Will Gov. McKee declare a public health emergency on homelessness?
How many unhoused deaths will it take to prompt action?
Photograph of a homeless woman and her child seeking legal assistance in 1991.
Contracting issues related to Goddard may dog her appointment. GoLocal reported that Goddard received payments for consulting work for the Department of Housing totaling more than $171,000, but the payments apparently were made through a series of unrelated companies. According to GoLocal’s reporting, none of the payments were made directly to her, and there was apparently no contract between Goddard and the Department of Housing regarding her consulting work. Sound familiar?
PROVIDENCE – The narrative on homelessness in Rhode Island remains one of the top news stories as we enter 2025, despite efforts by Gov. McKee’s administration to minimize the situation in his recent appearance with radio talk show host Gene Valicenti, when the Governor claimed that there were shelter beds available. “If the call is made, there are beds available right now,” Gov. McKee said.
If you believe the narrative being espoused by Gov. McKee, the actual numbers presented in the narrative by service providers such as Kimberly Simmons, executive director of the Rhode Island Coalition to End Homelessness, do not compute:
- 54 homeless residents died in the past year, not including those who have come out of homelessness and succumbed to diseases and illnesses that they acquired while being homeless.
- 650 Rhode Islanders of all ages are homeless, an increase of some 100 people since last year.
The facts do not line up with the narrative being preached by Gov. McKee:
- As of November 2024, Rhode Island had 1,430 unhoused people in emergency shelters and 625 living outside – a total of some 2,055 people, according to the Rhode Island Homeless Advocacy Project.
- 6,853 households were evicted in Rhode Island in 2024, according to the Rhode Island Housing dashboard, attributed to the inability of tenants to pay ever-increasing rents.
The Governor will have an opportunity – in both his State of the State address on Jan. 14 and then in his proposed budget to be released a few days later – to correct his apparently inaccurate homeless narrative. But with the state facing a budget deficit estimated to be more than $250 million, don’t look to the Governor’s budget proposal to find answers.
Bitter cold
This conflict in narratives is not an academic argument. With a polar vortex predicted to sweep through the region this week, bringing with it freezing temperatures, emergency actions may be required – not words.
“There is no room for distortion, misrepresentation, or lying when it has to do with these realities,” Kimberly Simmons said in a guest column published by Steve Ahlquist on Jan. 4,” responding to Gov. McKee’s statements as reported by Ahlquist in a Jan. 3, 2025, post: “This morning Gov. McKee misled and lied to the public about the state of homelessness in Rhode Island.” [See link to story below.]
Numerous advocates have called upon Gov. McKee to declare homelessness in Rhode Island a public health crisis – including the Rhode Island State Council of Churches and Providence City Councilor Justin Roias.
A light in the darkness
The second version, let’s call it Dignity Bus 2.0, has been launched in Woonsocket, providing an emergency shelter option offering up to 20 individual sleeping compartments for unhoused, vulnerable residents, including pregnant women, elderly and the disabled.
The initial version of the Dignity Bus was purchased by the Woonsocket City Council in May of 2023 for $500,000, after a dispute over funding with the R.I. Department of Housing.
Dignity Bus 2.0 is being managed by the Community Care Alliance, with funding from the R.I. Department of Housing and grant funds generated by the city of Woonsocket. Benedict Lessing, Jr., the president and CEO of the Community Car Alliance, called the Dignity Bus 2.0 “a lifesaving resource.”
Lessing praised the collaborative effort by local stakeholders needed to get the Dignity Bus 2.0 operational again, including Mayor Beauchamp and the Woonsocket City Council. The major focus of the current use of Dignity Bus 2.0 is for “triage purposes for folks with medical considerations,” with the ultimate objective to move these individuals to another shelter arrangement.
Having the Dignity Bus 2.0 serve as triage for the recently released patients from hospitals who have nowhere to go is a critical resource, Lessing said.
Actions, not words; reporting, not opinions
Would more clarity in the ongoing battle of narratives and facts about homelessness in Rhode Island be possible, ConvergenceRI wondered, if someone such as Gene Valicenti volunteered to spend two nights aboard the Dignity Bus 2.0 in Woonsocket, to learn first-hand what’s involved in the process of providing shelter for the homeless – and then report on it?
