The Providence Police Department plans to clear out two of the city’s largest homeless encampments next week, according to a letter PPD sent to homelessness advocates and obtained by The Public’s Radio.
Roughly 50 people currently live in tents in the encampments, which are off different sections of Branch Ave., according to Paula Hudson, director of Better Lives Rhode Island, a nonprofit that provides services to unhoused people.
“This is akin to moving the deck chairs around the Titanic,” Hudson said. “Nothing is going to change. There’s still going to be — we’re going to have homeless people.”
Hudson said it’s frustrating to see the city push people out without providing anywhere for them to go.
“As if they are just disposable,” Hudson said. “What, [should] we put them in the landfill? Where do we go with them?”
On May 10, police plan to give residents of the encampments 48 hours to clear out, according to the letter, which was signed by Michael Stephens, PPD’s director of community relations.
In the letter, Stephens says the police department plans to clear one of the properties because of soil contamination.
“This site is undergoing active site investigation and mitigation due to soils containing contaminant levels above [Rhode Island Department of the Environment] Residential Direct Exposure Criteria,” Stephens wrote.
Josh Estrella, press secretary for Providence Mayor Brett Smiley, called the encampments “a serious safety concern” and confirmed the city’s plans to clear them out.
“One property is undergoing active site mitigation and exposure remains a serious safety concern,” Estrella wrote in an email. “The other is located between a highway on-ramp and off-ramp. Both have received multiple complaints and concerns from neighbors.”
Before issuing the notice to vacate, the city works with providers to “provide outreach, support and services to the varying individuals that have occupied the property,” Estrella wrote.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the Rhode Island Department of Housing wrote that when a municipality determines that an encampment is unsafe, the department “aims to ensure that, working with municipal officials and outreach professionals, individuals at the encampment are given adequate notice and are referred to available housing, emergency shelter, and services.”
Durell Parker is one of the people the city’s plans would displace. He has been living in a tent in the clearing off I-95 near Branch Ave. for the past several months. He said he wasn’t surprised when he heard he’d have to move
“It’s like rinse, repeat, rinse, repeat,” Parker said. “Everybody gets relocated. They never have anywhere for anybody to go.”
Parker said he has been chronically homeless for several years. He plans to look for somewhere discreet to set up camp again, though he doesn’t expect it to last.
“The thing that’s really, really crazy is, how long before it happens again? That’s the ultimate question,” Parker said. “How long this time? Am I going to be able to get into housing before that?”
This story has been updated to include a response from the Rhode Island Department of Housing.
