Government
Public services and government action
ECHO Village project vocally opposed by South PVD residents and politicians
"The comments that some of you are making are insensitive to people with lived experience, who have been homeless… We're not all drug addicts… We came here to talk to you guys about the realities of homelessness. You could be standing next to somebody who is homeless and don't even know. Everybody is saying you don't want this in your community, but it's already in your community."
PVD Police release video of unhoused encampment visit
"I believe that once this video is released, it could potentially be national training video on how to handle a situation like that," said State Senator Joshua Miller. "They were called by the neighborhood to respond to certain complaints about what had happened in the homeless encampment - To every person they encountered in there the compassion was tremendous."
ACLU calls out Cranston Police over illegal stop policy
“… When police are put in the position of choosing which cars to pull over merely for the sake of meeting an arbitrary quota, rather than for a legitimate public safety need, it can only encourage discriminatory treatment of motorists. In addition, the anxiety and trauma that can be generated by a police stop goes without saying. For most people, it is an unnerving experience, but for people of color, it is particularly fraught...."
Some residents of condemned Cranston apartment complex have lost assistance
These residents all received a letter saying that their income was too high for them to be eligible. Many of the other 39 families affected will be housed in a Providence hotel until at least August 6.
Clemency tour comes to Rhode Island with march on women's prison in Cranston
The organizers are calling on Rhode Island Governor Daniel McKee to grant clemency to five women in particular: Trearra Hudgen, Katherine Bunnell, Crystal Berube, Danielle Lefebvre, and Ashley Weaver in a petition to be circulated throughout the weekend.
Court fines and fees are hurting our communities. What can be done?
"Across the country, many people and organizations are talking about how municipal court fines and fees are unjust," write the organizers. "These costs often hurt poor people, Black/Indigeneous People of Color (BIPOC) communities, and people who are homeless. Court fines are also connected with racist policing. This causes the courts to be a 'revolving door' for many poor and BIPOC people, getting them stuck in the system for years and making it harder to stay connected with family, get housing, and keep healthy."
Residents of condemned apartment complex will not be homeless
"We only have a matter of hours before we are literally homeless," said Abreu. "We have been placed in this situation because of negligence by management."
Groups threaten lawsuit over school year beginning on Rosh Hashanah
"It's extremely sad that at this time of rising antisemitism we have to meet to fight this needless display of discrimination against Jewish students," said Rabbi Barry Dolinger, President of the Board of Rabbis of Greater Rhode Island.
The Wyatt Detention Center continues operation on shaky financial ground
The Chair of the CFDFC admitted that the Wyatt Detention Center is “not in a good enough cash flow position to be paying anyone, honestly.”
In response to Sayles Street incident, activists rally in the rain to defund police, remove SROs, repeal LEOBoR, and more
"I don't see what road we take to make [the police] change," said Justice Ameer Gaines, the Queer Justice Coordinator at Providence Youth Student Movement (PrYSM). "What I do know is that during my time in Providence, the most effective strategy has been disruption. If they can't respect our dignity, then we don't need to respect their comfort, we don't need to respect their meetings, we don't need to respect their offices, we don't need to respect their professionalism, we don't need to respect their processes, and we don't need to respect their policies - They need to change them."