State has new plan for 10 homeless families – here's where they would go

PROVIDENCE – The McKee administration is laying the groundwork to move as many as 10 homeless families to three vacant "cottages" on the sprawling lakefront campus of the state-run Zambarano hospital in Burrillville.

This latest option in the state's housing jigsaw puzzle came to light on the State Properties Committee agenda for Tuesday.

With no further explanation, the agenda item says, "Discussion and potential vote on approval for the Department of Housing to enter into negotiations with a private Consolidated Homeless Fund vendor for the use of the Zambarano 'cottages' located on Wallum Lake Road in the town of Burrillville."

In an interview Saturday, state Housing Secretary Stefan Pryor filled in some of the blanks.

And they all revolve around the imminent closing of the "warming center'' in the Cranston Street Armory which, as of Friday, had been moved from the end of April to May 15 to give the state more time to find new places to accommodate the 150 or so homeless people staying at the armory.

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In anticipation of the armory shelter's closing, Pryor said, the state put out "an open call" for alternative sites to state agencies, private property owners and the organizations that provide services to people experiencing homelessness.

Pryor acknowledged that the soon-to-close Charlesgate nursing home in Providence is on the radar, along with a potential redeployment of the former Memorial Hospital in Pawtucket as a shelter if and when it comes under new management. (With a swirl of legal issues surrounding the current ownership, he said, "That's the precondition. A change in management.")

Last used for COVID isolation, cottages need some work

Pryor said the Tri-County Community Action Agency – which provides services at locations from Westerly to the Burrillville village of Pascoag – sent a letter of interest that specifically drew the state's attention to the empty cottages on the Zambarano hospital grounds

It is not yet clear when they were built, or for what purpose. But Department of Housing spokesman Joseph Lindstrom said the three cottages were last used for quarantine and isolation during the pandemic. Before that, he said, the cottages were used by Phoenix House for substance-abuse recovery, specifically for adolescents and teens.

Pryor said it is clear from recent inspections that the cottages need some repairs and that it is not known whether it will be "weeks or months" before they will be all ready for families to move in, or how much it will cost to make them inhabitable.

But he said his impression was "at least some of them" could move in what he described as "the near term."

Another issue: where the state agency that runs the hospital – known as the Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals – stands on moving people who are homeless to the Zambarano grounds.

Asked where BHDDH Director Richard Charest stands on the plan, spokesman Randal Edgar said, "Secretary Pryor recently asked Director Charest if three vacant buildings on the Zambarano campus could be used temporarily to help homeless families for up to a year. Director Charest supports this idea.

"Looking forward, BHDDH plans to use these buildings as Enhanced Mental Health Psychiatric Rehabilitative Residences, which serve adults who need 24-hour supervision and support but do not require hospital level of care, but that is at least a year away."

In the interim, "BHDDH's priority is maintaining a safe and secure facility," Edgar said.

"Although these buildings, or cottages, are on the same campus, they are not in the immediate proximity of the hospital building. BHDDH does not expect that placing families experiencing homelessness at the cottages will cause safety issues."

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The history of the Zambarano hospital

Built initially as a tuberculosis sanitorium in 1905, the hospital has for years been the home to patients with injuries and conditions that require extensive long-term care beyond the capability of most nursing homes.

The Journal reported some of their stories in 2021.

One had a malignant tumor surgically removed from his brain when he was 2 years old. The operation left the little boy - now in his 50's - paralyzed from the waist down, with limited use of one hand and cognitive difficulties.  Another had a life-altering single-car crash in West Warwick on his drive home from seeing a friend's band in Westerly in 1996.

Pryor acknowledges there are a number of issues beyond building repairs that need to be addressed, including transportation options for people relocated to a remote, rural setting who are unlikely to have their own cars, and may have ended up homeless because of mental illness of substance-abuse problems.

On the first issue, he said, "My understanding is that Tri-County is exploring possibilities regarding transportation." On the second: "One of the points of discussion has been the potential for collaboration in meeting such needs ... All of this dialogue will continue through the the evaluation process, the planning process and the negotiation process."

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Cranston Armory situation 'heartbreaking'

As for what is happening at the armory in the meantime, Eileen Hayes, director of Amos House – the nonprofit agency that has been staffing the shelter – called the current situation "heartbreaking."

"We are feeling very sad and overwhelmed," she said at a news conference Friday. "The armory is not the place for folks to be sheltered. It's not a shelter. It was really a place to keep people alive. I wish that we had more alternatives.

"We saw this coming. We have a 54% increase in homelessness in the last couple of years. We're in terrible, terrible shape, mostly because we don't have [enough] permanent housing ... But that takes three to five years to build.

"So what we've been saying for the last four or five years, and specifically in the last two years [is], we need a transitional shelter plan for three to five years to keep people alive and safe while we build permanent supportive housing."

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: New homeless plan: 10 families to move to cottages on Zambarano grounds