|
January 3rd, 2025
The Honorable Daniel McKee
Rhode Island State House
82 Smith St. Providence, RI
re: Homelessness public health crisis
On behalf of the Governing Board and the Executive Minister, the Rhode Island State Council of Churches expresses its concern regarding misleading information on the status of homelessness in Rhode Island.
At the recent 2024 State of Homelessness event, we learned that:
• Homelessness increased by nearly 35% in 2024
• Additional beds have not offset the growing need
• There are 640+ unhoused people waiting for shelter, but there are only an average of 7 openings a day
• Low wages and high rents continue to drive families into poverty and homelessness
We are told that the greatest commandment is to, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind,” and that the second is like it, “to love your neighbor as yourself.”
All across Rhode Island, service providers and communities of faith are feeding, clothing, and housing our most vulnerable – and, they are overwhelmed.
It does not have to be this way.
We ask Governor McKee to declare homelessness a public health crisis and to instruct the Department of Housing to release long-overdue contract payments so that service providers can release shelter beds and open warming centers.
While these measures do not address the systemic realities that create poverty, they are urgently needed to save lives.
“Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.” To take God seriously is to take God’s concerns seriously.
We urge immediate action in defense of the most vulnerable among us.
| 
