The heat in Rhode Island’s largest unhoused warming center failed last night
“This is supposed to be a warming shelter, not a goddamned frozen shelter,” said a man to Uprise RI who identifies as unhoused.
February 4, 2023, 2:38 pm
By Steve Ahlquist
Early Saturday morning, during an extreme weather event, windows at the Cranston Street Armory blew out, causing the temperatures at the State of Rhode Island’s largest warming center to drop to dangerous levels. Unable to keep the main room in the armory warm, many of the 182 people staying at the Armory were moved to two smaller rooms. Arrangements were also made to transport 25 men to Harrington Hall in Cranston and 20 couples are in the process of being moved to the new Hartford Avenue shelter announced by Rhode Island Governor Daniel McKee on January 10. That shelter, to be run by Crossroads on Monday, is opening two days early by Amos House. Some folks are also going to the community room at Crossroads.
“This is supposed to be a warming shelter, not a goddamned frozen shelter,” said a man to Uprise RI who identifies as unhoused. Shortly after arriving Uprise RI was asked to push a man in a wheelchair into one of the two smaller rooms where the heat was functioning adequately. He told Uprise RI that his foot had “turned purple” from the cold. Another man who arrived at the warming shelter late last night was taken to the hospital by emergency services to treat his frostbite.
It is hoped that by repairing the blown out windows and with the addition of small, industrial level space heaters, the large room at the Armory can get back up to 50 degrees later this afternoon. Temperatures tonight, though not as severe as last night, are expected to be as low as 18 degrees.
“People have been distressed. It’s been freezing cold here all night,” said Eileen Hayes, executive director of Amos House who has been staffing the Armory as a warming center with the help of the Rhode Island National Guard since December. “We don’t blame them. It’s not a good situation for anybody. We allowed people to use the indoor bathrooms last night and today just because it’s really cold outside.”
Update: Uprise Ri has since learned that another reason to let people use the indoor bathrooms may have to do with some of the outdoor port-a-potties having blown over in the high winds over night.
Since the Armory opened as a warming center in December, about 645 unique individuals have availed themselves of services at the space, said executive director Hayes.
Stefan Pryor, Governor McKee’s incoming Housing Secretary was supposed to start work on Monday, but he was at the Armory Saturday morning coordinating a response to the problems.
“It’s very important to ensure that these warming centers and shelters are operational,” said Director Pryor. “We’ve been fanning out across the state to ensure that these facilities are working…
“What we need to do as a state is we need to engage in vigorous planning to ensure that in the long term that we have permanent supportive housing and other housing options for folks so that shelters are less necessary. But that doesn’t solve the problem for this winter,” continued Director Pryor. “We need to keep ensuring that our unified state team, which includes the Department of Administration, the National Guard, and the housing apparatus of the state are all working together.’
“Nobody thinks this is the answer to homelessness. Nobody thinks this is the solution,” said executive director Hayes. “If we had alternatives, we would definitely be using alternatives. We’re hoping nobody died last night in the cold outside because they had this place to go to.”
“This might be an unfair question since you’re brand new to the job, but I’m going to ask it any way,” said Uprise RI. “We know that it gets cold in the winter. Since March of last year people have been calling for something to be done. And we have this, the Armory, cobbled together last minute. What is the failure there, to your understanding?”
“I don’t [officially] start until Monday, as you know, but having said that, we’ve been on the job the past couple of weeks. My assistant secretary and I have been viewing the scene. We will do an intensive assessment of where we stand, but I also need to point out the following things:
“New significant steps have been taken this past season. This is a recent high in terms of the number of unsheltered people in Rhode Island. It is the case that we should always prepare for a greater need than we’ve experienced, but this is, by many people’s initial assessment, an unexpected spike.”
“Well, we knew that people were being evicted form their apartments in Rhode Island at record numbers,” countered Uprise RI.
“My goal, working under Governor McKee, will be to ensure that we have sufficient temporary capacity and that we build longer term solutions,” said Director Pryor. “That requires a plan, and the time to start is now.”
Here’s Governor McKee’s official press release on the situation:
“The Cranston Street Armory was pre-heated in advance of the cold snap. However, due to extreme winds, several windows were broken which led to decreased temperatures in the main drill hall. The Governor has deployed his incoming Housing Secretary, Department of Administration Director, Emergency Management Director and the National Guard to assess and address the situation quickly in partnership with Amos House. The team is fixing the windows and bringing in temporary heaters. They are working with the Fire Marshal to enable overnight use in other areas of the Armory that were not impacted. They are also beginning to enable couples who were already prioritized through the Coordinated Entry System to move to the new shelter on Hartford Ave today. Safety remains everyone’s top priority and we thank the team for coming together quickly to address this issue.”
Meanwhile, in Woonsocket:
