Justin Roias represents Ward 4, the North End, on the Providence City Council. He is a school social worker and licensed mental health counselor and a member of the Providence Housing Authority. He holds a BA and a master's degree in social work from Rhode Island College. His earlier education work included City Year and The College Crusade, and he was Rhode Island state director of Wolf PAC. His council assignments include vice chair of State Legislative Affairs and membership on the Housing Crisis Task Force.
Role at the time: Providence City Councilor for Ward 4, in a statement to WPRI
Defended or excused
Statement summary
Providence City Councilor Justin Roias said in a statement that, by vetoing the rent stabilization ordinance, Mayor Brett Smiley stood with the people raising rents instead of the people paying them, while families are being priced out of their homes.
“While he sits comfortably, the people he’s supposed to serve are struggling. In Brett Smiley’s Providence, families are being priced out of their homes, torn from the neighborhoods they know
Today, the Mayor stood with the people raising rents, not the people paying them.”
Open source (opens in a new tab)In second veto of first term, Smiley rejects City Council's rent control ordinanceParagraph reporting the Rhode Island Coalition of Housing Providers' statement in support of the veto (article updated April 17, 2026)
Why we used this label
The case asks whether Providence should adopt a 4% cap on annual rent increases, so the reference point is the proposed rent stabilization ordinance. Roias's quoted words criticize the mayor's veto and say the mayor stood with the people raising rents rather than the people paying them, and WPRI reports he called the veto a slap in the face to working people. We read that as support for adopting the ordinance, an inference from his stance against the veto, so we used the Defended or excused label.
Providence's proposed ordinance would cap standard annual rent increases at 4% for covered housing. Read the text, Smiley's veto rationale and Morales's support. The proposal did not become law.
