A tent and covered supermarket cart are shown in November off the bike path in the north end of Newport. (Janine L. Weisman/Rhode Island Current)
As overnight temperatures dip into the teens and 20s this week, Gov. Dan McKee’s administration on Monday night opened two emergency shelters for people experiencing homelessness.
The WARM Center, 56 Spruce St., in Westerly operates 24/7 during the winter. The second location is the West Warwick Civic Center, 100 Factory St., West Warwick, which will be open 24 hours through 8 a.m. Thursday.
Also Tuesday, the Providence City Council announced it will open its chamber at City Hall starting at 7 p.m. as an additional gathering space from the cold.
“As a polar vortex grips Providence, many of our unhoused neighbors are being forced to sleep outside in dangerous temperatures,” City Councilor Justin Roias said in a statement. “With only two 24/7 emergency shelters open, the response from the mayor and governor has been woefully inadequate.”
Rhode Island’s homeless have a story to tell. Low wages, high rents, few shelters add to suffering.
The two state emergency shelters were opened as part of the state’s Municipal Homelessness Support Initiative, which uses unspent pandemic relief aid to support shelter space and emergency hubs hosted by Rhode Island’s cities and towns.
“The safety of our residents, particularly those most vulnerable, is our top priority as we prepare for this intense cold,” McKee said in a statement Monday evening. “We are ensuring that more resources are available to provide shelter, warmth, and support to those who need it the most.”
Rhode Island’s existing emergency shelter capacity funded by the Department of Housing is 1,252 beds. The pair of overnight shelter openings create 75 additional spaces, spokesperson Patti Doyle said Tuesday.
Four overnight shelters in Providence, Pawtucket, and South Kingstown are open on a drop-in basis, according to the governor’s announcement:
- Crossroads Rhode Island: 162 Broad St., Providence
- Emmanuel House: 239 Public St., ProvidenceI — Open 24 hours Tuesday and Wednesday
- Welcome House of South County: 8 North Road, Peace Dale (South Kingstown) — Open 24 hours
- OpenDoors: 1139 Main St., Pawtucket — Open 24 hours
Wind chills in the area are likely to fall between zero and -10 degrees during this week’s cold snap, according to the National Weather Service.
The expansion of drop-in shelters eases some strain on the Rhode Island Coalition to End Homelessness, which revealed Monday that Rhode Island’s Coordinated Entry System (CES) has been experiencing sporadic periods with longer wait times due to a lack of beds and staff to help the unhoused.
“Many of the individuals who call our CES call center are in crisis, and long wait times can have serious consequences,” Kimberly Simmons, the coalition’s executive director, said in a statement.
Those who stay overnight at either shelter are not required to use the state’s Coordinated Entry System, which screens people and refers them to available shelter beds.
The state has added 600 shelter beds to its emergency response system since 2023, but only an average of seven spots are open on any given day, the coalition reported in November. At least 2,442 unhoused people across Rhode Island were counted when coalition volunteers conducted an annual survey for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development on Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2024 — representing a 35% increase from 2023’s count.
The state has sought to bolster its emergency shelter system, including constructing 45 one-room cabins within the on-ramp to Route 146 South in Providence last spring. But gaps in the state’s fire and building codes and delayed supply shipments have stalled the opening of the pallet shelter community until later this winter, according to the state’s newest Housing Secretary Deborah Goddard. Fire suppression units for the cabins were delivered in late December and installation remains ongoing, Doyle said.
The housing department is also losing its executive director of homelessness response, Tara Booker, who announced her resignation on New Year’s Eve.
The Rhode Island Coalition to End Homelessness is calling on the state to prioritize funding for emergency shelters, in addition to creating more warm shelter spaces over the winter.
“The lack of a statewide plan to end homelessness and a lack of funding to meet the current need will result in people freezing to death in the coming days,” Simmons said.
McKee’s likely 2026 primary opponent, former CVS Pharmacy Inc. President Helena Bounano Foulkes, said Tuesday morning she wants the governor to declare a public health emergency in order to enable faster deployment of emergency warming spaces.
“With winter temperatures putting lives at risk and shelter capacity stretched beyond its limits, we need immediate action,” Foulks said in a statement. “We cannot afford to wait while Rhode Islanders suffer in the cold.”
McKee’s office did not immediately respond to request for comment Tuesday.
McKee’s office originally announced Monday that a third overnight shelter, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Center in Newport, was designated as a state emergency hub. But the governor ‘s staff issued a revised news release late Tuesday morning clarifying that the MLK Center is not.
MLK Executive Director Heather Hole Strout said the center does not have the capacity to be a 24 hour shelter or the funding for such a program and requested the correction Tuesday morning. The center has a limited capacity for its existing winter shelter program for people on Aquidneck Island run in partnership with Newport Mental Health and CODAC, she said.
“It has everything to do with being able to serve our community here to its fullest capacity,” Strout said. “We cannot handle a statewide warming center because it would fill up, and we would have to turn away people that are in our backyard.”
Editor Janine L. Weisman contributed to this story.
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