Warwick and Woonsocket homeless encampments destroyed: 'It creates a crisis,' advocates say
WOONSOCKET – Residents of a tent encampment along the Blackstone River awoke on Wednesday to warnings they had a half-hour to pack up their possessions and leave before the site would be cleared.
“People lost tents. People lost sleeping bags. People lost clothes and food,” said Michelle P. Taylor, vice president of social health services at Community Care Alliance.
Advocates for unsheltered Rhode Islanders said they spent the day scrambling to find emergency shelter for the nine or so people who made the state-owned site on Truman Drive their home. At least one man has lived at the site for more than a year.
The dismantling of the encampment came at the direction of Department of Public Works Director Steven D'Agostino, town officials said.
D'Agostino said that workers noticed some broken tree limbs and downed trees in need of clearing and warned people "weeks ago" that they needed to move.
"Obviously, it's unsafe if you are going to be clearing trees. They were given options of different places to go. It's not a surprise," D'Agostino said.
"In case anyone didn't notice, it's winter. No one should be [living] outside," he continued.
He observed that there are several nonprofit organizations operating in the city. "Maybe they should be doing better," he said.
Those comments didn't sit well with the people working on the ground with the unsheltered community.
"The state of RI is experiencing a housing and homeless emergency; we have yet to come to grips with this fact. The people most impacted are families with children struggling with poverty as well as people with serious mental illness, addiction and other health related concerns. ... Bulldozing homeless encampments is not a solution, it only creates additional trauma. Without sufficient local shelter and supportive services, this approach does nothing other than to disperse people to other nearby locations," Benedict F. Lessing, Jr., CEO of the Community Care Alliance, said in an email.
Lessing said his organization has been pushing for months for additional shelter resources In Woonsocket.
"Unless the state and local municipalities work in collaboration with nonprofit organizations to develop more shelter, we will see more deaths and overdoses as we have recently. It is time for the governor and the General Assembly to declare this situation an emergency and work to resolve it in a comprehensive and dignified manner," Lessing said.
The move to disperse the encampment took place around 7:30 a.m., with several police officers on hand and assurances that transportation would be provided to the warming shelter set up by the state at the Cranston Street Armory in Providence, transportation that never arrived, Taylor said.
“They don’t want to leave Woonsocket,” Taylor said. “Their support system is here.”
Soon heavy equipment arrived, including a bulldozer and dump trucks, and began clearing the area without coordination with agencies that serve the unsheltered community, advocates said.
“It’s despicable,” Taylor said.
It is unclear exactly what notice the residents were provided. Someone from the city warned a couple of people that they couldn’t remain at that location last month and another warning came Tuesday with no follow-through.
“There’s no place for them to go. They want to stay in the city,” Taylor said, though several were provided emergency shelter in Smithfield.
The demolition of the encampment came just two weeks after a high-profile showdown between Gov. Dan McKee and residents who set up camp on the State House grounds. Rows of tents that occupied the State House entrance for months were hauled away less than 24 hours after Superior Court Judge David Cruise denied a bid to block the McKee administration from removing the encampment on free-speech grounds.
Taylor theorized Wednesday that the governor’s removal of that encampment had emboldened city and town leaders to take similar steps to displace vulnerable residents. In doing so, she said, leaders foist onto nonprofit and community agencies the responsibility of securing emergency housing for those being displaced, often bypassing the coordinated entry system managed by the Rhode Island Coalition to End Homelessness by bouncing people up to the top of the waitlist for housing.
“It creates a crisis that we have to respond to,” Taylor said.
“We don’t know whose call this was right now,” said Juan Espinoza, spokesman for the Rhode Island Coalition to End Homelessness.
Warwick encampment also cleared
Victor Fernandez witnessed another encampment near the Route 295 north ramp in Warwick being similarly cleared around 10 a.m. Wednesday, a sight he found very unnerving as he just secured shelter space for himself and his 11-year-old son last month after living in a truck for three months.
"They smashed the whole thing up quick. Right in the dumpster, everybody's stuff," Fernandez said. "It could have been us."
An email to McKee’s communications staff was not returned Wednesday. Woonsocket Mayor Lisa Baldelli-Hunt and Councilman Christopher Beauchamp also did not respond to phone messages.
As of Nov. 3, 507 people were living outside in Rhode Island, according to the coalition.
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: 'It creates a crisis' advocates say of homeless encampment demolition
