The Affordability Crisis in Midsize Cities Is Not Inevitable

David Morales Potts | The Nation

A mayoral candidate in Providence argues that unique challenges—and unique responses—must be explored.

For years, the national conversation about affordability has focused on a handful of large coastal cities. New York City, San Francisco, Boston. These places have become shorthand for everything that has gone wrong for working-class communities in urban America.

But the same crisis has taken hold in cities that rarely enter that conversation. In Providence, renters now face some of the highest housing burdens in the country. According to Redfin, Providence has become the least affordable city in America for renters. Each day, as a state representative and a candidate for mayor, I receive calls from neighbors trying to figure out how to stay in their homes.