Homeless in RI: CES Out, Regional Hubs In. Programs Funded. Transparency, Effectiveness Questioned

This is a developing story – will be updated.

Governor McKee and The Executive Office of Housing Fund today announced approximately $20 million in tentative awards to 25 service providers for 51 projects across Rhode Island to support year-round emergency shelters, essential services, and critical reforms that will make it easier for Rhode Islanders experiencing homelessness to access shelter and housing-focused services.

Transparency – ROI – Engagement

Within hours of the press release, several advocacy groups contacted each other and this publication questioning how this money compares to last year’s, what is the transparency, and how were existing programs evaluated before being allocated a new round of money. ROI, when talking about people, is a difficult thing, but when money is in the tens, if not hundreds of millions when considering private funds and federal funds combined, it is an important thing. A group of advocates are meeting today to question how it was determined who would be funded, and how much money is being allocated and for what purpose. More on these concerns in our next article.

In announcing the information by press release yesterday afternoon, the Governor’s office noted that he wanted “to create sustainable funding sources…from state-generated funding”:

$20 Million in Year-Round Shelters, Services, and Homelessness Prevention

• Regional Access Points to replace single phone line for placement
• System improvements yield more than $10 million in savings
• Executive Office of Housing completes phase-out of hotels for emergency shelter

One Coordinated Entry System (CES) Replaced by 7 Regional Access Hubs 

New this year, individuals seeking shelter placement will no longer need to rely on a single statewide hotline for shelter access. Instead, seven Regional Access Points—including one mobile unit—will serve as one-stop hubs for shelter referrals, housing problem-solving, and crisis response services.

“We are focused on addressing homelessness in a way that is both compassionate and effective, ensuring Rhode Islanders in crisis can quickly access shelter and the services they need,†said Governor Dan McKee. “Through these investments, we are building a more sustainable system that provides stability and pathways to housing.â€

Response from the Executive Office of Housing to CES changes. We asked the Housing Office if the CES changes had to do with federal changes on waiting lists – their response: “The decision to shift away from using CES for emergency shelter referrals was a state-level decision, unrelated to any potential policy changes at the federal level. This decision was based on the Executive Office of Housing’s own assessment of system performance and the need for a more efficient, responsive, and holistic approach to emergency shelter placements. 

62 Fewer Beds, $13Million Less – but no approaches

Despite a significant reduction in available federal funds, Rhode Island is maintaining nearly the same year-round shelter capacity as last year—1,327 beds this year for approximately $20M compared to 1,389 beds last year for approximately $33M—due to data-driven cost caps, as well as innovative approaches from providers.

The funding will support: 

• Year-round emergency shelters and essential services
• Street outreach teams to connect unsheltered individuals statewide to housing solutions
• Rapid rehousing and housing problem-solving to prevent homelessness and speed transitions to permanent housing
• Regional Access Points (RAPs), replacing the former statewide Coordinated Entry System call line for shelter referrals

In the announcement it says, “We listened to providers and advocates to understand what wasn’t working—and we acted,†said Secretary of Housing Deborah Goddard. “These reforms make our system stronger and more coordinated. Regional Access Points, investments in prevention and diversion programs, and a cost-effective year-round shelter system are major steps toward a housing-focused response that reduces barriers and connects people to resources more effectively.

Today’s announcement also marks the wind-down of the last remaining hotel-based emergency shelter funded by the Executive Office of Housing, completing a transition that began more than a year ago. Hotel shelters were introduced during the pandemic but proved costly and limited the ability to provide comprehensive wraparound services.

“Transitioning away from hotel-based shelters is about using taxpayer dollars wisely and ensuring providers can deliver wrap-around services more efficiently and effectively,†Goddard added.

The Executive Office of Housing will continue working with advocates, providers, and municipalities to strengthen Rhode Island’s homelessness response system and help more individuals transition into permanent housing.

See below for a list of tentative awards to providers for year-round shelter, essential services, and critical reforms. The approximate $20 million in state dollars was combined with more than $900,000 in other funding invested by entitlement cities and other sources.

Amos House

– Essential Services $400,000.00

– Fam & Older Adult Shelter $3,750,000.00

– Harrington Hall Meal Service $301,665.60

– OFS $350,000.00

Better Lives RI 

– Pete & Andy’s $78,000.00

– Street Outreach & Drop-in $520,000.00

Blackstone Valley Advocacy Center 

– DV Emergency Shelter $488,966.67

Catholic Social Services 

– Emmanuel House $700,000.00

Child and Family 

– Supportive Housing $134,265.00

Community Care Alliance 

– Dignity Bus $180,000.00

– CCA Housing Problem Solving  $100,000.00

– CCA Street Outreach/Access Point $246,154.27

– Woonsocket Family Shelter $285,000.00

Crossroads RI 

Domestic Violence Shelter $245,000.00

Family Shelter $475,000.00

Harrington Hall $900,000.00

Hartford Ave $520,000.00

HPS, Mobile Diversion, Regional Access Point, & Day Services $1,200,000.00

Rapid Rehousing $1,650,000.00

Women’s Shelter $525,000.00

Domestic Violence Resource Center 

Emergency Shelter $55,000.00

Elizabeth Buffum Chace Center 

Permanent Supportive Housing $110,000.00

Phase II Shelter $78,000.00

Safe Shelter $10,000.00

Family Services of RI 

Housing Stabilization $375,000.00

Foster Forward 

Rapid Rehousing $153,600.00

Supportive Services $58,122.98

Haus of Codec 

Emergency Shelter $130,000.00

House of Hope 

ECHO Village $585,000.00

Enhanced Street Outreach $400,000.00

Lucy’s Hearth 

Emergency Shelter $824,591.97

McCauley Ministries 

Case Management & Transportation $55,270.11

Newport Mental Health 

Newport Street Outreach & Regional Access Point $210,233.07

Open Doors 

Pawtucket Regional Access Point $113,150.00

Pawtucket Shelter (1139) $1,421,614.10

Providence Shelter (Plainfield Men’s) $297,000.00

Pawtucket Housing Authority 

Rapid Rehousing $250,000.00

RI Coalition to End Homelessness 

Constituent Services $58,602.28

HMIS $420,000.00

Sojourner House 

DV Regional Access Point $150,000.00

Rapid Rehousing $215,000.00

Safe House for Victims of Abuse #1 $98,972.50

Safe House for Victims of Abuse #2 $203,335.00

RI Legal Services 

Homeless Prevention & Diversion $400,000.00

Thrive 

Housing Problem Solving $120,000.00

Street Outreach $150,000.00

Turning Around Ministries 

Day Center $50,000.00

Washington Square Services Corp. 

McKinney Shelter $145,000.00

WARM 

Emergency Shelter $700,000.00

Rapid Rehousing $180,000.00

Street Outreach & Regional Access $300,000.00

These grants and programs are not necessarily inclusive – one program run by Open Doors already has funding in place in Woonsocket for a shelter program.

We asked the Executive Office of Housing if this funding is complete for the year for homelessness. Their response: “The agencies listed in the press release are the only ones that received funding through the CHF FY 2026 Application Process. However, they are not the only ones that may receive state funding this year.  In the coming weeks, we’ll be releasing a separate solicitation focused on winter-specific shelter and services. This may result in the same as well as additional agencies and municipalities receiving seasonal funding for beds, support services, and other efforts to assist Rhode Islanders experiencing homelessness.”

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Emergency Cooling and Heating Shelters

Last year, the RI EMA was designated to keep the list. Who gathers and coordinates getting facilities open and ready for emergency shelter in severe weather issues of winter or summer has yet to be specifically detailed. Every climate emergency results in a scattering of well-meaning people trying to put together an accurate list – often the most effective are volunteers not working for any agency, or fire chiefs and police and city/town officials.

Point in Time

The national Point in Time count is expected to go away this year. It is a one day count of homeless individuals who are living unhoused, most commonly in encampments or out in public. Last year the exhaustive effort, locally, was almost to the person as accurate as a radio host (WPRO’s Tara Granahan) accomplished by calling all 39 city/town police officials for their estimate.

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Executive Order of the President

In July, President Trump signed an Executive Order which we reported on – we reprint that order here, addressing Homelessness – of particular relevance is Section 3, speaking to encampments. Section 4, on individual programs. Section 5, on program evaluation.

EXECUTIVE ORDER – ENDING CRIME AND DISORDER ON AMERICA’S STREETS

Section 1.  Purpose and Policy.  Endemic vagrancy, disorderly behavior, sudden confrontations, and violent attacks have made our cities unsafe.  The number of individuals living on the streets in the United States on a single night during the last year of the previous administration — 274,224 — was the highest ever recorded.  The overwhelming majority of these individuals are addicted to drugs, have a mental health condition, or both.  Nearly two-thirds of homeless individuals report having regularly used hard drugs like methamphetamines, cocaine, or opioids in their lifetimes.  An equally large share of homeless individuals reported suffering from mental health conditions.  The Federal Government and the States have spent tens of billions of dollars on failed programs that address homelessness but not its root causes, leaving other citizens vulnerable to public safety threats.

Shifting homeless individuals into long-term institutional settings for humane treatment through the appropriate use of civil commitment will restore public order.  Surrendering our cities and citizens to disorder and fear is neither compassionate to the homeless nor other citizens.  My Administration will take a new approach focused on protecting public safety.

Sec. 2.  Restoring Civil Commitment.  (a)  The Attorney General, in consultation with the Secretary of Health and Human Services, shall take appropriate action to:

(i)   seek, in appropriate cases, the reversal of Federal or State judicial precedents and the termination of consent decrees that impede the United States’ policy of encouraging civil commitment of individuals with mental illness who pose risks to themselves or the public or are living on the streets and cannot care for themselves in appropriate facilities for appropriate periods of time; and

(ii)  provide assistance to State and local governments, through technical guidance, grants, or other legally available means, for the identification, adoption, and implementation of maximally flexible civil commitment, institutional treatment, and “step-down†treatment standards that allow for the appropriate commitment and treatment of individuals with mental illness who pose a danger to others or are living on the streets and cannot care for themselves.

Sec. 3.  Fighting Vagrancy on America’s Streets.  (a)  The Attorney General, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, and the Secretary of Transportation shall take immediate steps to assess their discretionary grant programs and determine whether priority for those grants may be given to grantees in States and municipalities that actively meet the below criteria, to the maximum extent permitted by law:

(i)    enforce prohibitions on open illicit drug use;

(ii)   enforce prohibitions on urban camping and loitering;

(iii)  enforce prohibitions on urban squatting;

(iv)   enforce, and where necessary, adopt, standards that address individuals who are a danger to themselves or others and suffer from serious mental illness or substance use disorder, or who are living on the streets and cannot care for themselves, through assisted outpatient treatment or by moving them into treatment centers or other appropriate facilities via civil commitment or other available means, to the maximum extent permitted by law; or

(v)    substantially implement and comply with, to the extent required, the registration and notification obligations of the Sex Offender Registry and Notification Act, particularly in the case of registered sex offenders with no fixed address, including by adequately mapping and checking the location of homeless sex offenders.

(b)  The Attorney General shall:

(i)    ensure that homeless individuals arrested for Federal crimes are evaluated, consistent with 18 U.S.C. 4248, to determine whether they are sexually dangerous persons and certified accordingly for civil commitment;

(ii)   take all necessary steps to ensure the availability of funds under the Emergency Federal Law Enforcement Assistance program to support, as consistent with 34 U.S.C. 50101 et seq., encampment removal efforts in areas for which public safety is at risk and State and local resources are inadequate;

(iii)  assess Federal resources to determine whether they may be directed toward ensuring, to the extent permitted by law, that detainees with serious mental illness are not released into the public because of a lack of forensic bed capacity at appropriate local, State, and Federal jails or hospitals; and

(iv)   enhance requirements that prisons and residential reentry centers that are under the authority of the Attorney General or receive funding from the Attorney General require in-custody housing release plans and, to the maximum extent practicable, require individuals to comply.

Sec. 4.  Redirecting Federal Resources Toward Effective Methods of Addressing Homelessness.  (a)  The Secretary of Health and Human Services shall take appropriate action to:

(i)    ensure that discretionary grants issued by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration for substance use disorder prevention, treatment, and recovery fund evidence-based programs and do not fund programs that fail to achieve adequate outcomes, including so-called “harm reduction†or “safe consumption†efforts that only facilitate illegal drug use and its attendant harm;

(ii)   provide technical assistance to assisted outpatient treatment programs for individuals with serious mental illness or addiction during and after the civil commitment process focused on shifting such individuals off of the streets and public programs and into private housing and support networks; and

(iii)  ensure that Federal funds for Federally Qualified Health Centers and Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics reduce rather than promote homelessness by supporting, to the maximum extent permitted by law, comprehensive services for individuals with serious mental illness and substance use disorder, including crisis intervention services.

(b)  The Attorney General shall prioritize available funding to support the expansion of drug courts and mental health courts for individuals for which such diversion serves public safety.

Sec. 5.  Increasing Accountability and Safety in America’s Homelessness Programs.  (a)  The Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development shall take appropriate actions to increase accountability in their provision of, and grants awarded for, homelessness assistance and transitional living programs.  These actions shall include, to the extent permitted by law, ending support for “housing first†policies that deprioritize accountability and fail to promote treatment, recovery, and self-sufficiency; increasing competition among grantees through broadening the applicant pool; and holding grantees to higher standards of effectiveness in reducing homelessness and increasing public safety.

(b)  The Secretary of Housing and Urban Development shall, as appropriate, take steps to require recipients of Federal housing and homelessness assistance to increase requirements that persons participating in the recipients’ programs who suffer from substance use disorder or serious mental illness use substance abuse treatment or mental health services as a condition of participation.

(c)  With respect to recipients of Federal housing and homelessness assistance that operate drug injection sites or “safe consumption sites,†knowingly distribute drug paraphernalia, or permit the use or distribution of illicit drugs on property under their control:

(i)   the Attorney General shall review whether such recipients are in violation of Federal law, including 21 U.S.C. 856, and bring civil or criminal actions in appropriate cases; and

(ii)  the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, in coordination with the Attorney General, shall review whether such recipients are in violation of the terms of the programs pursuant to which they receive Federal housing and homelessness assistance and freeze their assistance as appropriate.

(d)  The Secretary of Housing and Urban Development shall take appropriate measures and revise regulations as necessary to allow, where permissible under applicable law, federally funded programs to exclusively house women and children and to stop sex offenders who receive homelessness assistance through such programs from being housed with unrelated children.

(e)  The Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, in consultation with the Attorney General and the Secretary of Health and Human Services, shall, as appropriate and to the extent permitted by law:

(i)   allow or require the recipients of Federal funding for homelessness assistance to collect health-related information that the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development identifies as necessary to the effective and efficient operation of the funding program from all persons to whom such assistance is provided; and

(ii)  require those funding recipients to share such data with law enforcement authorities in circumstances permitted by law and to use the collected health data to provide appropriate medical care to individuals with mental health diagnoses or to connect individuals to public health resources.

Sec. 6.  General Provisions.  (a)  Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:

(i)   the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or the head thereof; or

(ii)  the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.

(b)  This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.

(c)  This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.

(d)  The costs for publication of this order shall be borne by the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

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Ending Encampments under way – yet some still soliciting tents and sleeping bags

One small nonprofit echos what many have done over the years – as fall gets closer, they put out the word for sleeping bags and tents – a broken Halleluia as one advocate says – we’re giving them tents in one hand and with the other they know they can’t stay outside, and in some cities and towns, they’ll lose everything if they do and even risk arrest.

Yet -some agencies continue on:

When we asked the state about homeless advocate agencies soliciting for tents and sleeping bags, the Housing Department said they were unaware of any agency doing so, which was not the question, and did not weigh in on the solicitation’s purpose.