Homeless in RI: Memorial Hospital plans on hold, Fall River clean-up, Street Sights newsletter

Memorial Hospital plan to become emergency homeless shelter hits snag

After RINewsToday reported on Open Doors’ plan to move their clients from the Motel 6 in Warwick to Memorial Hospital in Pawtucket, we learned that Pawtucket is now going through a building opposition to using the hospital campus building for this purpose. After rumblings became louder, the Mayor’s office noted that the initiative is on hold as the Pawtucket City Council wanted more information.

At its last Council meeting, members of the council and the public questioned the campus and the close proximity of private homes bearing such a large burden of a statewide problem. In the Valley Breeze, it was noted: “The deed clearly states that the property may only be used for residential and health care related services provided primarily to U.S. military veterans and their families, ambulatory medical care and/or physician offices or residency programs, medical training or research, and an inpatient hospital, but for “no other use or purpose.”

It was noted that the last time the hospital property was used for a homeless program, it did not follow these rules and was in violation of it.

However, Open Doors is now in a tight spot with Hotel 6 being announced to vacate and not being approved to move to Pawtucket. 700 police calls a month happen at the Warwick location. There are also several – about a dozen – registered sex offenders residing as clients of Open Doors in Warwick. The hotel is directly to the side of a day care center.

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Fall River Encampment Clean-Up

Members of the community, tired of asking for “some” department or group to do it, took matters into their own hands and planned several clean up dates for the Blackstone Valley Corridor property, in Fall River, which also has encampments for the homeless scattered about. The Mayor showed up at the first of several scheduled clean ups, saying that the city has a “Fast Team” that responds to the encampments once or twice a week to help with addiction of treatment, noting that they have to get tough sometimes to get people to access services. The clean-up happened around the homeless tents with some interaction and a promise to be back to help.

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StreetSights – March 2025 issue

We’re proud to print Rhode Island’s only newsletter by and for the homeless community – in coordination with Janice Luongo. Here is the March issue:

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Homeless Data Dashboard in Code

Governor McKee’s office sent out a press release noting that “the RI Department of Housing launched a dashboard that depicts shelter bed utilization for the prior night as well as the total number of beds in the system”.    

The availability is divided into two categories: individual beds and family units. Per its intended use, each family unit contains multiple beds so families can shelter together.

Emergency hubs and warming shelter beds are not included in this data, as they are open only during severe weather situations.  

Programs are not identified – only given a project ID – and no location or operating entity.

The dashboard is designed to help the state monitor the usage of available shelters. This dashboard is not intended to be a placement tool for individuals experiencing homelessness and should not be viewed as a predictor of real-time or future bed availability. 

All information used to update the dashboard is provided to the State by the Rhode Island Coalition to End Homelessness and shelter providers.  

It is noted that the Dashboard says it is updated daily. Below is a snapshot on February 14th. As of last night, March 10th, that of the 1,514 beds available, there were only 14 individual beds unused and 60 family shelter units unused. These are official programs known by RI Housing, and there may be others.

According to the Coalition: This dashboard is a high-level shelter capacity tracking tool that depicts shelter bed utilization for the prior night as well as the total number of beds in the system.

The dashboard is available – in interactive form – on the Department of Housing website:   Homelessness Data Dashboard | Department of Housing

Notably, shelter locations coded with no identifying information as to where they are or who runs them. We have a full utilization report that can be matched with the Project ID #s.