Hoping to jumpstart action on homelessness – Richard Asinof

by Richard Asinof, ConvergenceRI, contributing writer

Editor’s Note: This is the 2nd part of an article published by Richard Asinof – dealing with the homeless situation in Rhode Island …

A second Friday afternoon news dump
The Senate President was not alone in issuing what appeared to be a hastily put together news release on Friday afternoon, Feb. 17. At 3:36 p.m., the Rhode Island Foundation announced that it was leading a group of stakeholders “to jump start action on homelessness and the housing shortage.”

“Given the transition in statewide housing leadership, as well as the opportunity presented by engagement from leaders across the governmental, nonprofit and civic worlds, there is an urgent need to advance statewide housing solutions,” argued Neil Steinberg, president and CEO of the Rhode Island Foundation, in the news release announcing the foundation-led initiative. “This work will support Rhode Islanders who are currently experiencing homelessness while catalyzing new housing development and strengthening the statewide housing ecosystem.”

The initiative’s priority areas were outlined in the news release:

• Identifying short-term solutions and associated actions to meet the needs of unsheltered Rhode Islanders.

• Catalyzing new housing production and ensuring long-term organizational alignment and capacity within the R.I. Department of Housing.

• The project team will work with local stakeholders to conduct research and analysis intended to support the development of a long-term housing strategy.

• The initial fact base will better enable policymakers and housing advocates to develop an immediate action plan on homelessness and to undertake the significant, extended effort of developing the statewide strategy.

The buried lede in the news release, however, was the fact that the Rhode Island Foundation “has engaged Boston Consulting Group to support fact-gathering and analysis over the next couple of months.”

Translated, instead of depending on and supporting the existing local expertise on housing in Rhode Island, the new Foundation-led initiative was instead going to be investing in a high-priced private consulting firm to develop its own datasets – seemingly undercutting the work being done by Rhode Island Coalition to End Homelessness and Housing Works RI, among others.

In the news release, no dollar figure was attached to the work to be conducted by the Boston Consulting Group. ConvergenceRI immediately reached out to Chris Barnett, Senior Communications and Marketing Officer at the Rhode Island Foundation, asking: “Is there a dollar figure attached to the initial phase of this engagement, Chris? For instance, how much is the Boston Consulting Group being paid, for how long a period of time?”

Barnett’s response: “Our contract precludes us from disclosing how much we will pay them. The work will be done over the next couple of months.”

Wow. Wow. Wow. Translated, no one can say how much money the Rhode Island Foundation is paying for the work being done by the Boston Consulting Group. Nor is there any way to find out how much money is being spent, because the work is not being conducted as part of any accountable effort by the state government. How did WPRI’s Ted Nesi manage to miss this lack of accountability when he featured the new initiative in his weekly Saturday column of Feb. 18?

For those who may not remember, the Boston Consulting Group pocketed approximately $3.72 million for its roughly 20 months of work for the state in preparing responses for the coronavirus pandemic between 2020 and 2021, according to a spokesman for the R.I. Department of Administration. [See link below to ConvergenceRI story, “How many millions?”]

Further, McKinsey & Company, which had a pro bono arrangement with the Rhode Island Foundation to work on the state’s response to the pandemic, apparently never had a contract with the state for its work.

What might have precipitated the Friday afternoon release by the Rhode Island Foundation? Was it part of the “charm offensive” being launched by the new Housing Secretary Stefan Pryor? [See link to ConvegenceRI story below.]

In ConvergenceRI’s opinion, the straightforward testimony presented by Rhode Island Coalition to End Homelessness Executive Director Caitlin Frumerie and Deputy Director Margaux Morisseau, at the Tuesday, Feb. 14, meeting of the Rhode Island House Study Commission on the Low and Moderate Income Housing Act seemed to undercut the need for new initiative being promoted by Gov. McKee and his administration. [See second image.]

Frumerie and Morrisseau provided an informative presentation of homelessness in Rhode Island, the state’s minimally-effective efforts to alleviate the issue, and what can be done about the issue going forward, according to Uprise RI’s Steve Ahlquist, who attended the commission meeting and posted a video capturing the entire hearing. [See links to video of commission hearing below and the UpriseRI story.]

Among the takeways from the testimony, as reported by Ahlquist, were key points that dispelled many of the myths about homelessness.

• People do not want to live outdoors. They do so because affordable housing is not available. There is a myth that there are people who want to live outside. But such people are quite rare.

• When R.I. Gov. Dan McKee demanded to know the exact number of homeless people in the state and the exact locations of the estimated 80 encampments scattered about the state last December, he did not seem to understand the nature of homelessness. Homelessness is a moving target, a dynamic and ever-changing number. People fall in and out of homelessness. Tracking homelessness is done through the nonstop efforts of street outreach workers who meet people where they are. HMIS tracks people, not encampments. The location of encampments is sometimes known by outreach workers, but to protect the people they are serving, the location of these encampments are not routinely revealed to press, public, or the police.

Translated, the narrative about to be produced by the Rhode Island Foundation-led initiative appears to be focused upon undercutting the expertise of local experts, through the funding of private business consultants, rather than spending those resources by investing in the agencies doing the actual work on the ground.

In addition to providing the breakdowns  for families and individuals experiencing homelessness, the Coalition also provided slides that showed the disparities between supply and demand for housing, showing the gaps in coverage. [See third image.]

The Coalition also made specific recommendations detailing what legislative actions should be taken by the General Assembly to address homelessness. They included:

•  Doing away with rental application fees. Many out-of-state corporate landlords charge fees, even for apartments they do not plan to rent, collecting fees from struggling renter.

•  With the Lieutenant Governor’s office, the Coalition is working to revise Fair Chance Housing legislation, which did not pass the General Assembly last year. The bill, based on Providence Housing Authority best practices, creates a shorter look-back time on police records when people are looking for housing, gives prospective tenants the right to appeal, and limits the kinds of crimes that can affect housing applications.

•  Establishing code red or code blue supplies parameters, for when there should be a state of emergency for hot and freezing temperatures. Based on a New Jersey law, the legislation would give the Rhode Island Emergency Management Agency guidance on how their federal dollars should be invested in cities and towns. It would, for instance, disallow federal dollars to be used for warming centers that are not open 24 hours, like libraries.

•  Budgeting $5 million in funding for a “Housing Problem Solving Fund.” This would be different from and not replacing emergency rental funds, which are also needed.

•  The right to legal counsel for evictions. Most people being evicted do not have access to a lawyer. Landlords, on the other hand, almost always do. This power differential in eviction court needs to be addressed.

•  PayDay Lending reform. Payday loans are predatory loans given at 260 oercent APR. They are outlawed in every New England state except Rhode Island, and also outlawed nationally on or near military bases.

•  Fair notice. When a landlord proposes any increase in rent they would have to give 120 days notice to the renter.

Translated, the Coalition has already developed a detailed, specific action plan for legislative action needed to address homelessness in Rhode Island, perhaps making some of the proposed work by the high-priced Boston Consulting Group redundant.

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To read more articles in RINewsToday by Richard Asinof, go to: https://rinewstoday.com/richard-asinof/

To read RINewsToday’s series, Homeless in RI, go to: https://rinewstoday.com/?s=homeless+in+ri

Richard Asinof is the founder and editor of ConvergenceRI, an online subscription newsletter offering news and analysis at the convergence of health, science, technology and innovation in Rhode Island.