Woonsocket added armrests to park benches. Why they're being called 'hostile architecture.'
WOONSOCKET – New "anti-homeless architecture" is causing a stir in this city.
More than a dozen benches in Social Park now have center armrests, making it impossible to lie down. The park is known as a place where people experiencing homelessness spend time and sometimes sleep on the benches, so there's little doubt that the move was "targeted," according to Alex Kithes, the executive director of the advocacy group Rebuild Woonsocket.
“It’s an act of violence," Kithes said in a news release.
What is hostile architecture?
Kithes characterized the armrests as an example of hostile architecture, a term used to describe design features like curved benches or spiked windowsills that might not be noticeable to the average person, but make public spaces uncomfortable and inhospitable for people looking for a place to sleep.
"This is something where it’s sold as city beautification, but has no legitimate value to the city," Kithes said in an interview, arguing that the city should instead invest in affordable housing.
Journalist says he was threatened with arrest for reporting on them
Mayor Lisa Baldelli-Hunt's office did not respond to a request for comment. When independent journalist Steve Ahlquist went to the park, he wrote that he was confronted by a man who appeared to be a Public Works employee saying the armrests were "for senior citizens to rest their arms," after threatening to have Ahlquist arrested if he touched them.
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It's not clear when the armrests were installed — Kithes said that he first became aware of them a few days ago – but vandals appear to have taken aim at them already. When Ahlquist was at the park, the man confronting him, who was wearing a t-shirt with the words "Public Services" and the city's seal, asked if he was using a tool to remove bolts.
"We already had three people try to remove these," the man said, in a video that Ahlquist recorded and posted to his site Substack. "We had to come back and reattach them." He later added: "You know how malicious they are."
Ahlquist, who practices what is sometimes termed "advocacy journalism" and previously wrote for the left-leaning website UpriseRI, noted that Social Park was where an unhoused man named Allan Charette was found dead after a cold night in January. His body was discovered on one of the benches.
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"Imagine sleeping in your comfy warm bed at night, knowing that there are people sleeping outside, unsheltered and suffering, & your only thought is that unhoused people might be too comfortable sleeping on hard park benches, exposed to the elements," Ahlquist wrote on Twitter.
Kithes, a former member of the Woonsocket City Council and frequent critic of of city government, noted that the Department of Public Works demolished a homeless encampment on the Blackstone River back in January, a move that was widely criticized by advocates.
He described the armrests as the latest in a long string of "attacks" on the local unhoused population.
"The city has recently begun coordinating with the community to implement small-scale Band-Aid solutions, and for that we're thankful," Rebuild Woonsocket's news release stated. "But we need large-scale, systemic fixes to the housing crisis."
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: 'Hostile architecture' in Woonsocket park draws fire from activists
