For Russ Partridge, executive director of Westerly’s WARM Center and Wakefield’s Welcome House, two emergency and transitional housing shelters, the phone rings three to four times a day from individuals and families facing homelessness.
It may be a family – like the other day – whose landlord has told them he would be raising the rent beyond what they could afford. Or someone whose landlord has told them that at the end of their lease, he was moving a relative into the apartment, and moving them out.
Nighttime temperatures are dipping below freezing, and Partridge says, “the phone is ringing off the hook.”
With each call, the strain on an already thin housing market becomes greater.
Affordable housing remains a critical issue from coast to coast. In Rhode Island some projects have been approved, but most are years from completion.
The need is now.
Homelessness is on the rise, and while emergency shelters are opening around the state, “there are more homeless people statewide, or on the street, than ever before,” Partridge says.
The definition of homelessness includes those living outdoors or in cars, those in transitional housing, and those in emergency shelters. Many are couch surfacing, moving from one relative to another, a friend or anywhere where they can find a place to sleep for a night, a week, maybe a month.
The actual number of people classified as homeless is elusive. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which conducts a point in time survey on one day in January, says homelessness has increased by some 73 percent from 2019 to 2023. Other surveys suggest the numbers are much higher.
HUD shows a sharp rise in homelessness, particularly those living outdoors or in cars – an increase from 71 in 2019 to 334 in 2023, an increase of more than 400 percent. Add those in emergency or traditional shelters, HUD says there are 1,288 homeless persons in Rhode Island. Other surveys put the number at more than 6,000 and Kids Count has said there are 1,500 children from pre-kindergarten through high school that are homeless.