Homelessness in Rhode Island rising amid housing crisis, report find

PROVIDENCE – The state's homeless population continues to rise, and advocates are sounding the call for more resources.

The Rhode Island Coalition to End Homelessness released this week the results of its point-in-time survey, an annual accounting of Rhode Islanders experiencing homelessness on a given night. The count found that 1,810 people were without housing, a 15% increase from last year and a jump of nearly 65% from 2020, according to the coalition. The counted included 595 people in families, a 13.5% rise.

Most strikingly, a total of 334 Rhode Islanders were unsheltered, a 370% increase from 2019, according to the survey from Jan. 25 through Feb. 1. In addition, 629 people identified as being chronically homeless, a 26.5% rise from 2022.

One hundred of those experiencing homelessness were military veterans, and 81 were categorized as young adults.

"We are experiencing an extreme rise of unsheltered homelessness, out of the scale of anything that we have seen," Caitlin Frumerie, executive director of the coalition, said in a statement. "Unfortunately, the data continue to highlight what we already know: we are in a housing crisis and need to do more to protect our unhoused neighbors."

Frumerie urged state leaders and other stakeholders to begin planning for the coming winter.

"The reality is that housing instability continues in every single city and town in our state, and we need a collaborative effort to address this crisis head-on," she said.

Advocates emphasized that the count, which spans the state, "is fundamentally an undercount" that many people move in and out of homelessness during the year.

"While stark, today's announcement that unsheltered homelessness has risen dramatically should be no surprise to Rhode Islanders. This topic has dominated our press, airwaves, community conversations and neighborhoods – seemingly everywhere you turn, we are confronted with this challenge," said Laura Jaworski, executive director of House of Hope CDC, whose outreach workers work closely with the unsheltered population.

"House of Hope's street-based outreach team has been on the front lines, bearing witness to the increasing numbers of people experiencing homelessness, helping them to survive in the absence of adequate emergency shelter or housing. We must all work to create immediate solutions to this issue to ensure all who need a safe place to sleep at night have access to one," Jaworski said.

While expressing gratitude for the state Department of Housing's efforts to create more emergency resources, advocates called for greater investment, including the establishment of a permanent "housing problem solving fund" to assist households with flexible funding.

They also advocate continuing to increase low-barrier, diverse emergency shelter options and for an across-the-board commitment to diverse, quality, affordable housing for all.

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They implored state and local officials, cities and towns, and the Rhode Island community as a whole to support legislation and planning efforts to ensure every citizen of Rhode Island has housing as a human right.

"I want folks to have compassion for unhoused Rhode Islanders," said Ruth "Diamond" Madsen, a formerly homeless woman who advocates for people lacking shelter. "The state of homelessness changes from every five minutes to every day for people on the street. We need more empathy from law enforcement and a set base of wrap-around programs to support people when they get to a shelter or an apartment and even afterward to ensure they are successful."