Jim Ryczek – RI Future

February 9, 2016

Providence to halt enforcement of anti-panhandling ordinance

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In a major step towards reducing the criminalization of the poor in Rhode Island, the City of Providence has advised the American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island that it would halt enforcement of an anti-panhandling ordinance that has led to the harassment and arrest of homeless individuals. The ACLU had called for this action in a letter delivered to Mayor Jorge Elorza two weeks ago, in which it pointed out the ordinance’s dubious constitutionality and its impact on the rights of the poor and the homeless.

Advocates for the homeless have been critical of a seemingly aggressive enforcement by the City of laws that target innocuous activity of the homeless in public. In its letter, the ACLU had noted that the City’s ban on so-called “aggressive solicitation” directly targets the homeless, and that a number of similar ordinances have been recently struck down by the courts for infringing on First Amendment rights. The ACLU therefore requested that the City immediately halt its enforcement. In response, the City agreed to that request and also to terminate any pending prosecutions.

“The Mayor remains committed to making Providence a place that supports its residents, especially those who are most in need, and we look forward to our continued work together in this regard,” Providence City Solicitor Jeffrey Dana stated in a letter to the ACLU of RI.

ACLU of Rhode Island executive director Steven Brown said today: “This is a very positive development, and we applaud the City for recognizing that this ordinance cannot withstand constitutional scrutiny. We are confident that officials will make sure that any harassment of the homeless by police for peacefully soliciting donations, even if it doesn’t lead to an arrest for panhandling, will cease.”

Rhode Island Coalition for the Homeless executive director Jim Ryczek added: “The Rhode Island Coalition for the Homeless welcomes this development on the part of the city. We hope this is the first step in better understanding homeless people and working with them to appropriately identify their needs and acquire safe and affordable housing. We look forward to continued progress on other problems facing the city in relation to its homeless citizens. As always, we stand ready to help the City of Providence better serve its homeless constituents.”

Megan Smith, an outreach worker at House of Hope CDC, said: “We are hopeful that Providence’s decision to halt enforcement of the aggressive solicitation ordinance demonstrates that the City recognizes panhandling for what it is: a means of survival for our poor and homeless neighbors, not a criminal activity. While there is much more work that must be done to shift policy from criminalizing poverty to finding collaborative solutions, this represents an important step forward.”

The ACLU letter had also called on the City to repeal an ordinance that bans “loitering on bus line property,” but the City claimed that no arrests had been made under that law.

The ACLU’s action is part of the organization’s ongoing efforts to challenge and repeal laws that disproportionately affect the rights of the homeless. In December, the ACLU of Rhode Island filed a federal lawsuit challenging a Cranston ordinance that bars the solicitation of donations from motorists. The ACLU argues that the ordinance violates free speech rights and is selectively enforced by the City. That suit is pending.

A copy of the ACLU’s letter is available here.

A copy of the City’s letter is available here.

February 3, 2016February 4, 2016

Raimondo praised for including homeless bond in budget

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Governor Gina Raimondo has garnered praise from homeless advocates for including a $40 million affordable housing bond in the budget that she presented to the General Assembly last night.

Jim Ryczek, executive director of the RI Coalition for the Homeless released a statement saying, “we appreciate that the Governor recognizes the need for more affordable housing in our state. An affordable housing bond is most certainly one piece of the puzzle and is a good interim step towards our long-term goal of a state where all Rhode Islanders have access to safe, decent housing they can afford. The funding for a housing bond is also a positive step in the right direction to ensure full implementation of Opening Doors RI, the State’s Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness.”

Melina Lodge, Director of Programs for the Housing Network of RI, thanked the Governor “for recognizing the importance of state investment in housing opportunities for low and moderate income Rhode Islanders… Governor Raimondo’s inclusion of an affordable housing bond in her FY 17 budget will not only stimulate the creation of new housing and boost economic growth by creating jobs in the construction, retail and service industries, but will also bring substantial additional outside financial resources into our state.”

According to Lodge, “Data shows that many Rhode Island households continue to struggle to find housing options that are affordable to them. According to HousingWorks RI, two in every five Rhode Island households are cost burdened, spending more than thirty percent of their income on housing.”

January 25, 2016January 25, 2016

CFED Report: Rhode Islanders still struggling, especially with homeownership

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New data released today by CFED (the Corporation for Enterprise Development), a national partner of Rhode Island’s Economic Progress Institute, shows that too many Rhode Island families remain economically vulnerable. Smart public policies that create opportunities for families to save and make investments in their future prosperity pay huge dividends for all of us. The Assets and Opportunity Scorecard, now published annually, shows Rhode Island ranked 35^th overall in Outcomes, despite ranking 8^th overall in the Scorecard’s Policy measures.

Doug Hall, Director of Economic and Fiscal Policy at the Economic Progress Institute isn’t surprised by these findings: “We see the economic vulnerability of Rhode Island families in wage and income data (as shown in our recent State of Working Rhode Island: Workers of Color report). Until Rhode Islanders have good jobs that pay economy-boosting wages, they won’t be able to set aside savings or invest in homes or businesses.”

Across five main issue areas, Rhode Island fares in the middle of the pack in four issue areas (Financial Assets and Income, Businesses and Jobs, Education, and Health Care) but nearly dead last for Housing and Homeownership.

Rhode Island’s outcome indicators point to a number of areas where improvements need to be made to improve the financial security of Ocean State families. Rhode Island scores very poorly (40^th or worse) in 14 areas, including 8 indicators for housing/homeownership:

Income inequality (46^th out of 50 states and the District of Columbia)
Business value by race (44^th)
Underemployment Rate (40^th)
Homeownership rate (46^th)
Homeownership by race (50^th)
Homeownership by income (51^st)
Homeownership by family structure (50^th)
Delinquent mortgage loans (49^th)
Affordability of homes (43^rd)
Housing cost burden – homeowners (46^th)
Housing cost burden – renters (45^th)
Uninsured by race (45^th)
Uninsured by gender (49^th)
Average college student debt (46^th)

While Rhode Island’s poor performance on housing/homeownership outcomes in the Assets and Opportunities Scorecard is not new, it is striking. Jim Ryczek, Executive Director of the Rhode Island Coalition for the Homeless responds:

“While Rhode Island clearly has much work to do to meet the state’s housing needs, we have significantly increased funding of programs to solve homelessness. We need to match that progress with investments that provide housing options for all Rhode Islanders.”

It is also noteworthy that Rhode Island falls in the bottom 11 rankings in three of the six outcome measures that look at disparities by race/ethnicity. National data show stark disparities in wealth based on race and ethnicity. We know that here in Rhode Island, racial disparities in wages and income are significant. The lack of good state-based data on wealth prevents us from fully understanding these disparities, which in turn prevents us from addressing the challenges with the necessary urgency. Another new report released last week by the Annie E Casey Foundation addresses the need for better data:

“To properly gauge the effects of policies and practices on families’ ability to build assets, we must have the right tools. Data on family assets are meager and difficult to access, particularly for various racial and ethnic groups. The federal government should explore better mechanisms to track that information, such as representative surveys for national and state use with questions on savings behavior and asset holdings or additional questions in the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey.” Annie E Casey Foundation, Investing in Tomorrow: Helping Families Build Savings and Assets

CFED has been publishing the Asset and Opportunities Scorecard since 2002. It remains a key benchmark in tracking important policy and outcome measures, and highlighting best practices in state policies addressing these areas.

Key policies that Rhode Islanders can adopt to provide greater opportunities for Rhode Island families include:

Increasing the state Earned Income Tax Credit to 20 percent of the federal credit.
Further Increasing the minimum wage.
Providing protections from predatory lending such as payday loans.

These and other measures that boost family incomes will help families set aside savings while investing in assets such as a home.

[From a press release]

November 28, 2015November 28, 2015

A vigil for Kerry Soares, who died homeless on the streets

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Kerry Soares died homeless on the streets of Providence in June, not far from the Salvation Army building. She was 43 years old. Kerry was the ninth homeless person to die on the streets in Rhode Island since April 2014, when the RI Coalition for the Homeless (RICH) and its Statewide Outreach Committee began holding vigils.

A RICH press release states that “while the official cause of deaths for the cases vary, advocates contend that the real killer in all the nine cases is the same: homelessness.”

Kerry was a mother. Her daughter Caitlin Forcier was at the vigil. Kerry was remembered as a talented artist. She was compassionate and caring. She lived and worked in Providence most of her life.

She deserved so much more.

Author James O’Connell, M.D., noted the relationship between homelessness and early mortality. Studies reveal:

People who experience homelessness have a mortality rate three to four times that of the general population
The average age at death of a person who is homeless is between 42 and 52 years
Younger women who are homeless have a mortality rate that is 4 to 31 times higher than that of women who are housed.

In a statement, Jim Ryczek, executive director of RICH said, “This is the ninth Rhode Islander experiencing homeless, who has died on the streets in a year and a half. And the biggest tragedy is these deaths can be prevented. We know how to tackle these problems of homelessness, addiction, substance abuse – we know what to do, we have the models, and we need to continue to build the public and political will to demand that we implement and fund the solutions fully.”

DSC_30212015-11-27 Kerry Soares 011 — Reverend Jack Jones

October 29, 2015October 29, 2015

ACLU sues state over level 3 sex offender residency law

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The American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island (ACLU) today filed a class action lawsuit in U.S. District Court to challenge the constitutionality of a recently enacted law that makes it a crime for certain sex offenders to reside within 1,000 feet of a school. As part of the suit, the ACLU has requested a restraining order to halt the law’s “inconsistent” and “arbitrary” implementation before any more individuals are uprooted or made homeless.

The new statute, passed overwhelmingly in the Rhode Island House of Representatives under the leadership of Speaker Nicholas Mattiello, is unconstitutional on three grounds, says Attorney John MacDonald, who filed the suit with Attorney Lynette Labringer today.

The statute is unconstitutionally vague, says MacDonald, with no definition of what constitutes a school in the law. Further, there are no guidelines offered as to how to measure the 1000 feet required under the mandate. Different law enforcement agencies use different systems operating under different parameters. A resident might be told he is safe by one agency, only to be ordered to move by another.

The law is unconstitutional because it violates due process. Level 3 sex offenders are banished from their property and their liberty under this statute, says MacDonald, and they have no recourse to a hearing unless they want to be arrested and charged in violation of the law.

The third constitutional violation occurs because under this statute, people who have already paid for their crimes are being further punished in having to move under threat of arrest.

The statute does not increase public safety, says MacDonald, and the homeless advocates in attendance at the press conference all agreed with this assessment. It is better to know where level 3 sex offenders are living, “but we have uprooted them and sent them to Harrington Hall, the only place that can house them.”

Jim Ryczek, who heads up the Rhode Island Coalition for the Homeless (RICH), is in full support of the lawsuit. “We are proud to have helped keep communities safe,” said Ryczek, adding that the three factors that keep people from re-offending are stable housing, employment and treatment. The law, if it is allowed to stand, threatens all three of these factors.

Not only is there no evidence that this law might help Rhode Islanders, this law “may have an opposite effect” says Ryczek.

Sol Rodriguez, executive director of OpenDoors, read her statement, saying, “People affected are being forced out of their apartments; some are homeowners, have families, are sick, disabled, and some live in nursing homes. Some are family caretakers. They have served the sentence imposed for their crimes and are known to law enforcement due to sex offender registry laws. This law will further destabilize this population.”

Jean M. Johnson is executive director of House of Hope CDC which manages Harrington Hall. Presently, this is the only facility that can house homeless, level 3 sex offenders in the state. During Wednesday night’s rain storm, “160 gentlemen inhabited Harrington Hall,” she said, “we are a 120 bed facility. We have always had level 1, 2 and 3 offenders stay with us. We are the shelter of last resort, we don’t turn anyone away.”

On Monday night, when the law is to be in full effect, 30 level 3 sex offenders could show up at Harrington Hall, in Speaker Mattiello’s district.

The new law, says Johnson, is “unjust and unfair.”

Beyond the issues of constitutionality and public safety, says Steve Brown, executive director of the RI ACLU, the law makes no sense. Many level 3 sex offenders were convicted for crimes against adults, and against adults they knew personally. These men are presently allowed to travel near and be around schools, but under the law are not allowed to keep in an apartment near a school, when the schools are empty.

As far as simply finding an apartment elsewhere, this is not really an option, said Jim Ryczek. Many landlords will not rent to a level 3 sex offender. Finding an affordable location that satisfies the 1000 feet limit in the amount of time available is all but impossible.

In Providence, 30 men have been told that they will have to move. A reporter at the press conference said that Speaker Mattiello was “getting pressure” to address the situation at Harrington Hall, but Jean Johnson said that no one from the Speaker’s office has reached out to her.

More information is available here.

August 2, 2015August 3, 2015

A vigil for Michael Lewis, who died homeless, but not unloved

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Michael Lewis died on July 2 in West Warwick at the age of 51. A vigil was held at the Arctic Gazebo attended by family, friends, affordable housing advocates and community residents.

Michael was homeless, and according to those who knew him, and wrestled with addiction. But more importantly, Michael was a husband, a father, a grandfather and a friend. One man spoke of how Michael never sought help for himself, but always encouraged those around him to seek help and better their lives.

Michael’s daughters, Candace and Rebecca, treasured their father. His grandchildren, three irrepressible boys full of energy and curiosity (and let’s face it, a little bored with much of the vigil) were rays of sunshine as the rain and the night arrived. Candace spoke movingly of her father.

It was a beautiful, touching service. Newport Officer Jimmy Winters provided the music, as he has done at all these vigils since they began. He received a reward from Street Sights, a homeless advocacy newspaper, for his service. The Reverend Linda Watkins, Andrea Smith of Help the Homeless RI and Barbara Kalil of the Rhode Island Homeless Advocacy Project also spoke.

Jim Ryczek, Executive Director of the Rhode Island Coalition for the Homeless, said that Michael’s “last experiences were of being homeless on the streets of Rhode Island, and we believe that is unacceptable.”

“We rededicate ourselves,” continued Ryczek, “to achieving the change necessary to realize our vision of a State of Rhode Island that refuses to let any man, woman or child be homeless.”

Michael Lewis 019 — Jim Ryczek, RI Coalition for the Homeless

Michael Lewis 020 — Officer Jimmy Winters

Michael Lewis 021 — Reverend Linda Watkins

January 14, 2015

General officers tour Harrington Hall, affirm value of social safety net

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Four of the five newly elected general officers – Governor Gina Raimondo, Lt. Governor Dan McKee, Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea and General Treasurer Seth Magaziner – toured Harrington Hall, a homeless shelter in Cranston, on Tuesday to garner the support needed to end homelessness in Rhode Island.

There are over 1,000 people in Rhode Island experiencing homelessness, a crisis for any society, but a moral crisis for a country as rich as ours.

Rhode Island has been chosen to participate in Zero: 2016, a national campaign to end homelessness among veterans and the chronically homeless by the end on 2016. Union leaders Lynn Loveday, George Nee and J. Michael Downey have pledged to support Zero: 2016. Now they are looking to elected officials for their support.

Jim Ryczek, executive director of the Rhode Island Coalition for the Homeless, opened the press conference at Harrington Hall reading off some of the sobering results of last December’s homeless census, in which 500 volunteers asked 855 homeless men and women about their lives in order to construct a Vulnerability Index for all homeless Rhode Islanders.

In Rhode Island, homeless adults range in age from 19 to 85, with the median age being 45 years old. 68% identify as male, 32% as female. About a third are sleeping outside, not in shelters. This means on the street, sidewalk or doorway, in a car, in a park, on the beach, in cemeteries, or in abandoned buildings. 58% have been homeless for more than two years. 7% are veterans.

The homeless cost us in terms of social services. 64% use emergency rooms for medical care. 39% have had interactions with the police. 4 in 10 have been transported by ambulance and about a third have received in-patient hospitalization. Being homeless is unsafe. 29% have been attacked while homeless. About half have admitted to needing psychiatric treatment and visited the ER for mental health reasons. A third have learning disabilities, and a quarter have brain injuries.

Governor Raimondo said, “I love the goal of ending homelessness, and we know how to. Build affordable housing and get people homes… and by the way, building affordable housing puts people to work in the process…”

“Some other public policy issues are a lot harder and take a lot more time,” said Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea, “affordable housing is a case of, there isn’t affordable housing, you build it, you build wrap-around supportive services around it and you save money in the end and save lives. What could be better than that?”

General Treasurer Seth Magaziner got to the heart of the issue when he refuted the fantasy of eliminating the social safety net. “No matter how many jobs we have, no matter how strong our economy is, there are always going to be people who need help. There are always going to be people, whether it’s a disability, mental or physical, or it’s just bad luck, who are going to need help and going to need support.”

George Nee put it simply when he said, “We know what to do. We know what works… it’s been demonstrated.”

Homelessness is a problem with a solution. Solving the problem is a moral choice we can make.