Tents set up in front of City Hall: Protesters demand Providence do more to help homeless

Wheeler Cowperthwaite, Providence Journal
Updated ·3 min read

PROVIDENCE − Chris Reilly stood in front of the gated entrance to City Hall on Wednesday morning after helping to set up tents on the steps, including one reserved for Mayor Brett Smiley.

Reilly, 31, said he has been experiencing homelessness for close to a year after his landlord raised the rent from $900 to $1,400 on the Pawtucket home he shared with his mother and grandmother, forcing them out.

Now, Reilly sleeps under a building awning in downtown, while his family sleeps in cars by the river in Pawtucket.

Reilly was one of the people protesting Smiley's response to the drastic increase in unsheltered people in Providence in the face of the coming winter.

Rhode Island Homeless Advocacy Project Director Eric Hirsch said in May that the mayor said he was working on finding a place to put "pallet shelters" in the city, seen as an alternative to congregate living and a way to keep people from freezing to death or suffering from frostbite. Advocates set up a pallet shelter at the State House last year to demonstrate its ease and efficacy.

Chris Reilly protests Providence's lack of progress toward providing shelter for the unhoused at a rally Wednesday at City Hall.
Chris Reilly protests Providence's lack of progress toward providing shelter for the unhoused at a rally Wednesday at City Hall.

Housing Secretary Stefan Pryor said during a recent news conference that the state is trying to increase the winter shelter beds 30% over last year in advance of colder temperatures.

As part of those efforts, Pawtucket and Providence were both likely candidates for the first pallet shelter initiative of 30 to 45 tiny buildings.

Advocates last protested at City Hall on Oct. 5, where they sang, chanted and shared stories in front of Smiley's office while demanding an end to police raids of homeless encampments and that the city do more than give money to the state for shelter spaces.

"The mayor says quality of life issues are important, but what about the quality of life of people living outside this winter?" Hirsch said.

While Smiley touts the number of ATVs he has seized and destroyed, he is mum on the subject of housing for the city's unsheltered population, which has rocketed since the onset of the pandemic, Hirsch said.

Where would Providence pallet shelters go?

Hirsch said he thinks Pryor and state officials are making strong efforts to create new shelter spaces and more places to put emergency housing, but are running into obstinate and uncooperative municipal leaders.

In an email, Smiley's spokesman, Josh Estrella, wrote that the city is communicating with providers and working with the state but has not yet found a site for the shelters.

Dead by 53: The high health cost of being homeless

What shelter is available?

Reilly had been staying for a few months at the Open Doors shelter in Pawtucket, the only shelter building in the state owned by a municipality, but found he was getting depressed in the congregate setting after a friend died and he instead decided to sleep outside.

Activists placed tents on the front steps of Providence City Hall on Wednesday to protest the lack of shelter space for the unhoused offered by the city as winter approaches.
Activists placed tents on the front steps of Providence City Hall on Wednesday to protest the lack of shelter space for the unhoused offered by the city as winter approaches.

Last winter, Reilly was at the Cranston Street Armory, after being discharged from a local hospital.

With 1,661 people seeking shelter in Rhode Island's system and only 1,125 beds available, at least 536 people need shelter beds that do not exist,according to data provided by the Rhode Island Coalition to End Homelessness.

The need for shelter beds is expected to rise 33% during the winter, according to Coalition to End Homelessness Chief Strategy Officer Jennifer Barrera.

The Coalition to End Homelessness estimates that at least 536 new shelter beds are needed, on top of the 33% increase that comes during the winter, based on the current inventory of 1,125 shelter beds and 1,661 people in shelter or seeking shelter.

Eric Hirsch, right, at a protest on Wednesday at Providence City Hall, over the lack of shelter for the unhoused population.
Eric Hirsch, right, at a protest on Wednesday at Providence City Hall, over the lack of shelter for the unhoused population.

Reilly said he just wants an apartment for himself and for his family – a place where he can lock the door, that is heated and cooled.

"I'd be so happy, be so blessed," he said.

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Reach reporter Wheeler Cowperthwaite at wcowperthwaite@providencejournal.com or follow him on Twitter @WheelerReporter.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Advocates say more homeless shelter beds in RI needed before winter