Echo Park homeless pallet shelters set to open after months of delay

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) — After much anticipation Echo Village will be opening next Tuesday.

The 45 pallet shelters have been delayed for months and was originally slated to open last year.

The delay has sparked criticism from homeless advocates to Governor Dan McKee and other state officials.

Recently, housing secretary Deborah Goddard said that she was confident in the shelters being operational by winter time.

However, the project faced many delays as the state prepared the pallet houses to get up to code.

This involved finalizing electrical systems, testing the power, heating and fire alarms in each of the 45 structures.

The governor refused to temporarily bypass any fire codes to get the shelters open sooner even during the extended bitter cold stretch in January.

More temporary shelters were opened in Providence during the cold period.

But, the governor said declaring a state of emergency, which would allow Echo Village sooner, was not a solution.

The house speaker has since introduced a bill that would allow cities and towns in Rhode Island to declare an emergency and open temporary housing.

The bill is working its way through committees.

The nonprofit House of Hope will run Echo Village.

There’s still no word on when the shelters will be occupied.

The opening ceremony will take place on Tuesday, February 11th and we’ll get a first look inside of all of the facilities available at Echo Village.