Rhode Island Governor Daniel McKee likes to say that the state is experiencing a fast recovery from the Covid recession, and takes credit for much of it, touting the policies his administration has implanted. Will he also take responsibility for an explosion in homelessness?

On January 26, 2022 1577 people were experiencing homelessness. Data released by the Rhode Island Homeless System Management Information Service (HMIS), centralized at the Rhode Island Coalition for the Homeless, shows a notable increase in people experiencing homelessness in the last year as well as a drastic increase in unsheltered persons experiencing homelessness.

The Point-in-Time (PIT) count is a count of sheltered and unsheltered people experiencing homelessness on a single night in January. The office of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) requires that Continuums of Care (CoCs) conduct an annual count of people experiencing homelessness who are sheltered in emergency shelter, transitional housing, and Safe Havens on a single night. Data from the January PIT count is generalized to quantify the state of homelessness during that year.