Rhode Island Adds 130 Beds For Homeless Shelters

PROVIDENCE, RI — Rhode Island's leaders announced new measures to address homelessness Thursday, ending a weeks-long protest on the steps of the State House.

"It is crucial that we provide shelter to get Rhode Islanders off the streets – now," Gov. Dan McKee said. "Addressing this crisis requires a combination of short-term and long-term initiatives, and today’s announcement is an immediate and necessary step to help those experiencing homelessness."

The administration allocated funding to four organizations that serve the homeless, making an additional 130 beds available to those who need them. In addition, a new quarantine and isolation facility will open for those who test positive for COVID-19, but have nowhere safe to go.

The following organizations received funding:

• Woonsocket: Community Care Alliance has agreed to add up to 10 hotel vouchers in the Woonsocket area starting this week.
• Providence: Open Doors has committed to expanding their current operations to add 15 beds which are now up and running as of this week.
• Pawtucket: Amos House will be opening a non-congregate shelter program in Pawtucket at the former Memorial Hospital. We anticipate families will be able to move in starting next week and will have up to 80 beds. This was arranged in close collaboration with the City of Pawtucket, Lockwood Development, and VS USA.
• East Providence: House of Hope will add up to 25 beds to provide services utilizing local motel rooms.

The quarantine facility reopened Thursday, with 20 beds available. It is located in Providence, and is available to both individuals and families. The availability if the facility allows homeless service providers to increase capacity lost due to social distancing requirements, the governor's office said.

"The McKee-Matos Administration has made it a priority to provide shelter to housing insecure families and individuals," McKee continued. "Thanks to a roughly $5 million investment that we recently made available to our homelessness service providers, we’ve seen roughly 220 new emergency beds in shelters and hotels come online in the past six weeks alone. But we knew more was needed. I want to thank our partnering agencies, communities, hotels, and service providers for committing to this expansion."

Thursday's announcement ended a nightly "sleep out" outside the State House, Uprise RI reported. For two weeks, a group of people slept in tents to raise awareness about homelessness. The protest began Dec. 1, spearheaded by Matt Brown and Cynthia Mendes, who are running for governor and lieutenant governor, respectively.

"Hundreds of people in RI are in danger of freezing to death this winter," Mendes tweeted Dec. 3. "We're sleeping outside the State House until we're sure that our crisis of houselessness is over. Our government cannot ignore this crisis any longer. We won't allow them to."