The pallet housing resolution sponsored by Councilman Matt Reilly and Councilwoman Nicole Renzulli failed to pass at Monday’s full City Council meeting after resulting in a tied (4 to 4) vote. The resolution opposed the placement of pallet shelters at Cranston’s Pastore Center.

The resolution was drafted in October after the Governor’s Office reached out to the city soliciting input on how receptive Cranston and its residents would be to hosting temporary deployable units for those experiencing homelessness. After a Nov. 3 Safety Services and Licenses Committee meeting where council members discussed the resolution and heard public comment, the legislation was forwarded to the Nov. 28 full City Council meeting for a vote.

At Monday’s meeting, elected officials heard from community members who were concerned with the resolution’s wording – with multiple individuals calling the language dehumanizing.

“There has been a lot of dangerous rhetoric that’s gone on with this resolution. [It’s] one that paints unhoused individuals with dangerous broad brushed terms, such as drug addicts and sex offenders,” said Laura Jaworski, executive director of House of Hope CDC.

House of Hope is a Warwick-based nonprofit and employs the largest street-based outreach team in the state. Each year, the organization serves over 1,000 individuals who are experiencing homelessness and housing insecurity, Jaworski said.

Margaux Morisseau, who serves as the Deputy Director at the RI Coalition to End Homelessness, added that the temporary deployable units are a great solution to address the homeless crisis. At the Nov. 3 discussion on the resolution, 425 individuals were sleeping outside in Rhode Island that night. As of Monday night, that number increased to 482 and the weather was expected to drop to 32 degrees.

Morisseau said individuals living in tents may be afraid to leave and are missing critical life supports because their belongings might be taken. She added that families may be afraid to go to a family shelter because the oldest child is usually separated – making the oldest child go to a different shelter. There are also those who are animal lovers and will stay outside with their pet. 

Philip Graham, who’s worked six and a half years at a soup kitchen making meals for the homeless, saw no connection between the resolution’s characterization of people experiencing homelessness and the individuals he has interacted with. He added that he writes articles for a monthly magazine on homelessness and, when he’s interviewed the homeless, it’s struck him, was the horrific childhoods of many of those experiencing homelessness. He said individuals were able to pick themselves back up through assistance of a mentor or a home so they could have stability in their lives.

Councilman Matt Reilly recognized that Governor McKee stated Cranston is doing its fair share, as the city houses the largest men's shelter in the state.

He said the resolution is meaningless and the governor can do what he wants – the document merely sends the message to the state that “we don't want anymore.” He noted that there are 38 other cities and towns that could offer assistance so Cranston’s residents and public safety services in that area of the city are not overburdened.

“There are only so many services that can go around,” said Reilly. “Cranston can’t do it all.”

Councilman John Donegan said the resolution did nothing to address the root of the issue and agreed with Reilly's statement that the document was meaningless.

“But the words that we use and the actions that we take are not meaningless and the message that we would send by approving this is – as some of the community members said – is dehumanizing and lacks in the compassion that all of us should approach our work as public servants,” said Donegan.

Councilwoman Aniece Germain shared an anecdote of meeting a young pregnant woman experiencing homelessness during the campaign season. Germain came across the woman who was living in her car and had a 17-month-old child with her. She spent over 20 minutes talking with the woman and learned that the woman and her boyfriend were living together and they had a problem with the mother-in-law which resulted in the woman experiencing homelessness.

“She’s not a criminal, she’s not a dangerous person. So putting everybody in the same box is wrong,” said Germain.

Additionally, she told a story of an individual whose child was born with a birth defect. This young man could not work and was under the care of his parents. His mom eventually passed away and his dad, who had Alheimer’s disease, forgot to pay the mortgage and lost the house – making father and son homeless.

“We have a lot of families that are just experiencing hardship,” Germain said, adding that they may lose a job or get sick and then experience homelessness.

She believes that all 39 cities and towns should help out so there is equal and equitable shared responsibility. Germain called upon the governor to meet with the head of every city to find a common ground solution to this situation.

“We have a crisis we have to address, not dissuade,” Germain said.

Councilwoman Lammis Vargas added the temporary deployable units are better than having a tent to live in.

“I’d much rather have individuals who can at least place their head at night in a place other than a tent or somewhere else and be placed in a warm area,” said Vargas.

Councilman Robert Ferri read a letter from Deputy Secretary of Commerce for Housing Josh Saal to Mayor Ken Hopkins and the City Council which stated “at no point did we [the state] actively seek or plan to construct a village of pallet shelters or other shelter beds. Our only conversation was exploratory with the goal of being transparent as possible in the interest of obtaining input from Cranston’s leadership team.”

“Here we’ve spent two meetings, many hours, gotten hundreds of people upset and three was never a plan to build these houses in Cranston,” said Ferri.

Ferri said the resolution was poorly written and claimed it was a political stunt meant to put fear into residents living by the Pastore Center.

Councilwoman Nicole Renzulli pointed out that a GoLocal Providence article from May suggested that the governor set up temporary deployable units at the Pastore Centre. Come the fall, the state reached out to see its options.

Since the resolution came forward, McKee has signed contracts with hotels to house individuals experiencing homelessness. Renzulli believes the hotels are better for individuals, rather than “putting them in boxes,” which would be “warehousing them.” She added that there are other methods to housing individuals and that every city and town should be working together to figure this out.

Council President Chris Paplauskas added that he’d vote to approve the resolution, saying there are no good answers and individuals need to continue working together for a solution. He had the same concerns as Renzulli since the pallet shelters do not come with bathrooms.

“I think the hotel solution with bathroom and showers is a much better solution with the snow and inclement weather coming,” said Paplasukas.