Cranston issues executive order for removal of homeless encampments

CRANSTON, R.I. (WLNE) — Cranston Mayor Ken Hopkins has issued an executive order allowing police to work with members of public works to disperse of homeless encampments in the community.

According to the order, shared with ABC6, Cranston police have the authority to coordinate with the City of Cranston Department of Public Works to remove any encampments or housing, “not before contacting and cooperating with any social services necessary in an effort to relocate and provide temporary housing for any violator of this executive order.”

If any individual refuses to cooperate with the services, the encampment or housing will be removed by DPW and they will be issued a no trespass warning not to return to the property, according to the order.

According to Hopkins, in a statement shared with ABC6, the decision to sign this executive order came after “recent concern of potential homeless encampments in close proximity to school facilities” came to his attention.

“Public safety is my number one priority. Be assured that the intention of this order is to protect the general public as well as all encampment occupants, and requires our officers to contact and cooperate with any social services necessary to relocate and provide temporary housing for any violator,” he said.

“I chose to pass this executive order to ensure safety of our students ahead of the coming school year. The city council had the opportunity to put this matter to rest during the City Council Ordinance Committee meeting on August 15, but they kicked the can down the road three months,” he continued.

In the August 15 meeting, dozens of people from across the state came out to voice their opposition Thursday in front of Cranston council members.

The ordinance comes after the Supreme Court overturned lower court rulings that deemed it cruel and unusual to punish people for sleeping outside if they had nowhere else to go.

In a statement, members of the ACLU of Rhode Island called the order “cruel, misguided, and ineffective.”

“Though it purports to rely on ‘contacting social services’ before relocating people, the executive order makes no note of how this would work in practice or whether social service agencies are even in a position to provide necessary assistance,” they said.

The statement continued:

In addition, the immediate removal of a person’s property if they refuse to cooperate with “any” offered services, no matter how insufficient, unhelpful, or unsafe those services may be, raises additional serious concerns under the State’s Homeless Bill of Rights. The Mayor’s unilateral issuance of this executive order relies on City Charter provisions that involve his duty to enforce the laws, not enact them on his own. His attempt to completely bypass the City Council process is a dangerous misuse of executive authority. We will be examining what actions affected individuals and groups may be able to take to address this extremely troubling overstepping of executive powers and inhumane response to the plight of people experiencing homelessness.

A representative for The Rhode Island Coalition to End Homelessness said homelessness is on the rise in every city and town in Rhode Island and across the nation.

“Housing and shelter options are not being created at a rate to keep up with the demand and as a result, more people are sleeping outside. Here at the Coalition, we worked to enact The Homeless Bill of Rights in 2012 to support people who have no other options but to stay on public land,” they said.

“We believe it will provide protection for those affected by these recent actions. We are proud to have been the first state in the nation to put such protection in place and hope that all Rhode Islanders will honor those rights,” they continued.

The organization continued that they commend the efforts of any cities and towns who wish to work collaboratively and thoughtfully to address the needs of those who are residing outside.

“We believe that there are far less intrusive ways to address the encampments than executive orders such as this,” they said.

Councilman Robert Ferri also issued a statement on the order, and echoed the statements from ACLU.

Ferri said all councilors agreed that there needs to be a positive solution to the problem of homeless encampments in Cranston, and punishing “these people (which the ordinance as written would do) would not help the situation at all.”

“Passing the ordinance was clearly not the answer.  It was resolved in the meeting that we would bring in experts and possibly rewrite the ordinance to protect all involved,” he said.

Ferri continued that the challenge is that currently in Rhode Island, “there is nowhere for many homeless people to go.”

“The state is about 700 shelter beds short of the need amongst Rhode Island’s homeless population. If we break up an encampment, and move them from one spot, they are only going to show up in another, likely in Cranston, because there is nowhere for many of these folks to go currently,” he said.

The statement continued:

“Based on my conversations with homelessness experts, we need to offer services to them and identify a place for them to go. Most people that are homeless do not choose to be.  They are often people with the most barriers to success ( e.g. poverty, mental health issues, etc.). They need help and services.  Cranston simply can’t make this someone else’s problem any more.  We are the second largest city in RI, and we need to do our part.  In Cranston, we have not built a single unit of affordable housing in over 13 years.  I believe that instead of creating a law to displace the homeless, why don’t we bring experts to the table and work with them to deal with this problem in a way that may actually solve the problem? Let’s not kick people who have the least while they’re down.”