The state's largest homeless shelter, Welcome Arnold, will close its doors this morning to make way for a new state police barracks at the Pastore complex in Cranston. The state has made efforts to accommodate those who seek a bed there each evening, but a number of individuals don't know where they will be sleeping tonight.
According to the Urban League of Rhode Island, the capacity of Welcome Arnold is 114, but "we don't have a night where there have been over 100 people at the shelter," said Noreen Shawcross, chief of housing and community development for Rhode Island.
But that figure was questioned by Jim Ryczek, executive director of the Rhode Island Coalition for the Homeless and chair of the Implementation Committee - the committee assigned by the Office of Homelessness and Emergency Assistance to address the needs of Rhode Island's homeless community - who said the number is not accurate.
"The nature of a night-to-night facility is that the 100 people staying there one night may be very different from the 100 people staying there the next night. There are more than 100 people that use the facility on a monthly basis. We estimate between 150 and 200 people regularly use the facility," he said.
On Monday, the Office of Housing and Community Development announced "Operation First Step," a plan to replace the Welcome Arnold shelter with smaller, community-based shelters.
"The biggest challenge has been doing this over a very short time frame," Shawcross said. The state decided not to open another large contract shelter in December and began to make requests for alternate solutions in early January, she said. Housing placement decisions were made in late January.
Ryczek says the state has "not been having much luck" placing Welcome Arnold residents in other facilities. "It has been pushed off and pushed off. They are replacing 100 beds with 100 beds in the community. I commend that decision - it was our idea. But our idea didn't include just 100 beds. The facility doesn't represent 100 people."
In a June 9, 2006, press release, Governor Donald Carcieri '65 said, "I have pledged to ensure that every individual using that facility is accommodated before construction begins."
But, Ryczek said, according to an official count conducted by the Rhode Island Coalition for the Homeless Monday morning, there are 48 people who have applied for housing and have not been referred.
"I don't know if I agree with those numbers, I don't know where they came from," Shawcross said. "It is a very mobile population. We will have 12 women counted at one meeting, and by the next, six have disappeared. I don't think it is that cut and dry," she said.
Shawcross said she plans to be at Crossroads of Rhode Island, a major Providence shelter, today and tomorrow to "assess further need."
"The program that the state is funding is 95 beds," Ryczek said. "I have trouble balancing my checkbook, but even I know that 95 is less than 100."
Shawcross said the state had two major priorities when deciding eligibility for a replacement bed - placing people who have been staying at Welcome Arnold almost every night and women. The homeless are often housed in facilities that separate them by sex, and there are traditionally fewer beds for women.
"Operation First Step is a better way of providing assistance to people, a better level of case management and a greater level of dignity than can be provided in any large night-by-night shelter," Shawcross said.
Operation First Step will place former residents of Welcome Arnold at several locations, including Crossroads of Rhode Island, which is providing a 20-bed emergency assessment shelter, and 20 beds each at Amos House of Providence and the Mental Health Consumer Advocates of Rhode Island in Providence, Ryczek said. The latter program will place women in a rented house and men in four rented apartments, Ryczek said.
Ryczek commended the governor's decision to switch to a community-based program, adding that it gives residents more stability and more access to case managers.
Yet he says there is still work to be done. "With Welcome Arnold's closing this Thursday, there will be no night-to-night shelter in Rhode Island," he said.
"If a new woman comes into Crossroads and all these beds are filled up, there is nowhere for her to go. ... Forty-eight people have nowhere to go Thursday night," he said.
"We have no long list of demands. All we ask is that you keep Welcome Arnold open until everyone has a bed," said Dave St. Germain - "Doc" to his fellow residents at Welcome Arnold shelter. "I was there when Welcome Arnold opened 15 years ago. I once said, 'I was there when Welcome Arnold opened, and I expect I'll be there the day it closes,' " he said.
St. Germain admits that conditions at Welcome Arnold were far from ideal. Up to 20 people were housed per room at Welcome Arnold, St. Germain said.
"The shelter opens at 5 p.m. At 5:30 a.m. you wake up. You must be out the door by 6:30 a.m. every single morning. There are uncomfortable beds with bedbugs and other rodents in the room," he said. "The toilets don't have doors. How can you live with dignity when you have to sh*t with the door open?"
St. Germain will have a place to sleep after Thursday - he has been placed in a studio apartment by the Riverwood program, a pilot program that recently placed 50 homeless people in apartments.
"In the end, it is about dignity, respect and common sense," said Elizabeth Ochs '07.5, co-chair of Housing Opportunities for People Everywhere. "We would not ask someone with a home to leave their home without a place to go. This is also the case for the residents of Welcome Arnold, some of whom have lived there for many years."
"In the long term, the goal is not to keep Welcome Arnold open indefinitely," Ochs said, citing the issues of dignity and cleanliness addressed by St. Germain. "The way to get out of homelessness is to give people a place to stay with supportive service simultaneously," Ochs said.
Members of HOPE have been meeting with residents of Welcome Arnold to do organizing work, spread the word about rallies and aid them in filling out applications for alternate housing once the facility closes. "So many of the problems in the state dealing with homelessness come back to the issue of communication," Ochs said. "I feel like a lot of problems would not have come to this stage if there was better communication."
HOPE helped to organize a rally at the State House Wednesday afternoon. Organizers, students and members of the homeless community set up tents on the State House lawn. Several members of the homeless community said they planned to sleep in these tents in protest last night.
Eric Windehal - who was not assigned housing by "Operation First Step" - said he planned to occupy one of those tents last night. "I am a decorated veteran and I had to sleep in a dumpster last night. There is something wrong with that," he said.
Protesters marched to the State House yesterday chanting, "Governor Carcieri, keep your promise," and then maintained a silent vigil inside, holding a banner quoting Gov. Carcieri's 2006 pledge to accommodate all residents before construction began.
