In Providence, conversations about housing affordability often point toward those with the least resources but a growing body of evidence shows that even middle-income workers are being priced out of the city they serve. My recent Providence Journal piece underscored this reality, revealing how families once considered stable are now facing unprecedented financial strain due to rising housing costs.
This strain isn’t just an economic issue. It affects the stability of schools, public systems, youth outcomes, community safety, and the organizations that form the backbone of Rhode Island’s service landscape.
For people working on the front lines of youth homelessness, child welfare reform, or community stabilization, this trend is deeply familiar. For myself, it’s a warning sign that the systems intended to support families are themselves becoming more fragile.
A Perspective Rooted in Lived Experience
My work has always centered on one truth: systems are strongest when they are built to reflect the lived realities of the people within them. When housing becomes unsustainable for workers across income levels, those realities shift and so must the systems designed to support them.
Throughout my work in Rhode Island’s child welfare, youth homelessness, and family-stabilization sectors, I have encountered countless individuals whose trajectory changed not because of lack of effort, but because the ground beneath them kept shifting.
Housing instability is one of the most common and most destabilizing forces I've seen and even myself battled with.
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A young person aging out of foster care who cannot afford their first apartment.
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A case manager working full time but forced to move out of the city they serve.
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A family on the verge of losing their home, resulting in school instability for their children.
Each of these stories echoes the same reality: housing affordability is tightly intertwined with every other system of care.
Why This Matters for Youth and Families
From my work leading systems-level reforms and supporting frontline outreach efforts, the connection between housing and family outcomes is unmistakable.
When housing costs rise beyond reach, several impacts follow:
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Youth in state care experience more school disruptions.
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Families face increased contact with crisis-response systems instead of preventative supports.
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Service organizations lose experienced staff who can no longer afford to stay.
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Community stability erodes, affecting safety, cohesion, and educational achievement.
The Providence Journal article reflects this reality through a middle-income lens, but the ripple effects touch every demographic including those far below the middle-income line.
This is the part of the narrative I heavily emphasize in my systems-change work: when the middle collapses, the bottom is already in crisis.
Community Leadership Grounded in Reality
My career thus far has bridged direct outreach, state-level policy design, and systems reform. My work consistently highlights challenges that ripple across agencies, schools, and community organizations and housing is one of the most persistent.
My approach emphasizes:
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Connecting lived experience with policy decisions
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Strengthening collaboration between agencies and communities
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Building trauma-informed and equity-centered systems of care
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Ensuring that youth and families are not left vulnerable due to structural gaps
The housing crisis is one of those structural gaps. And it is not limited to the lowest-income households. When frontline workers, educators, and community caregivers struggle to remain in the communities they serve, the entire landscape becomes more fragile.
A Moment for Awareness, Not Alarm
The message here is not about fear. It’s about awareness.
The trends highlighted in the Providence Journal reveal a shifting environment one that requires thoughtful understanding from those who shape, support, and participate in systems of care. Housing affordability does not exist in isolation; it touches everything.
This underscores a principle that guides much of my advocacy work:
Communities are healthiest when the people who serve them can also live in them.
Housing stability strengthens families.
It strengthens schools.
It strengthens youth outcomes.
And it strengthens Rhode Island’s capacity to build systems that genuinely support those who rely on them.
This moment calls for deep reflection and a recognition that the challenges facing Providence’s middle-income workers are connected to the challenges faced by every family trying to build stability in an increasingly unstable landscape.