2008 Woodie Awards
Tackling the issue of homelessness in the state
Aiden Redmond '08
Issue date: 10/5/06 Section: Commentary
- Page 1 of 2 next >
Finding a means to create supportive housing for Rhode Island's homeless population has been a back-and-forth struggle. For years, Providence's homeless have had few places to turn to for help. Even shelters that were developed to help those with no homes only perpetuated the serious problem.
According to Dr. Eric Hirsch, professor of sociology at Providence College and Government Relations Chair of the Coalition for the Homeless in Rhode Island, the homeless residents have to arrive each day at 4:30 p.m. and leave the next morning by 7:30 a.m., take communal showers with more than 100 people in same vicinity, and sleep in "congregate shelters" with 40 people in the same room.
"We need to do away with emergency shelters and start creating permanent housing for Rhode Island's homeless," said Hirsch.
One of the state's biggest opportunities to do so, he said, is to factor permanent housing into the new plans to develop a new $48-million police headquarters in Cranston, R.I.
This project will get rid of Rhode Island's largest homeless shelter, the Welcome Arnold House, in order to make room for the new police headquarters. The Welcome Arnold House provides shelter for approximately 100 individuals each day, and if the proposal were approved and the shelter destroyed, it would leave roughly 300 individuals roaming the streets of Rhode Island without a home.
Considering that there are about 6,400 homeless individuals in the state-a number that has increased by 45 percent throughout the past five years-the need for supportive housing is even greater than the need for a new police headquarters.
While the shelters that already exist in Rhode Island do provide homeless men and women with a roof over their heads, the living situations in the shelters is in no way befitting of any man or woman. Homeless shelters are notorious for the diseases that are commonly passed on to their residents, with some of the larger shelters even suffering from bed-bug infestations as of late, according to Hirsch.
According to Dr. Eric Hirsch, professor of sociology at Providence College and Government Relations Chair of the Coalition for the Homeless in Rhode Island, the homeless residents have to arrive each day at 4:30 p.m. and leave the next morning by 7:30 a.m., take communal showers with more than 100 people in same vicinity, and sleep in "congregate shelters" with 40 people in the same room.
"We need to do away with emergency shelters and start creating permanent housing for Rhode Island's homeless," said Hirsch.
One of the state's biggest opportunities to do so, he said, is to factor permanent housing into the new plans to develop a new $48-million police headquarters in Cranston, R.I.
This project will get rid of Rhode Island's largest homeless shelter, the Welcome Arnold House, in order to make room for the new police headquarters. The Welcome Arnold House provides shelter for approximately 100 individuals each day, and if the proposal were approved and the shelter destroyed, it would leave roughly 300 individuals roaming the streets of Rhode Island without a home.
Considering that there are about 6,400 homeless individuals in the state-a number that has increased by 45 percent throughout the past five years-the need for supportive housing is even greater than the need for a new police headquarters.
While the shelters that already exist in Rhode Island do provide homeless men and women with a roof over their heads, the living situations in the shelters is in no way befitting of any man or woman. Homeless shelters are notorious for the diseases that are commonly passed on to their residents, with some of the larger shelters even suffering from bed-bug infestations as of late, according to Hirsch.