For Advocates, Homelessness is Key issue
in Woonsocket Election

Whoever wins the mayoral seat on Nov. 5 will inherit a deepening homelessness crisis

Bonnie Piekarski says addressing the city’s growing homelessness crisis is a top issue for her in the mayoral election.
Bonnie Piekarski says addressing the city’s growing homelessness crisis is a top issue for her in the mayoral election.
Olivia Ebertz/The Public’s Radio
Share
Bonnie Piekarski says addressing the city’s growing homelessness crisis is a top issue for her in the mayoral election.
Bonnie Piekarski says addressing the city’s growing homelessness crisis is a top issue for her in the mayoral election.
Olivia Ebertz/The Public’s Radio
For Advocates, Homelessness is Key issue
in Woonsocket Election
Copy

On most Saturdays in Woonsocket, the Milagros Project runs a free store aimed at assisting people experiencing poverty and homelessness in the city. Volunteers hand out everything from clothing to fresh farm vegetables, and CEO Bonnie Piekarski says she does not require that anyone “prove their poverty” with paperwork.

Last week, the hallways of the Milagros Project were lined with plastic bags overflowing with donated rotisserie chicken, potato salad and vegetables, and the room was abuzz with volunteers scrambling to finish filling them as the line of customers was growing outside.

Piekarski said addressing the city’s growing homelessness crisis is a top issue for her in the mayoral election. According to data kept by the city, homelessness in Woonsocket increased by 35% in the last year.

Piekarski says she’s hopeful the two candidates — incumbent Christopher Beauchamp and city council president John Ward — will be more responsive to the crisis than the previous mayor, Lisa Baldelli-Hunt, who resigned last year over a land transfer scandal.

When she was in office, she infamously bulldozed a homeless encampment after giving just a half-hour heads up to its residents. Piekarski says Baldelli-Hunt also pursued development that was more aligned with attracting new residents to Woonsocket than helping the people who currently live there.

Baldelli-Hunt has defended her record, saying she offered adequate rehabilitation services to the homeless community.

But Piekarski said Beauchamp and Ward have both shown more willingness to work with advocates.

“I think that they’re trying the best that they can, and what’s unique about both individuals is that they’re willing to learn. They’re willing to sit down and have the conversation,” she said.

This story was reported by The Public’s Radio. You can read the entire story here.

In Rhode Island, the suicide and crisis hotline call center received over 1,500 calls in July. That’s a more than 200% increase from when 988 first launched

Caucus analysis claims the state’s housing finance agency devotes outsized resources to administrative costs compared with peers in Massachusetts and other New England states; RIHousing CEO pushes back, calling the criticism political and highlighting billions invested in homes
‘We care. We’re worried about the jobs right now,” the mayor said. “We’re worried about the people.’
Secretary of State Gregg Amore said he objected to providing personally identifiable information, like the last four digits of one’s social security number, contained in the state’s voter rolls