Letter In Support of Additional Revenue to Help Fight Homelessness to the House Finance Committee

Signed by homeless/housing agencies

Rhode Island is experiencing an unprecedented level of homelessness and unfortunately the current budget for next year would result in an approximately 70% reduction in funds for efforts to reduce homelessness. Our organizations, which work to help support the unhoused residents of Rhode Island, are in support of the Governor’s amendments which would avoid the worst of these cuts. The “dedicated homeless fund” is necessary to avoid an increase in homelessness.  Even if these amendments were to pass, the state would still be facing around a 58% cut to these services.

According to public information provided by the Department of Housing, around $37 million dollars has been contracted for homelessness supportive services this year. Right now, we anticipate the Department only having around eleven million dollars in FY 26 without these amendments. We are hoping this committee can provide more details on these numbers when the Department of Housing budget is discussed next month.

Progress has been built upon Governor McKee, the Department of Housing, and the Legislature’s investment of millions of Federal dollars to create and fund a real Department of Housing, and this decision has avoided having three times as many homeless Rhode Islanders as we do now.  The total number of shelter beds increased by 145.5%, from 674 in January 2020 to 1655 in February 2025 with more beds set to open soon.  We hope the State will continue this progress by supporting these additional revenue sources. Specifically, this consists of the additional short term rental tax described in section 44-25-1(c) and the increased conveyance tax in section 42-63.1-3.(h)

These amendments will prevent hundreds of families with children, elderly, and disabled from living on the streets. These individuals come from communities all over the state, from Coventry, to Cumberland, to Warwick, to South County. As community leaders, providers, advocates, and communities directly impacted by homelessness, we stand firmly in opposition to the current cuts. Even with the current level of funding, homelessness has been growing. Unsheltered homelessness increased by 652%, from 71 people to 534 people between 2019 and 2024.

A 70% reduction in shelter funding could mean shutting down over 1,000 shelter beds and cutting other essential programming which prevents homelessness such as outreach to homeless communities and ‘housing problem solving’ services. We anticipate a wave of homelessness this fall if more money is not allocated. Even with these amendments, our state will still likely be forced to cut millions of dollars in services.  That is why we are requesting the state work to introduce additional funding for these services, even beyond the amendment being heard today.  We need twenty million dollars added to this budget, on top of the amendments being heard today, to prevent cuts to these services.

Homelessness has increased primarily due to the increasing cost of housing, causing hundreds of the elderly, families with children, and people that are ill or disabled to become homelessness for the first time.  Supporting homelessness infrastructure and services now will save money on healthcare, police and prison, unemployment and homelessness later because homelessness makes all other health and social needs more costly.

We understand that this is a difficult budget year and the state is facing cuts in many departments. However, there are a number of proposals that we think would be far better than forcing these cuts to services. We would encourage the legislature to seriously consider all options available to provide these critical funds.

Signed:

Julio Berroa, Executive Director, Haus of Codec

Heather Bishop, Director, Lucy’s Hearth

Judy Earle, Executive Director, Elizabeth Buffum Chace Center

Eileen Hayes, President & CEO, Amos House

Lisa Guillette, Executive Director, Foster Forward

Barbara Haynes, Executive Director, McAuley Ministries

Paula Hudson, Executive Director, Better Lives Rhode Island

Nick Horton, Co-Executive Director, OpenDoors

Laura Jaworski, Executive Director, House of Hope CDC

Benedict Lessing, President/CEO, Community Care Alliance

Russ Partridge, Executive Director, WARM Center

Paula McFarland, Executive Director, Pawtucket Housing Authority

Kim Simmons, Executive Director, Coalition to End Homelessness

Paul Salera, President/CEO Westbay Community Action

Vanessa Volz, President & CEO, Sojourner House