Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza and other city officials announced new measures Wednesday designed to address homelessness in Providence. The city awarded Crossroads Rhode Island, the state’s largest service provider for people experiencing homelessness, a $495,000 grant to bring its services to the streets.
“These dollars will assist them in helping individuals to either regain permanent housing, or enter a shelter or transitional housing program,” Elorza said, even as he acknowledged the overwhelming scope of the city’s growing homelessness crisis.
“The needs far outstrip the existing resources, and even a half a million dollar investment, that’s not enough,” he said.
The half-million-dollars in funding will allow Crossroads to fund a mobile diversion program, including hiring two new staff members to hit the streets and talk to people experiencing homelessness where they are, rather than doing outreach over the phone, online, or in their offices.
“We have not traditionally had the resources to be able to send someone out [and] connect,” said Karen Santilli, president and CEO of Crossroads.
Outreach starts with asking questions, Santilli said, like “Where did you sleep last night? Why can’t you sleep there tonight? Can we help you?”
From there, Crossroads staff can help people find shelter beds, connect them with organizations working around substance abuse, and offer immediate financial help.
The new grant comes after the city has spent $5.5 million dollars on the homelessness crisis since the beginning of the pandemic, Elorza said. The Providence City Council approved this allocation of American Rescue Plan Act funding at a meeting in July.
“There’s a time when you have to do what’s right,” said Councilwoman Mary Kay Harris, who represents Ward 11, which includes parts of Upper South Providence and the West End. “And that time is now.”
Harris introduced a resolution in June of this year calling on the mayor to work with the council and community groups to address the growing homelessness crisis. Weeks later, the Council created a housing crisis task force.
According to the most recent data, the number of people experiencing homelessness in Rhode Island grew by 15% in 2020, as the pandemic took its toll.
“I’m talking about this from a crisis perspective,” Harris said. “Right now we operate in an immediate need. We have to take action.”
The Rhode Island Foundation, the Providence Foundation, and the Downtown Improvement District also announced new funding aimed at reducing homelessness in the city. The organizations are launching the Healthy and Safe Providence Fund, an initiative to bring similar services to people who are unhoused in the downtown area specifically.
“Too often I hear the expression, ‘We need to get rid of those people, we need to move those people,’” said Neil Steinberg, president and CEO of the Rhode Island Foundation.
“There is not a ‘those people,’” he continued. “There’s a person who lost their job, there’s a person who had trauma”
The nonprofits aim to raise $300,000 by the end of 2021. The Rhode Island Foundation has pledged $100,000 as a matching gift if external donations surpass $200,000 by the end of the calendar year.
These new local efforts are just a piece of the puzzle, Elorza said.
“All of the causes, and perhaps even all of the solutions, don’t lie at the city level,” the mayor said. “But when you look at the challenges, they almost entirely manifest themselves at the city level.”
For the past 8 nights, several people have slept in tents outside the Rhode Island state house in protest of the lack of action to address homelessness as winter settles in.
Last month, Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee announced $5 million dollars in funding to create 275 additional shelter beds across the state. Earlier this week, the governor said he has created a team that will focus on increasing shelter capacity and moving people into permanent housing.
That’s a goal Karen Santilli of Crossroads shares. The organization has a year to spend the new grant funding, which she hopes will provide much-needed immediate relief. But long term, she wants to see people housed.
“That’s the end goal,” she said. “And in the meantime, this immediate crisis intervention is what we have to do to keep people safe until we can house them.”
Editor’s note: The Rhode Island Foundation is among the financial supporters of The Public’s Radio.
