downtown Providence

September 19, 2016September 20, 2016

To stop panhandling, address poverty

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The issue of panhandling in Providence has been the subject of news articles, opinion columns and letters to the editor. The recent letter from Bishop Tobin and comments from Joseph Paolino, chairman of the Downtown Improvement District motivate me to present some alternative views.

I applaud the efforts of the Downtown Improvement District’s (DID) willingness to convene a range of stakeholders to look for solutions to the increase in panhandling and vagrancy. It will certainly require a robust and sustained public-private partnership to address these issues.

But I am concerned with the notion that there is a quick fix solution, or that one more service program will provide the answer. Before jumping to solutions, I believe it is essential that we ask ourselves: Why? What are the underlying reasons for panhandling and vagrancy in our community?

Changes in the enforcement of the law explains the visibility of panhandling, but poverty is the root cause. Over 14 percent of Rhode Islanders live in poverty today. Given these numbers, the dearth of affordable housing, the lack of adequate mental health care and low wage jobs that don’t allow workers to earn enough to support themselves and their families, it is surprising that this has been underground for so long.

It makes us uncomfortable, and it should, to encounter so many people in our public spaces who seem to have no place to go and are struggling with mental health issues and/or addictions. These are our neighbors, they are suffering and we don’t know what to do. But the solution is not to empower police to move these people out of sight so that others can enjoy a “clean, safe city.” I am not saying, that police should not intervene when law-breaking occurs. I am saying that our efforts to address these issues should not focus on criminalizing people who are poor, homeless or mentally ill by depriving them of their rights to congregate in public space, to engage in conversation, or just enjoy the outdoors.

The Scripture I know teaches us to leave the corners of our fields and the gleanings of our harvest to the poor and to open our hands and lend to people whatever it is they need. We learn that helping fellow human beings in need is not simply a matter of charity, but of responsibility, righteousness, and justice. The Bible does not merely command us to give to the poor, but to advocate on their behalf.

I call upon business leaders, public officials and all of us to act with wisdom and compassion, to focus on the larger structural issues of poverty. And I hope that any proposed interventions are sustainably funded, based on models of best practice and built with inclusive community participation.

Rabbi Alan Flam is the executive director, Helen Hudson Foundation for Homeless America.

September 15, 2016September 15, 2016

Elorza announces plan to address root causes of poverty, panhandling

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One day after a botched press conference on a similar subject, Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza brought together a big group of state and city officials, as well as advocates and activists, to announce a new plan to address panhandling, poverty and homelessness in downtown.

“As we see increased homelessness and increased panhandlers, this is a moment to look inside ourselves and ask ourselves what kind of community we want to be,” Elorza said, speaking from atop the steps at City Hall. “Do we want to be the kind of community that cuts resources for mental illness or fails to invest in homeless shelters, or cuts resources for legal services for the indigent? Do we want to be a community that is not complacent in the face of inequality of income and wealth? Do we want to be a community that invests in affordable housing? Do we want to be a community that believes in workforce opportunities? And do we want to be a community that works to address the persistent challenges of racial injustice?”

He added, “We are not interested in simply relocating the issue. We are looking for lasting solutions that balance the rights of the people of our city. We are not going to benefit by pushing people from one street to another. What we are announcing here today is not just a plan. What we are announcing here today is an approach to work collaboratively, compassionately and creatively to make sure that no resident of our city or of our state ever gets left behind.”

Elorza said the city will open a day center for homeless people, provide financial support for Amos House “A Hand Up” program, a jobs program for people who are homeless and/or struggling financially, and offering support to Emmanuel House’s program for helping people with substance abuse problems. Police presence has already been increased in downtown – and Public Safety Commissioner Steve Pare said arrests have increased – and parking meter-like machines will be located downtown so people can give to social services rather than directly to another human being.

“Most importantly,” said Elorza, “we will work with a broad coalition to advocate for the critical resources to provide for mental health, substance abuse, legal services and housing supports to our families and people in need – resources and funding we’ve seen reduced in recent years.”

While Paolino’s press conference yesterday relied heavily on the business community, Elorza’s event featured several state and city elected officials. In attendance were state legislators: Maryellen Goodwin, Josh Miller, Edie Ajello, Aaron Regunberg and Grace Diaz as well as city councilor Mary Kay Harris, Wilbur Jennings, Brian Principe and Michael Corria.

“What we are talking about is ‘One Providence’,” said City Councilor Mary Kay Harris, who represents downtown Providence, echoing the Elorza’s campaign theme. “One Providence includes the rich and the poor. It includes the poor working class and the workers altogether.”

Eileen Hayes, the director of Amos House who champions the plight of people who are homeless, said, “Our fellow citizens are struggling, especially those who are homeless and do not have the financial resources to care for basic needs. Every single business community should find a way to offer a job to homeless person who wants to work. They are good people and they are good workers. We believe that we cannot criminalize behaviors based on people doing the best they can to survive without offering viable solutions including jobs and housing.”

While Paolino’s press conference was held at the Convention Center and was invite only, Elorza’s was the steps of City Hall. Both were disrupted – Paolino’s by angry activists and journalists who couldn’t attend and Elorza’s by a woman who said she needs more social services. Elorza’s press event featured activists who advocate for the homeless, while Paolino’s expressly kept many advocates from attending.

When Elorza was asked if he wished Paolino and more members of the business community attended his event he said, “I’ve had many members of the business community reach out and express their support for what we are doing and I look forward to continue working with anyone who truly wants to address the long term root cause issues.”

September 14, 2016

Joe Paolino explains blundered press conference, blames security

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Joe Paolino admitted it was “silly” to exclude the press from the press conference he held today.

“That was a mistake by security guards that don’t even work for us,” he said. “It would have been silly of me not to have RI Future and Providence Business, National Public Radio and the Providence Journal not there. I don’t have press conferences without press.”

To make amends, he did a sit down interview with RI Future today. “I would have wanted you there to ask me the tough questions you are going to ask me now,” he said.

September 14, 2016September 14, 2016

Paolino’s announcement angers poverty activists, left out some media

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In an August interview, Joe Paolino told RI Future it was important to bring all voices together to address poverty and panhandling in downtown Providence. That all broke down on Wednesday morning when homelessness activists, at one press conference, said Paolino and the downtown business community weren’t addressing their concerns, then, later in the morning, members of the media were seemingly arbitrarily denied access to Paolino’s press event.

At the first press event, activists who advocate for people who are poor and/or homeless said the plan being announced by Paolino later in the morning didn’t address the root causes of poverty but instead moved destitute residents away from the economic center of the city.

“The people [Joe Paolino] houses in the gentrified downtown evidently don’t want to see the results of gentrification, the results of luxury housing development and that’s poor people also living in Providence,” said Eric Hirsch, formerly the executive director of the Rhode Island Coalition for the Homeless. “We call on Joe Paolino to not announce this plan. We call on him to come back to the table to discuss with us real poverty measures like increasing the minimum wage, like doing something about the fact that if you are totlally disabled and on supplemental security income you get $700 a month, how are you supposed to afford the thousand dollar a month apartments that Joe Paolino is renting.”

In the previous interview with RI Future, Paolino said his efforts to address poverty in downtown Providence represented an opportunity for activists to work with the downtown business community. The activists, at the early morning press event, said it did not think it work out this way.

Then, less than an hour later, Paolino and the Providence Center allowed some members of the media to attend Paolino’s press event but not others. RI Future, the Providence Journal and Rhode Island Public Radio and Providence Business News were not allowed to attend while WPRO, WPRI and ABC6 were allowed.

The seemingly arbitrary decision by was lambasted by members of the media that were allowed to report on the incident.

Not cool that Providence Foundation didn't let some people in the room – including a reporter (@bobplain)

— Dan McGowan (@DanMcGowan) September 14, 2016

And even members of the business community, who largely agree with Paolino more than progressive activists on how to handle poverty and panhandling downtown, took issue with the selective admittance.

Important voice excluded. Diminishes process. https://t.co/rz84Ez2CnB

— Robert Cusack (@RECusack) September 14, 2016

After the meeting, Paolino said RI Future and a Providence Journal reporter were inadvertently denied access. But two people told this reporter during the meeting they asked Paolino specifically if RI Future could gain access and both said he told them only people on a designated list were allowed to attend the press conference.

Previously, Paolino had told RI Future that it was an important voice in bringing all sides together in addressing poverty and panhandling in dowtown Providence. Paolino, who is RI Future’s landlord, scheduled a interview with this reporter for later in the day.

Here is audio from the Paolino press event that some media organizations, including this one, were denied access to.

September 13, 2016

Moving them along

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I saw my friend Jeff yesterday morning, on the way to his morning workout at the YMCA. Jeff is confined to a wheelchair, and uses RIPTA to get to the East Side Y most mornings. We chatted for a few minutes while we got on the same bus and shared it through the bus tunnel.

Because I commute via RIPTA, I walk through Kennedy Plaza pretty much twice a day, every day. In a couple of decades of riding the bus, early, late, middle of the day, I have never felt unsafe in the plaza. Now and again I’ve been asked for change, which I decline to give, and once or twice I’ve been offered bags of drugs, which I decline to buy. I’ve occasionally seen loud arguments and even a couple of altercations, but they were not my arguments and altercations. People loiter, but after all, how different is that from me waiting for my bus? I see other people carrying on their lives in the Plaza, just as I’ve shared the bus with some people for years, and am familiar with a little slice of their lives. Their lives are not mine, so we coexist, but seldom interact.

Joe Paolino talks blithely about moving the buses to the Peter Pan station, or to Allens Avenue. He can do that because he never takes the bus, but has a driver to drop him off wherever he wants to go. If he gets what he wants, the rest of us who do not enjoy that luxury will have longer commutes, get wetter when it rains, and miss connections, in service of enhancing the value of his property.

Does anyone beside me remember the people who used to hang around the Fogarty building on Fountain Street in downtown Providence when the unemployment office was in it years ago? I’m not so old that I could possibly be the only one, am I? Or at the bus station on Sabin Street before that? What about the people who would crowd around Travelers Aid (now Crossroads) off Westminster? The bus station, Crossroads, and the unemployment offices have all been moved out of downtown, to keep “those people” away.

Now city leaders have set their sights on RIPTA, suggesting that the bus system is somehow a magnet for poor people and thus a threat to an upscale downtown, just like those other magnets. This is a familiar tune, but why do we keep singing it? Paolino himself was the mayor who presided over moving the bus station from Sabin Street to its current remote location off I-95 back in the 1980s. Did that help? Moving these other supposed magnets out of downtown has not worked in the past. Why should anyone imagine it will do the trick this time?

The problem in Kennedy Plaza is not RIPTA, and pretending so will not solve anything, but only cause hardship and inconvenience to people whose lives are already marked by hardship and inconvenience. The problems are social problems of drugs, poverty, and homelessness, unmasked by the evacuation of workers from downtown. Abetted by state policy, and with transportation to downtown increasingly less convenient (RIPTA cutbacks anyone?), banks, law firms, and other commerce has left downtown. The state itself has removed hundreds of its employees, too. The poor people who congregate in Kennedy Plaza are not new; they are just the ones left behind.

Back before the state decided to evacuate its workers from downtown, there was a substantial presence downtown by social service agencies. In service of enhancing property values and chasing away the poor people who they “attracted”, those agencies were moved out of downtown. Now there is little or nothing downtown to help people who need it, but the people are still there. How strange.

Moving these problems out of the center of town will not make them go away, but only allow our civic leaders to pretend they do not exist. Do we want to solve those problems, or just ignore them? Wait, don’t answer that.