After voting against rent control, a Providence councilman’s political future is at stake

PROVIDENCE — On the night of April 2, John Goncalves was on the City Council floor, explaining why he was about to cast his vote against rent control.

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Goncalves’ decision, which he hadn’t yet publicly disclosed, was pivotal. Leading up to the vote, nine of 15 councilors had committed to voting for the rent stabilization ordinance, and five were against. Supporters needed 10 votes, enough to override the mayor, who had pledged to veto it.

The pressure was on. Progressive group Reclaim Rhode Island had promised Goncalves he would get a primary challenger if he voted against the proposal, which would have capped annual rent increases in the city to 4 percent. As Goncalves explained his concerns, members of the public in the gallery behind him shouted, “Sell-out!”

Weeks later, after the ordinance officially died, one of the policy staffers who wrote it quit his job and launched a campaign for Goncalves’ seat representing Ward 1.

“That is democracy,” Goncalves, 35, said of the primary challenge. But he criticized “the smear campaign and the tactics that some people used in order to coerce a thoughtful policymaker.”

“I don’t think that’s appropriate,” Goncalves said in an interview.

The former policy staffer, 32-year-old Miguel Martínez Youngs, is betting on support from frustrated renters in his bid to unseat the two-term incumbent in the Sept. 9 Democratic primary. But Goncalves, a former teacher at the Wheeler School, says voters he speaks with on the campaign trail are more concerned about getting a new stop sign installed, having their trash picked up, and seeing the new playground built.

The two candidates are both renters and live about five blocks apart in Fox Point, the neighborhood at the heart of the ward that also includes parts of Wayland Square, College Hill, and downtown. Its residents range from Cape Verdean and Portuguese immigrants and their descendants who have lived here for generations, to Brown University students and young professionals.

“Rent is still very high and is going up,” Youngs said in an interview. “I don’t believe we have four more years to wait for actual change to come.”

Whether Providence should regulate rising rent prices has become one of the top political issues of the election season, though it’s yet to be seen how it will translate at the ballot box. Incumbent Mayor Brett Smiley faces a primary challenge from state Representative David Morales, who has made rent control his biggest platform.

The Ward 1 race could be seen as a proxy for the mayoral race. Youngs is endorsed by the same progressive groups supporting Morales, including Reclaim Rhode Island and the Working Families Party, both of which are pushing for rent stabilization laws. Goncalves has not endorsed a mayoral candidate but is supported by Smiley, who lives in the ward. (Morales has not endorsed a candidate in the council race.)

Youngs faces an uphill battle in a neighborhood where Goncalves grew up and has lived for most of his life. On a recent stroll around the neighborhood, cars stopped in the road to say hello to Goncalves, and nearly every person who passed, from the elementary school principal to the guy driving the summer camp bus, waved or stopped to shake the councilman’s hand.

While the Working Families Party has called him “out-of-touch,” Goncalves argues he’s anything but. They “demonize me, and for what?” Goncalves asked. “Being a working class teacher, or renter?”

He said he spends 12 hours a day responding to constituents. “I can walk anywhere in my neighborhood and the people are going to know me,” he said.

It was true on Trenton Street, where Jack DeBarros called down to Goncalves from his second-story porch. Downstairs, his sister Candida Pereiros, a 69-year-old retired Cape Verdean immigrant, said she’s voting for Goncalves.

“I’ve known him since he was a little kid,” Pereira said.

But Youngs says he’s making inroads. Many voters haven’t heard of him, so he spends his days introducing himself. On a recent Monday afternoon, Andrea Grant answered the door on Sheldon Street, and was surprised to learn from Youngs that her councilman had voted against rent control.

“That’s a real bummer,” she replied. “Clearly I’m not as informed as I thought.”

Afterwards, Grant told the Globe her rent on a one-bedroom apartment has gone up from $1,400 to $1,850 since 2021, including a 9 percent increase this year alone.

The cost of rent is her “number one issue” when deciding how to vote, she said.

Youngs, who is originally from Warwick and is the son of Rhode Island Latino Arts founder Marta Martínez and longtime prosecutor Patrick Youngs, criticized Goncalves for running for Congress shortly after winning re-election to his second term, and said Goncalves’ responsiveness to constituents is not enough.

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“One of the easiest things to do is respond to individual issues, like ‘Oh, there’s a pothole,’” Youngs said. “He’s been able to do that. But that’s a job requirement.”

Goncalves says he voted against the rent control policy because it was poorly written and rushed through the council, getting only about two months of consideration before the first vote. He was particularly concerned about an analysis from the city’s chief financial officer, Larry Mancini, that Providence could lose millions in property tax revenue as a result, potentially shifting the tax burden to homeowners.

He said he asked for an exemption for the state’s former I-195 land — which is being developed into buildings that will have hundreds of apartments — but was brushed off.

He points to other ways he has worked to stabilize rents, including an ordinance banning landlords from using price-fixing algorithms to set the rent, and an emergency rent relief fund that Smiley and the council are currently arguing over. He said he’s supported development to build more housing, and zoning changes to increase density.

He questions why he was the primary target of the “pressure tactic campaign,” when five other councilors voted against the ordinance, too.

“There were six of us the entire time,” Goncalves said.

But progressive groups are primarily targeting Goncalves, not the others who voted against the ordinance. Dan Denvir, co-chair of Reclaim Rhode Island, said it was partly a matter of resources — they are also working heavily to get Morales elected as mayor — and because they think Ward 1 is winnable.

“Ward 1 is packed with young renters who are suffering from the nonstop rent increases of the city’s housing crisis,” Denvir said. “We hoped that Councilman Goncalves would side with his constituents, but unfortunately he decided to instead take the position advocated by the real estate industry.”

He accused Goncalves of being “deceptive the entire process, misleading that he was undecided when he clearly made up his mind.”

Pedro Espinal, a real estate investor who represents Ward 10 in South Providence, has also drawn a pro-rent control challenger, thought she isn’t backed by the same progressive groups as Youngs.

Aubrey Planitz, who works in philanthropy for Dana Farber Cancer Institute, said Espinal’s vote against rent stabilization prompted her to run.

“It’s very hard to live a stress-free life when you can’t afford the roof over your head,” Planitz said.

Espinal did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment on Planitz’ challenge, but has previously argued that rent control would force landlords to raise rents by the full limit every year.

Rent control is also a key issue in campaigns for several open council seats.

“The whole issue of affordability has become a big issue in local elections,” said Darrell West, a senior policy fellow at the Brookings Institution, and former political science professor at Brown. “We’ve seen progressive candidates latch on to rent control as a way to deal with affordability.”

But whether it will translate into votes at the local level “depends on how someone feels about the incumbent, how good a job that individual has done in staying in touch with the local community,” West said.

Jessica Navas, a 56-year-old homeowner on Sheldon Street, supports Goncalves. But when Youngs knocked on her door, she was surprised to learn that Goncalves had voted against rent stabilization.

“John was the vote that killed it,” Youngs told her.

The news appeared to give her pause, but not enough to change her vote.

“I love John Goncalves with all of my heart,” Navas said. “He’s of the community. He shows up everywhere. He is tireless.”

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