This is one of the most common ways that landlords fuck over tenants. If this ever happens in the future, you can file claims to get your deposit back without an attorney.

The landlord tenant handbook tells you exactly how to go about it:

The Rhode Island Landlord-Tenant Handbook - Courts.RI.gov https://www.courts.ri.gov/Courts/districtcourt/PDF/Handbook.pdf

I do care, and do want affordable housing, I just don't believe rent control is the way to get it because the data shows that it is harmful to housing costs in the long term.

Instead of making a negative assumption about me and writing off what I have to say why not engage in a productive discussion and share your own ideas?

More subsidies and housing vouchers, property tax relief for properties where rent is under a threshold, tax increases for properties where rent is over a threshold, encouragement for developers to build more housing stock at reasonable rental rates, and plenty more.

The truth is, I don't have a single solution, but am against rent control because data simply shows that it doesn't work in the long term and exacerbates the problem of a lack of affordable housing.

While I can appreciate the overall objectives in what the group is trying to do, I prefer evidence based legislation that is not just a "feel good" solution, but one that actually achieves the goals set out.

Rent control, or rent stabilization has had an overall negative effect on housing affordability in places where it has been implemented. It sounds good on the surface, but it effects the housing stock in some unexpected ways. There are numerous studies that highlight this fact. This one for example, concludes the following:

>Rent control appears to help affordability in the short run for current tenants, but in the long-run decreases affordability, fuels gentrification, and creates negative externalities on the surrounding neighborhood. These results highlight that forcing landlords to provide insurance to tenants against rent increases can ultimately be counterproductive. If society desires to provide social insurance against rent increases, it may be less distortionary to offer this subsidy in the form of a government subsidy or tax credit. This would remove landlords’ incentives to decrease the housing supply and could provide households with the insurance they desire. A point of future research would be to design an optimal social insurance program to insure renters against large rent increases.

I would encourage anyone to read the study in it's entirety or seek out your own resources, the conclusions are always the same.