Cranston Councilor Opposes Pallet Housing Project for the Homeless
Monday, October 10, 2022
With thousands of Rhode Islanders homeless and winter cold hitting soon, an innovative idea to provide a new form of safe temporary housing on state land is being opposed by a local councilman.
Cranston Councilman Matthew R. Reilly (R-Ward 6) on Monday called upon Governor Daniel McKee to drop his proposal to build villages of pallet housing for the homeless at the Pastore Complex in Cranston.
In May, Professor Erich Hirsch of Providence College appeared on GoLocal LIVE urging McKee to take immediate action to provide 500 mini-houses to address the growing need for the unsheltered in Rhode Island.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTHirsch said that COVID increased the number of unsheltered and rental prices are exacerbating the problem.
He is Co-Chair of the state’s Homeless Management Information System Steering Committee.
Hirsch said in May the short-term and the long-term needs could be addressed in part by deploying hundreds of "pallet shelters."
"We're saying we need 500 of these rapidly deployable structures now for 500 people because that's what we're expecting very soon and if you know, if you look at the economic impact of COVID and the rising rents there could be a few hundred more beyond that," said Hirsch on GoLocal LIVE.
Homeless Initiative Opposed
At the urging of homeless advocates and due to the need, McKee’s administration embraced the placement of the structures on state property.
Reilly represents the neighborhoods that surround the Pastore Government Complex, including Garden City, Garden Hills, Glen Hills, Oak Hill, Mayfield, and Dean Estates.
“While I acknowledge and support efforts to provide a continuum of social services to the homeless population of our state, the City of Cranston, and Ward 6 specifically, can longer be the go-to location to solve all of the State’s issues. We already host the State’s largest men’s shelter as well as more state facilities than any other city, with the exception of Providence. We simply can no longer bear any more of the State’s burden logistically, financially, or socially," said Reilly.
“There are many other municipalities in the State of Rhode Island that are equally equipped to assist the State with this program," he added. "The needs and burdens of the State must be shared equitably throughout the State, not just jammed into the Pastore Center in Cranston. We will no longer sit quietly while the State intensifies its use of the Pastore Center to the detriment of the residents of Ward 6, while at the same time drastically reducing the much-needed funding to the City of Cranston.”
Reilly said the state's property is located in his ward and that area of Cranston already hosts Harrington Hall, the largest men’s shelter in the state, and that it houses a high volume of registered sex offenders and other felons who "congregate throughout the local neighborhoods each day."
"The addition of the proposed 'homeless village' would significantly increase the amount of registered sex offenders and homeless to an area that is already dangerously saturated," noted Reilly.
Reilly added, “Enough is enough, Another city can step up for once. For too many years, the City of Cranston has been taken advantage of by the State as it continues to flood more and more state facilities and services into the Pastore Complex while drastically reducing funding to the City. Additionally, Cranston has to utilize additional extensive public safety resources of fire and police needed to respond to the various facilities and buildings at the Pastore Center. This unfair obligation, with minimal state financial assistance, is a drain on our budget and takes critical public safety personnel away from servicing the rest of our city’s needs”.
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