Public Services

Demand for bus passes grossly outpaces supply at Mathewson Street Church

Mathewson Street was assigned 50 of the 600 free bus passes that RIPTA is giving out under a new pilot program. All 50 passes were claimed in about two hours, leaving dozens told to go to one of the other ten agencies awarded passes to participate in the new program.

Rhode Island News: Demand for bus passes grossly outpaces supply at Mathewson Street Church

November 7, 2022, 1:07 pm

By Steve Ahlquist

The Rhode Island Public Transit Authority (RIPTA) announced last week that they are providing 600 free bus passes to low-income and unhoused Rhode Islanders as part of a new six-month pilot program. Under the current structure of RIPTA’s No Fare Bus Pass Program for Seniors and People with Disabilities, applicants must be age 65 or older or have a qualifying disability and must also have an income less than 200% of the poverty threshold. Applicants that meet the income threshold, but neither the age nor the disability threshold, receive no benefit under existing RIPTA programs. This new six-month pilot program is meant to address this gap.

Under the new program, Mathewson Street United Methodist Church in downtown Providence was awarded 50 passes. On Sunday morning, Uprise RI was on hand to observe as people lined up to be processed and photographed for their new passes at Mathewson Street United Methodist Church in downtown Providence. Friendly staff from RIPTA were on hand at Mathewson from 7am to 9am, processing applications and taking photographs. All 50 passes were claimed in about two hours, leaving dozens of people being told to go to one of the other ten agencies awarded passes to participate in the new program.

We spoke to some of the people in line waiting to be processed and photographed for their new passes.

“With a bus pass I’ll be able to get around, go see my kids if I need to,” said Mark, who has been homeless for, as he puts it, years. “Just to get someplace warm, without having to worry about it.”

“How do you get to places now?” we asked, and Mark pointed to his feet.

“I make use of the R-Line,” said Mark. “I panhandle for the cash I need to take the other buses.”

The R-Line, which stretches from Attleboro in Massachusetts to Warwick in Rhode Island, is free to passengers under a year-long program sponsored by the Rhode Island General Assembly.

“I have blisters on my feet from walking,” said James, whose shoes don’t quite fit his feet. “It hurts just standing in line now.”

James was eager to get a bus pass, which he sees as the first step to rebuilding his life.

“I’ll be able to get around, look for jobs, stuff like that,” said James. “You can’t get to work if you don’t have $2. How is it possible to come up with $2 when you don’t have a job?”

“What do you do for money?” we asked.

“I panhandle,” said Robert. “It sucks but you do what you have to to survive, you know? There’s only one bus line that’s free, so I actually live on the R-Line. I live in the woods off that bus line. I can’t give my location because I got robbed already. I have a little heater with propane. That’s how I stay warm at night. It’s $22 a tank, and I have to come up with that money all the time too.”

“Are you on the shelter bed list?” we asked.

“The shelter’s aren’t even calling me back,” said James. “But with a bus pass I’ll be able to go where I need to go. I do have family. They help me. My sister helps me. But I have a drinking problem. I fell off the wagon and I haven’t been able to get back on. It’s my fault.”

The Mathewson Street Church Sunday breakfast attracts between 200 and 300 people from all over the state. It’s the only free meal available to many people on Sundays. The need for free bus passes here far outstrips the supply. “I’m sorry, man,” said Kevin Simon, Director of Outreach and Communications at Mathewson, to an older man seeking a free pass after the passes were gone. “I’ll get you a list of the other ten agencies with passes.”

RIPTA will now create the bus passes and on Wednesday they will be distributed at Mathewson.

Kevin Simon, Reverend Duane Clinker and RIPTA Boardmember Patrick Crowley address the Sunday breakfast crowd

The free bus pass pilot program didn’t come about because RIPTA saw a need and sought to fill it. It came about because people at Mathewson organized.

“I came to Mathewson in April because I was working to get people on the bus trip to Washington on June 18, for the Poor People’s Campaign rally,” said Pamela Poniatowski, one of the Tri-Chairs of the Rhode Island Poor People’s Campaign. “I was going to different churches. Senator Cynthia Mendes told me that I needed to go to Mathewson Street. When I got here it felt like things were just ready for us to help people find the power of the people that they don’t realize they have, and start organizing it.”

The Poor People’s Campaign and Mathewson Street Church created the Rhode Island Housing Justice Organizing Committee to organize for the needs of the unhoused.

“It was in August that we started having organizing meetings, just listening to people and asking, ‘What is it that’s hurting you the most? What is it you need? What would help?’ And getting a bus pass was big,” said Poniatowski. “We decided to take that on. This would be our first thing.”

After months of organizing and a very successful hearing before the RIPTA board where board members Patrick Crowley and Peter Alviti were very enthusiastic, a plan to pilot 600 free passes for unhoused people was approved. [See: RIPTA to pilot free bus pass for people experiencing homelessness] But even at that meeting, which went well, there were signs that what was promised was not exactly what Mathewson was advocating for. Mathewson was asking for passes for unhoused people. The approved program was for unhoused and low-income people, which substantially expanded the scope of eligibility. As Professor Peter Nightingale, one of the other Tri-Chairs of the Rhode Island Poor People’s Campaign noted after the board meeting, the term “low-income” could well describe over a third of all Rhode Islanders – but the RIPTA board had approved only 600 passes.

“When this all started it seemed RIPTA really understood the issue and they were going to work with us,” said Poniatowski. “But instead, they took the program and diluted it, so instead of 600 passes going to the unhoused, where it’s desperately needed, they spread it out. It now includes more than unhoused people – Mind you, we want people having trouble making ends me to have help too. But right now the least of these are those that are unhoused.”

Though some agencies that work with low-income and unhoused people received passes to give out, many agencies that work with low-income or unhoused people were not included on the list. “The George Wiley Center isn’t on the list,” said Poniatowski. “Amos House isn’t on. House of Hope isn’t on. DARE isn’t on the list. So it’s like, ‘Yay! RIPTA did something, not-Yay, they made it a corporate mess.'”

Here’s the list of agencies and the number of passes each agency received:

“We appreciate RIPTA for bringing the pilot program this far,” said Mathewson Street Church’s Kevin Simon in a statement. “Many staff members worked hard to bring it to fruition in a short amount of time. But there was a much easier, just way to do this. From day one we stressed the importance of finding a way to provide our friends who are unhoused with access to transportation for the winter months to be able to take positive steps forward. We reached out time and time again throughout the few weeks after the board approved this program, asking to be included in the logistical conversations.

“No one, to my knowledge, in the larger community was included in the implementation process,” continued Simon. “Yes, this program will help many of our friends, but there will also be an incredibly large number who will not be able to utilize this program. We will continue to fight for free bus passes for individuals who are unhoused across the State of Rhode Island.”

Contact info for the agencies participating in the new free bus-pass program:

Rhode Island Association Community Action Agencies is a trade association for a statewide network of Community Action Agencies (CAAs) who, for over fifty years, have been the safety net for economically disadvantaged and working individuals and families. Independently and collectively the CAA Agencies are working to eliminate the causes and effects of poverty and to open doors to self-sufficiency and better lives for more than 185,000 Individuals and 90,000 Households.

Additional Non-Profit Organizations:

For more information on this pilot program, please visit RIPTA.com/NoFarePilot.