Providence City Council raises alarm over housing crisis, COVID-19

PROVIDENCE — City Council President John Igliozzi kicked off the body’s first meeting of 2022 on Thursday, outlining his priorities for the new year.

At the top of his agenda: pandemic recovery, housing, public safety and oversight of the city’s spending of American Rescue Plan Act dollars.

Igliozzi opened the meeting with a reflection on COVID-19’s toll, citing approximately 600 deaths in Providence from the virus and pausing for a moment of silence. Igliozzi also stressed the strain on the city’s tourism and hospitality industry — a major focus of Mayor Jorge Elorza’s recent spending proposal for the remainder of the city’s ARPA funds.

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“We’re not out of the woods yet folks,” Igliozzi said. “Some [businesses] have closed. Some are trying to keep it together. We look at our restaurants, one of the most vibrant aspects of the city of Providence ... it’s been a toll on [them]. Our hotels, our small, locally owned businesses — they’ve been the hardest hit.”

Affordable housing crisis on the agenda

The ongoing housing crisis, which has plagued the state, is another focus for Igliozzi and the council. On Thursday, members passed two resolutions on the matter — one calling on the Providence Housing Authority to kickstart affordable housing development and another requesting an assessment of all city-owned real estate with the aim of finding areas for affordable housing or other public services.

“The simple truth: we can do better,” said Councilwoman Jo-Ann Ryan. “We need to build more homes and maximize all the tools that we have in our tool belt. We cannot use the same hammer that we’ve used for the past 20 years and expect a different result.”

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How to spend COVID relief funds

Going even further than his colleague, Councilman Nicholas Narducci suggested housing be the sole focus of the spending of the city's remaining ARPA funds, stating, "I'd say forget arts, culture, tourism, forget all the other ones the mayor wants to give to. We got $123 million. Let's develop housing for our homeless."

The council will eventually need to decide whether to approve Elorza's newly released budget ordinance for those federal funds.

Igliozzi vowed strong oversight of every penny, noting that the council would hire an independent external audit company to ensure the money is spent “directly, wisely and honestly.”

Igliozzi also promised a bi-weekly report detailing who “receives the money, why they receive the money, how they use the money, and making sure they used it like they said they would.”

Aside from ARPA funds, Igliozzi made public safety a key focus of his address. The council president raised alarm over what he described as “a disturbing trend of violence in our neighborhoods” that played out over the past year, pointing to “gun violence, assaults, dangerous ATVs taking control and ownership of our neighborhoods and our streets, making our neighbors feel uncomfortable in their homes.”

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Igliozzi has made clear that he believes more police are part of the solution, hopeful that the council will allocate funds for another police academy to add more officers to the department.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Providence City Council raises alarm over housing crisis, COVID-19