Providence has a story it likes to tell about itself. Rhode Island was founded on the promise of religious freedom. Providence sees itself as welcoming, diverse, and progressive. Our elected officials talk about Providence as a creative, family-friendly city grounded in its neighborhoods.
But there is another part of the story.
Rhode Island built much of its early wealth on Indigenous land stolen through broken treaties and by conducting critical portions of the transatlantic slave trade. Those systems ended, but the concentration of wealth and political power did not.
Our state still hoards power in backrooms under the statehouse. Too many local politicians, even many of our Black & brown elected officials, cower to corporate money and wealthy donors. We see this in the campaign contributions from housing developers, real estate interests, and political insiders, funneling thousands of dollars to candidates challenging city councilors who supported Rent Stabilization.
What happens in our capital city matters. Providence is more than 40% Latine. Over a third of Black folks living in Rhode Island live in Providence. Black, Indigenous, immigrant, and working-class communities have built this city, cared for its people, and kept its neighborhoods and institutions running for generations. Communities of color have fought for decent housing, fair wages, health care, safety, and a real voice in decisions that affect our lives. That history matters as Providence and Rhode Island head into the 2026 local elections.
Because the real question is: Whose city are we fighting for?
A city where working-class people and families can live and thrive? Or a city increasingly shaped by wealthy donors, developers, landlords, and political insiders?
Housing shows us what is at stake. For years, SISTA Fire members and Providence residents have told us what the housing crisis means in their everyday lives. “When rent is paid, nothing is left.” People pay more and get less. Longtime residents watch their neighborhoods change, wondering whether they can afford to stay.
What is a city anyway? Is it the buildings erected on the land? Is it the politicians who smile for the cameras? Is it the profit margins of multinational businesses that move here?
Or is our city the people who live, work, and steward the culture that makes Providence distinct? Is it the local restaurants and salons and corner stores we’ve frequented for years? Is it our neighborhoods, the places we gather, the memories we cultivate with our families here?
Is Providence the people who’ve built it, or only what those in power decide it should be?
For us, this election raises some fundamental questions:
- Who gets to stay in Providence?
- Who benefits as the city grows and develops?
- Who gets heard at City Hall? At the Statehouse?
- Where do our public resources go?
- What does community safety look like, beyond more police & shelters?
- And who is afforded the power to shape the answers?
These questions are especially important for Black, Latine, immigrant, and working-class communities. We live with the consequences when rent rises faster than wages. When development makes neighborhoods more expensive without securing life for the people already living there. When communities are invited to speak but have little power over the final decision.
This is also why our work cannot begin and end with elections. Elections matter. Policy matters. Who sits in City Hall matters. But given the political moment we are in, we cannot build an agenda assuming that policy change alone will bring the change our communities need.
Our communities have always found ways to care for one another, survive, resist, and build power. Our job is to strengthen that capacity while fighting for the resources and structural changes our communities deserve.
This summer, more than 70 people came together at our Community Forum around a simple question: What does it take for our communities to truly live and thrive? People talked about housing and economic stability. Care. Health. Food. Safety. Healing. Rest. Land. Relationships. Shared responsibility. And having a meaningful say in the decisions shaping our lives.
What we heard was clear. People want more than survival. They want stability. They want time to care for their families and themselves. They want safe and healthy communities. They want a say in what happens to their neighborhoods.
That is what the People’s Care Agenda is trying to make possible.
The goal is bigger than writing a ten-year agenda or producing a list of policy demands. We are building the relationships, political understanding, resources, imagination, and organized power our people need to shape what comes next.
This means bringing more people into the work. It means members organizing other members and neighbors. It means building stronger relationships with other grassroots organizations. And it means connecting immediate fights, including what comes next for rent stabilization, to a larger vision for housing, economic stability, community safety, care, and shared power.
The 2026 elections are one part of that struggle. We want people to vote. We also want people organized before and long after the votes are counted. Because the future of Providence should not belong to whoever can write the biggest campaign check.
