Editor’s Note: This is the first installment of an ongoing series examining the conditions and response to encampments in the city of Cranston. Watch for future installments in upcoming editions of the Cranston Herald.

A rat woke Robert Acevedo from a deep sleep last week.

“I felt its whiskers on my face,” he said from the mouth of the tunnel where he lives, under Cranston Street, along an undeveloped section of the Washington Secondary Bike Path.

Acevedo pointed to a hole in the rock wall where the big rats poke their heads out all day long.

Acevedo, 39, says he was born in Brooklyn, New York, but relocated to Providence.

He has a criminal record, mental health issues and a drug habit. But he also has a regular Social Security check, a housing voucher and a steady girlfriend — Lindsay Godfrey, formerly of Johnston. She also has a housing voucher.

They say they’re waiting and hoping for a safer place to live.

“I’m a good scrapper,” Acevedo said, his feet dancing the pugilist’s shuffle. “I used to be a boxer.”

The Visits

In the meantime, Cranston Police have been making regular visits.

Cranston Police Capt. Justin Dutra and Special Victims Unit Detective Mike Iacone visited the tunnel Friday morning. Dutra shouted into the tunnel.

Godfrey waved and walked into the light, toward the officers.

“Thank God, I’m getting all my ducks in a row,” she told Dutra.

She met the police at the entrance to the tunnel.

“House of Hope just came here, at 7 o’clock this morning,” Godfrey told Dutra. “They said that they’re going to try to do their best too, to help us.”

“That’s good, we can get it from all different angles,” Dutra replied.

A voice sounded out from behind, down the trash-carpeted path toward the end of the developed section of the bikeway, behind a busy Dunkin’ Donuts.

The outline of a dark silhouette appeared — into focus from the foliage.

“Hey bud,” Dutra shouted to Acevedo, who was approaching from the opposite direction, behind the officers. He closed the distance and greeted both Dutra and Iacone with a fist bump.

Over time, Dutra has learned the couples’ stories and now he’s trying to help them find a real home — indoors, in a building lawfully permitted for habitation.

“Again, I’m not going to run you [through a criminal background check] or anything like that,” Dutra told the couple. “That’s not my mission. I’m not even saying that you are wanted or anything. That’s not my concern. That’s not my job here today.”

Acevedo and Godfrey provided their birthdates, full names and a shared contact number with the officers for their records. They both consented to brief interviews and photographs for the Cranston Herald.

“They’ve got their issues,” Dutra said later. “But they’re trying.”

The Tunnel & Path

This stretch of littered pathway and tunnel, while within the city of Cranston, belongs to the state, according to Cranston Mayor Kenneth Hopkins’s office. Spokesman Zack DeLuca said “the area of the encampments is located on state property. It is not located on city property, nor is it the responsibility of the city. Mayor Hopkins has addressed this with the state, and they are aware of the matter.”

From the entrance to the tunnel, you can see the top of the chain-link fence around the police impound lot.

In 2022, U.S. Sen. Jack Reed’s office issued a press release announcing $3.2 million in federal funding to finish the path, which ends abruptly about 50 feet from Godfrey and Acevedo’s camp.

 “To our knowledge, the money is being spent for renovation of the entire bike path,” DeLuca said. “For more details on the project and grant sending, we would refer you to RIDOT (the Rhode Island Department of Transportation).”

“The new $3.2 million in federal funding will allow RIDOT to accelerate the design and construction of the final 1-mile stretch of trail needed to connect Providence to the existing bike path in Cranston,” Reed’s office announced two years ago.

Earlier this week, RIDOT Chief of Public Affairs Charles St. Martin said that “the funds … from Senator Reed will be used in a project set to begin in 2025 … The project will be led by the City of Providence, as part of a sub-recipient agreement with RIDOT.”

According to Reed’s office, the Washington Secondary Bike Path is a “rail trail” stretching 19 miles from Cranston to western Coventry.

“The new $3.2 million in federal funding will allow RIDOT to accelerate the design and construction of the final 1-mile stretch of trail needed to connect Providence to the existing bike path in Cranston,” Reed’s office announced in September 2022. “This project will help fill a ‘missing link’ between the city and the Cranston portion of the existing path, allowing cyclists and pedestrians to travel safely from Providence to western Coventry.  Design engineering is underway to determine permitting needs …”

When the work eventually does start, construction crews may find the humble semi-temporary home of Godfrey and Acevedo.

“Where there is a homeless encampment, RIDOT’s policy is to have R.I. Housing and local municipalities work with the occupants to find suitable solutions for them,” St. Martin explained via email Tuesday morning. “Once RIDOT has been notified that the site has been vacated by the occupants, and their personal possessions have been removed from the site, RIDOT will then send in its maintenance crews and its hazardous materials clean up contractor to clean up any hazardous materials and regular trash. Our role is just to clear out the site after we have received assurances that the persons in question have been removed from the site and their personal belongings have been removed.”

‘No One Home’

Construction rages above the tunnel, which is located between the blooming Trolley Barn Plaza and the Smoke Shop Hookah House. A new car wash is under construction, and debris fell from the site onto the path below as Dutra spoke to Godfrey and Acevedo.

The pair, Godfrey and Acevedo, their tents and assembled accommodations (like propane tanks and jugs of Sunny D) are plugging up the tiny tunnel, located almost directly behind Cranston Police Headquarters and close to the Achievement First Charter School next door.

The ground is covered with trash and used hypodermic needles. There’s a bucket — the bathroom.

The tunnel has become their home. They’ve been there for quite some time — at least a year. They get a lot of unwelcome visitors, but they say they trust Capt. Dutra.

Godfrey and Acevedo are unhoused, or unsheltered, in the technical sense. But they have tents pitched inside the tunnel. They’ve blocked the passage with debris and a shopping cart in which they erected a hand-scrawled sign — “No one home!! Do not enter!!”

A guy they know, but “not really a friend,” moaned low from a second tent. He was sleeping off a hangover and refused to leave the tent to speak with officers. They briefly chatted through the dome tent’s entrance and the police focused on the pair who said they wanted their help.

“Yesterday I obtained the phone number for the new interim housing secretary for the state of Rhode Island, who works for the governor, and I’m going to call him directly and see what he can do for the both of yous,” Dutra told them.

Godfrey and Dutra discussed her “rapid re-housing voucher.” The police captain promised he’d make the call and do what he can.

“But I’m just a cop,” he told her.

Acevedo has a different kind of voucher — a permanent supportive housing voucher.

Back at City Hall

On Monday night, Cranston City Council briefly discussed the issue of encampments on city property, the mayor’s proposed camping ban ordinance, its tabling by the Ordinance Committee, and ultimately Hopkins’s Executive Order (bypassing the council).

City Councilwoman Nicole Renzulli also visited the camp behind police headquarters with Dutra earlier last week. She met Godfrey and Acevedo and opened their eyes to some of the resources available.

In return, they opened Renzulli’s eyes to the conditions people are living in the approximately one dozen encampments around the city (Dutra estimates the city has at least 12 populated camps within city limits; though many are on private and state property, rather than city property).

“When I requested that the issue of homeless encampments be added to our council agenda … it was after spending many hours alongside our police officers, personally visiting these encampments,” Renzulli explained. “At that moment, I wasn’t aware an executive order was forthcoming, and I was deeply concerned that we were delaying the urgent attention this situation demands, especially after witnessing it firsthand.”

Hopkins enlisted Cranston Police Chief Col. Michael J. Winquist to make the case before the council to enact an ordinance banning encampments on city property, permitting the city to disband the camps and fine violators living on the premises. City Council objected to the ordinance along party lines (the council’s six Democrats objected to the ordinance while the three Republicans voiced support).

Dutra spoke at the City Council Ordinance Committee and invited city officials and members of the public to contact him for an escorted visit of the sites. All three Republican members requested tours early last week; followed by Democratic members Robert Ferri (who’s also running for mayor) and Kristen E. Haroian.

The Ordinance Committee voted to continue discussions on the proposed ordinance for the next three months — into the winter months. Hopkins said the need was immediate so he issued an Executive Order granting Cranston Police “immediate authority to enter onto any City owned property for the purpose of inspecting any such housing or encampment, and shall have the authority to coordinate with the City of Cranston Department of Public Works to remove any such encampment or housing, however not before contacting and cooperating with any social services necessary in an effort to relocate and provide temporary housing for any violator of this executive order.”

“If any individual refuses to cooperate with any offered services, their encampment or housing shall be removed by the DPW forthwith and they shall be issued a no trespass warning not to return to the immediate property,” the Aug. 21 order concludes.

“Given that an executive order is now in place, the immediate direction is out of our direct control and I don’t really have a lot to say as a result,” Renzulli explained Monday night. “However, I strongly encourage anyone who hasn’t yet visited these encampments to arrange a visit through our police department. Seeing it with your own eyes is important. The conditions are not only heartbreaking but also unsafe, both for those living there and for residents in surrounding areas.”

Renzulli shared her meeting with Godfrey and Acevedo with the rest of Cranston City Council Monday night (though not by name).

“During my visit, I spoke with two individuals in one of the encampments and discovered that, despite having housing vouchers, they weren’t aware of the resources available to them and how laws had changed regarding Section 8,” Renzulli explained. “Life can become hard to manage in general for all of us, so imagine trying to navigate options while living outside, without a computer, and without basic stability. In just a brief conversation, I was able to guide this couple toward accessing housing they didn’t realize they were eligible for and we talked through some different ideas. It became clear to me that there’s a significant disconnect.”

New Connections

“Get us out of here,” Acevedo begged Dutra. “Every night it’s dangerous.”

“There were two people trying to come in here last night,” Godfrey told police. “Shining flashlights.”

“Not the police?” asked Dutra.

“No,” Godfrey replied. “Just people.”

“These were just randoms?” He asked.

“The police announce themselves,” Acevedo said, with certainty. “They have to.”

“You guys know you can always contact us in the middle of the night,” Dutra reminded the couple.

He wrote down his contact information and handed it to the pair.

Dutra has their number; and now they have his.

“This is a ‘judgement free zone,’” Dutra told them. “We have no issues … I’m going to call the housing office for the state to see if we can get these vouchers cashed in … You’re on the up and up. Heading in the right direction. And that makes you eligible to start cashing in your voucher.”