{"id":4852,"date":"2026-02-11T15:16:57","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T20:16:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/public-health\/?p=4852"},"modified":"2026-02-12T09:04:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T14:04:12","slug":"dr-molly-richard-recently-published-op-ed-in-the-providence-journal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/public-health\/2026\/02\/11\/dr-molly-richard-recently-published-op-ed-in-the-providence-journal\/","title":{"rendered":"Dr. Molly Richard recently published op-ed in the Providence Journal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Dr. Molly Richard, Assistant Professor of Public Health, recently published an op-ed in the&nbsp;<em>Providence Journal&nbsp;<\/em>arguing that rent stabilization is a critical tool for preventing homelessness in Rhode Island. In the piece, titled &#8220;Stabilizing Rents can Reverse Rise in Homelessness,&#8221; Dr. Richard challenges the narrative that homelessness is a personal failure, instead framing it as a systemic issue driven by soaring housing costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Drawing on her own research, she demonstrates that rental costs are a strong predictor of homelessness, with even modest rent increases associated with significant increases in sheltered and unsheltered populations. Dr. Richard notes that as Providence has seen a dramatic rise in rental housing costs, the city has also seen a dramatic rise in homelessness, with 618 people counted living outdoors last January\u2014a 15 percent increase from the previous year and nearly five times the 2020 figure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dr. Richard explains that Providence&#8217;s proposed rent stabilization measure would limit annual rent increases while exempting new construction and small owner-occupied properties. She argues that these policies would give individuals and families a critical sense of stability and ultimately prevent homelessness and the health impacts associated with it.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.providencejournal.com\/story\/opinion\/columns\/2026\/02\/07\/rent-stabilization-can-help-ease-homelessness-in-providence-opinion\/88291037007\/\">https:\/\/www.providencejournal.com\/story\/opinion\/columns\/2026\/02\/07\/rent-stabilization-can-help-ease-homelessness-in-providence-opinion\/88291037007\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>URI community members can access the article through\u00a0the library\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/urldefense.com\/v3\/__https:\/\/infoweb-newsbank-com.uri.idm.oclc.org\/apps\/news\/openurl?ctx_ver=z39.88-2004&amp;rft_id=info*3Asid*infoweb.newsbank.com&amp;svc_dat=WORLDNEWS&amp;req_dat=1BBE3C44083D49AAB2957FA37457B25A&amp;rft_val_format=info*3Aofi*fmt*3Akev*3Amtx*3Actx&amp;rft_dat=document_id*3Anews*252F1A61D7E673767810__;JS8lLyUlJSUl!!Jh1S!k5encPZwV50Vz3VjyxKyRCFfW0df5KVKk-Z2ntlsIiWOpR0NccDH_4LJ0Rifrhox02yfcvj7cxf0GF5FCPQXjA$\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">here<\/a>.<br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dr. Molly Richard, Assistant Professor of Public Health, recently published an op-ed in the&nbsp;Providence Journal&nbsp;arguing that rent stabilization is a critical tool for preventing homelessness in Rhode Island. In the piece, titled &#8220;Stabilizing Rents can Reverse Rise in Homelessness,&#8221; Dr. Richard challenges the narrative that homelessness is a personal failure, instead framing it as a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5170,"featured_media":4854,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/public-health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/public-health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/public-health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/public-health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5170"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/public-health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4852"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/public-health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4852\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4855,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/public-health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4852\/revisions\/4855"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/public-health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/public-health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/public-health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/public-health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}