McKee Administration responds to State House pallet shelter demonstration
Rhode Island’s Housing Secretary Josh Saal responded to a request for comment from Uprise RI about advocates from the Rhode Island Homeless Advocacy Project, Housing Opportunities for People Everywhere , and Direct Action for Rights and Equality constructing a rapidly deployable shelter on the State House plaza early Monday morning.
November 1, 2022, 10:19 am
By Steve Ahlquist
Rhode Island’s Housing Secretary Josh Saal responded to a request for comment from Uprise RI about advocates from the Rhode Island Homeless Advocacy Project (RIHAP), Housing Opportunities for People Everywhere (HOPE), and Direct Action for Rights and Equality (DARE) constructing a rapidly deployable shelter on the State House plaza early Monday morning.
“We agree that there is potential value in utilizing rapidly deployable shelter solutions such as Pallet shelters in our ongoing efforts to address and prevent homelessness in Rhode Island,” said Secretary Saal. “These rapidly deployable shelter solutions do not replace the overarching need for more permanent housing, but they do offer safe, non-congregate, 24-hour shelter to individuals experiencing homelessness, and they can be quickly deployed at times in which the State is experiencing a surge homelessness and rapidly dismantled when the need is lower. They have been utilized successfully in several cities across the country, including in Boston.
“An interagency group comprised of representatives from the Department of Housing, DCAMM, Statewide Planning, BHDDH, and EOHHS is currently evaluating potential suitable sites that could be utilized for rapidly deployable shelter solutions. The goal is to work with sister agencies, municipal partners, community leaders and non-profit partners to identify a site that could be used for a small-scale pilot program of no more than 20-30 of these shelter units. These discussions are still in their preliminary stages.
“Overall, we are confident we have the shelter capacity to meet the increased demand that typically comes with the winter months. We have funded 274 new shelter beds this year. Once those are operational, we expect our statewide shelter capacity to include roughly 1,000 beds,” concluded Secretary Saal. “We remain in constant communication with homelessness service providers and municipal leaders across the state to activate our street outreach and engage individuals at risk of experiencing homelessness to inform them of available services and supports.“
Last year, at least 42 people experiencing homelessness died in Rhode Island.
“There’s just over 800 shelter beds. We feel we need another 500,” said Professor Eric Hirsch of Providence College who helped organize yesterday’s display of the pallet shelter on the Rhode Island State House plaza. “[The McKee Administration] has put in place a plan to add about 230, but those are coming online fairly slowly.” Hundreds of unhoused persons are on waiting lists for shelter beds in Rhode Island.
According to the state’s Homeless Management Information System, in the two weeks ending October 22nd, 435 individuals have been reported as living outside in Rhode Island, including 59 households with children. These numbers continue to increase, and they are likely undercounts as we do not have sufficient outreach workers to contact all of those living in the estimated 80+ encampments in the state. Those needing shelter cannot get it because there are hundreds on waiting lists for emergency shelter as winter approaches.
According to the 2022 Housing Fact Book, released Friday by HousingWorks RI, figures for those who are chronically homeless and unsheltered are up 105%, and up 35% for adults experiencing homelessness. Further, while formal eviction filings with the court have decreased for nonpayment of rent, eviction filings for other reasons have risen by as much as 94%. Informal evictions, may outstrip formal evictions by a factor of five. That is, for every formal eviction handled legally by the court, there are five informal evictions happening. An informal eviction occurs when renters move out of their homes after being threatened by their landlord. Because these evictions happen outside of court, they are difficult to track.
With rising inflation, and the threat of a recession looming, there is no reason to believe that the housing situation in Rhode Island will be better over the coming winter and every reason to believe that homelessness will increase.
“We appreciate the governor’s acknowledgement of the value of rapidly deployable shelters,” responded Professor Hirsch. “Discussions with service providers about deploying them have been going on for months. These are urgently needed because funding shelter beds is different from opening beds, and because many newly homeless people prefer the privacy and security of the rapidly deployable shelter over other options. How long is this administration going to wait to find a site? Overcoming NIMBYism is going to be needed in siting low-income housing as well as emergency shelter.”
