After Rhode Island Governor Daniel McKee helped cut the ribbon on Venterra Group’s U.S. office’s Providence offices he took a moment to answer questions from the press about his efforts to evict a homeless protest from the State House plaza.

Governor McKee: We continued to work with them all through the weekend and offering them places that they can go to. Some of them have taken us up on it, I think. I got the report last night. There were 18 people there. We’ll continue to work with them because this is dangerous weather and we have places that we can bring them – certainly into warming centers. We’re very concerned about – at least I am very concerned about – the weather conditions and the potential issues they would be dealing with there. So we’re there all weekend long. We’ll continue to be there and provide options for them to be in a warm space as opposed to sleeping outside.

Uprise RI: There are people outside all over the state right now, and as you said before, you doubt the numbers, but 385 people at last count were outside across Rhode Island. Why are we prioritizing the 17 people in front of the State House?

Governor McKee: First of all, the number is down from what you reported last week, right? Down 24%. We’re still trying to figure out where the encampments are, so anybody who understands where those are – we’re going to be asking the Coalition for that specific information. I think we’re entitled to it. And then we’ll do the same thing at those encampments as we’re doing at the State House. Last weekend I was given five different locations. I went to five locations and none of them were active. So let us know where the 80 encampments are and I think you will see the number continue to go down. And the work that has been done – the providers have been given the resources in the summer. Right now we’re still short on close to 200 shelter beds in terms of what has been budgeted. So we’re going to keep on working to make sure that there are more beds than people who are out there. But we’ve got to get down to the number.

Reporting inaccurate numbers don’t…don’t help us here.

Uprise RI: I’m getting the numbers from the actual advocates. These are not inaccurate numbers. These are numbers coming from the people we depend on to give us these numbers. I’m not making these up.

Governor McKee: Yeah. I’m not going to debate you, but last week you said it was 506. Now, a day later after I started to push on the numbers, it’s down to 385. I think that number’s going to go down, but it’s a serious issue and we’re paying attention to it.

Press: What is your legal argument going to be? There’s been arguments about it being a First Amendment violation to remove people from public property. What is the legal position going to be?

Governor McKee: You know, we don’t do legal before we go into the court. I’m not going to do legal, but I can tell you what my focus is. Our staff is trying to find housing for people who are homeless that are in front of the State House, and the people who are supporting the court action [to block them from eviction] are trying to keep those people homeless. So I think that we need to make sure that our focus is on the individuals that are there. The First Amendment argument – I kind of enjoy the the discussion. I’ll let that take a life of its own. But right now, the main thing that we should be talking about is making sure that the people who are outside and in particular outside the State House that we know they’re there, have the ability to be in warm spaces and not have their health at risk.

Uprise RI: Why did the administration hire outside legal counsel, Adler Pollock and Sheehan? How much are they being paid?

Governor McKee walked away and did not turn around.