priority to regulate rent increases in the city.
She fell one vote short of enough to override the veto.
“It’s really hard for me to view this as anything other than politics,” Smiley said.
Early voting in the mayoral race starts in five weeks.
The $1 million for the fund was already approved by the City Council in the budget that took effect July 1, but the standalone ordinance creating the program never made it out of committee.
Since the funding is approved, Smiley said his administration technically doesn’t need the ordinance to pass, but does need council approval to execute a contract with Community Action Partnership of Providence, which would be administering the funds.
Almost every city council member had signed on to co-sponsor the ordinance, including Miller, and she previously said she supported it as part of a larger housing strategy that included the failed rent stabilization proposal.
“My administration is ready to launch this program immediately,” Smiley said.
“Our community partner is ready to go immediately.
All we need the city council to do is to do the job that they were elected to do.”
Miller said she was not aware of the plan to start the program July 1, and she had not spoken to the mayor about it until last week.
“My concern is that it does not actually do much to protect renter stability long term,” Miller said.
Depending on when a tenant’s lease is up, a landlord could raise the rent right after they receive the funds, she said, blunting the impact of the relief.
“There’s just no protections at all for what happens after that payment gets made,” Miller said.
Councilman Miguel Sanchez, chair of the Ways and Means Committee where the proposal is stuck, called it a “landlord giveaway.”
“A landlord could take a $3,000 check from the city on Friday and raise the rent or evict the tenant on Monday,” Sanchez said in a statement.
The relief program is aimed at helping lower-income families who are at risk of losing their housing or getting their utilities shut off because of a financial hardship, such as a job loss or medical emergency.
After someone applies for the relief, the rental fund would send up to $3,000 to the landlord or utility company to prevent the eviction or utility shutoff, according to the ordinance.
Community Action Partnership of Providence, the vendor, said it has “extensive experience” administering rent relief and housing stability programs, and would be able to serve 266 to 300 families a year with the funding provided, according to the nonprofit’s bid for the contract.
The social service provider said it would also follow up to help families with housing stability after they receive the money, including by helping them sign up for public assistance, providing financial coaching, and helping find new housing if staying in their current home is not financially sustainable.
Smiley proposed the program in March, and it was introduced by Councilman John Goncalves before being referred to the Ways and Means Committee, the same panel that approved the funding in the budget.
“If they had an issue with the ordinance, they’ve had multiple opportunities to fix this,” Smiley said.
“This has been in their hands for months.”
In a letter to Smiley on Tuesday night, Miller said it was the mayor’s choice to go out to bid for a vendor before the council had fully considered the legislation, and she wouldn’t pass it before the concerns were addressed.
“The appropriation remains intact for the entirety of this fiscal year, and your administration’s preferred launch schedule does not create an obligation to approve an ordinance before significant policy concerns have been resolved,” Miller wrote.
The council is going on summer recess after Thursday’s meeting, and is not scheduled to return until September.
“Every day of delay increases risks that families will face eviction, displacement, and even homelessness,” Smiley said.
“How many people are going to get evicted between then and now, when we have the money sitting in the bank, ready to go?”
Steph Machado can be reached at steph.machado@globe.com.
Follow her @StephMachado.
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