What's The Plan?

Fourteen years – and more than 100 million taxpayer dollars – after the state created a roadmap to end homelessness in Rhode Island, the problem persists - with no strategic plan and questions from advocates for the unhoused community about how the money is being spent on the issue. In Part 3 of our series, Jim Hummel talks to advocates, a key state official and the leading nonprofit provider of housing and homeless services in Rhode Island.

Fourteen years after the state created a roadmap to end homelessness in Rhode Island, the problem has gotten worse - with no strategic plan and questions from advocates for the unhoused community about how more than $100 million in taxpayer money has been spent on the issue.

“We’re not going to get anywhere unless the government shifts from managing the crisis to solving its root causes,” said Janice Luongo, who publishes a newspaper for homeless people called ‘Street Sights.’ “To me, the answer is: housing first.”

No one would disagree with that, but as rental prices have soared since the pandemic and production of housing units lagged, the state is no closer to its goal, even though it has allocated more than $83 million over the past three years alone in federal and state dollars toward homeless initiatives.

“We need to go back to the accountability piece,” Nancy Krahe, a volunteer and advocate for the Rhode Island Housing First Coalition. “Let’s look at the money that Rhode Island has already dedicated to the homeless in the state. Is it working? No, it’s not working, it’s getting worse,” Krahe added.

“Who’s driving the bus – and where’ the bus going?” said Vincent Marzullo, a retired federal employee who has been working on the homeless issue in Rhode Island for years. “They’re allocating money without demonstrating how they’re going to end homelessness, or what the measurables are in order to reduce homelessness, which is their mandate.”

In a wide-ranging interview last month with The Hummel Report, Deborah Goddard, who became Rhode Island’s Secretary of Housing in late 2024, acknowledged that the state has a lot of work to do on homelessness; but making sure taxpayer dollars are being spent wisely is a priority, she said. And her office is examining agencies receiving funding.

“We (took) a look at who’s doing well, who needs improvement,” Goddard said. “We actually met with the providers to say hey, here are some of the places we’re stuck, we want to meet with each of you individually.”

As for the larger picture of getting people housed, Goddard said: “We’re dealing with humans so there are difficulties with all of these cases. But high level, this isn’t rocket science. We know we need to produce housing. We know we need to meet people where they are, figure out what their situation is and what’s the best avenue.”

The housing office employs 29 people, with a $164 million budget. Buoyed by federal money and an emphasis on housing by the General Assembly and The McKee Administration, the budget was $323 million two years ago and $212 million last year. This year alone more than $20 million has been allocated for homeless initiatives.

Ben Haynie, executive director of homelessness and community supports under Goddard, said: “We want to be good stewards of the money that we’re putting out there. We also want it to be impactful. We have added new language to our contracts in the past year. ‘This is what you say you’re going to do, vendor, this is what we’re funding you to do. These are the deliverables here. These need to be done and reported on.’”

In 2011, the General Assembly passed a law titled ‘Support of Homeless.’ It created an 18-member interagency council that was charged with developing a strategic plan to end homelessness. In addition to the many members coming from state government, the council was required to have someone from the homeless community, or with lived experience.

In response, the administration of then-Gov. Lincoln Chafee commissioned a 53-page report with a path and goals to end homelessness. The beginning of the report stated: “Homelessness is unacceptable. It is solvable and preventable. Homelessness is expensive. Invest in solutions.”

It outlined ambitious benchmarks. “The plan seeks to sharply decrease the numbers of people experiencing homelessness and the length of time people spend homeless,” the report stated. “It proposes to finish the job of ending chronic homelessness in five years.”

The report stated that in 2010, the most recent year for which data was available at the time, more than 1,100 had no place to stay on any given night.

“While striving to assemble as many resources as possible to address this critical problem, it is also important to ensure that existing resources are used as efficiently as possible, targeted to the correct populations and providers based on an individualized assessment of need,” the report said.

The interagency council met on a monthly basis beginning in 2011, until Gina Raimondo became governor in January 2015; then it met sporadically the next two years - and then not at all until Marzullo and Eric Hirsch, who heads up the Rhode Island Homeless Advocacy Project, pushed to reactivate the council. It resumed meeting in late 2024, after Goddard came in to head the newly created Executive Office of Housing but did not include a representative from the unhoused community.

The state did make some progress with homelessness after the strategic plan was issued. In 2019 an annual count listed 1,055 who were unhoused in Rhode Island, with 71 unsheltered; by 2025 (the latest figures available) those numbers had ballooned to 2,373 experiencing homelessness and 617 people unsheltered.

Marzullo said Goddard’s office had the law changed last year to create a new interagency council, without representation from the homeless community. “There’s no unified command,” he said. “It’s complicated. There’s a variety of issues for the agencies, the individuals, the communities, law enforcement. You need everybody around the table to solve the problem.”

Marzullo said the state has no sense of urgency: the council meets quarterly now instead of monthly.

Luongo agreed: “You can’t solve this problem without talking to the homeless. They don’t want them around the table. What are you afraid you’re going to catch it? I’d get a coalition of people with lived experiences. I’d rewrite the script.”

Goddard, in our interview, said the interagency council is just that – a group of representatives from state government. But she added that the changes in law enacted last year also created an advisory board to the council, which includes someone from the homeless community, along with a variety of other community representatives.

And what about a new strategic plan? Goddard said the state has hired a consultant to help the Office of Housing with a plan to write a new one. She expects the plan to be finished later this year.

The issue of how resources are allocated and spent is an ongoing source of complaint among advocates for the homeless. Last summer, still bolstered by an influx of federal pandemic dollars, the Office of Housing allocated $21.3 million in grants to more than two dozen nonprofit organizations providing shelter services.

A total of $5.5 million – a quarter of the entire disbursement – went to Crossroads Rhode Island, which operates several shelters - and a warming center at its headquarters in Providence that is a last resort for people when the weather is dire.

The Rhode Island Homeless Advocacy Project, a nonprofit established in 2017 with the mission of providing outreach services and advocating for the homeless population, invited Crossroads President & CEO Michelle Wilcox and her leadership team to a meeting at Mathewson Street in January.

Others said the showers were dirty and there were not enough towels. Wilcox repeatedly apologized and said she would report back about changes in a month.

In an interview with The Hummel Report last month, Wilcox said Crossroads had made some internal changes at the front desk of the warming center as a result of the January meeting. She stressed the space was not designed to be a shelter. “Their concerns were real. It’s not an ideal situation. We’re operating a warming center, it’s keeping people alive and the people who access the warming center are the people with the highest possible needs, very significant mental health concerns,” she said.

Particularly galling for some who attended the meeting: the state allocated Crossroads an additional $100,000 last fall, specifically to be used for providing shelter and services at its main building in Providence during the winter months.

Steve Ahlquist, a writer and advocate, transcribed and published the interaction between Wilcox and her leadership team in a packed Fellowship Hall at the church.

For 75 minutes Wilcox fielded complaints about the warming center and the staff at the front desk. One person who said her name was Phyllis told Wilcox: “When you come in that front door, they are so rude and nasty, they treat us like it’s our fault that we’re homeless, and they have no lived experience. I don’t know what you’re paying them, but I know that the people in the Women’s Center are a lot better than those people upstairs. They should all be fired and replaced with a whole new group.”

Several people who attended the meeting told The Hummel Report they found it ironic that Wilcox said the people on the front desk are among the most poorly paid in the organization, given the compensation of the higher-ups at Crossroads.

“The job of the front desk worker at Crossroads is the most challenging in our organization,” Wilcox told the group that day in January. “It is the most difficult job we have. And the people who work at the front desk are among our lowest-paid employees, and they sometimes have the least experience and educational backgrounds.”

Between salary and benefits Wilcox this year is making close to $400,000, according to sources.

The nonprofit has a $19 million budget this year, 60% of which comes from state and federal tax dollars; it will raise more than $3 million this year in private contributions. Crossroads listed 10 employees with a salary of $120,000 or more on its 990-tax form filed in 2024 (the latest information available).

Wilcox was listed with a salary of $315,247 and “other compensation” of $37,715 for a total of more than $350,000 two years ago. The chief financial officer had a total package of $264,296 and the chief philanthropy officer was compensated a total of $214,377.

Crossroads also pays Half Street Group, a Providence public relations firm, $61,500 annually. We asked Wilcox why none of the six-figure salaried employees could handle media inquiries. She said the organization gets multiple media inquiries weekly.

In a follow-up email she wrote: “As a private charitable organization, we don't typically share contractual information about our vendors, but in an effort to avoid any false narratives about our budgeting, we will share that Half Street bills $5,125 a month for full-service and on-call media relations, crisis communications, and strategic communications support.

“Taking those essential communications services in-house would exceed the $60,000 annual investment we make with Half Street, and we are grateful for the expertise and value that they provide.”

Bernie Beaudreau, a former CEO of The Rhode Island Community Food Bank who has been doing volunteer outreach this winter at tent encampments, said accountability for government contracts to nonprofits has been a national challenge, with debates over how much overhead and indirect costs are built in.

“There haven’t been a lot of discussions on acceptable salary ranges – on the lowest and the highest ends,” he said.

Wilcox said her compensation is set by the board. We asked her: “But you’ve never said to the board: you know what - $400,000 is a lot of money - maybe I’ll take a shave to $300,000. Could you do the job for $250,000? You’ve never said that have you?”

Wilcox responded: “I’m not going to discuss with you the conversations I’ve had with my board.”

Wilcox emphasized that Crossroads is delivering considerable bang for the state and federal buck, noting that the nonprofit served 4,800 people last year experiencing homelessness and housed 3,800 people last year.

“We have as an organization, we’re the largest provider of permanent supportive housing,” Wilxcox said, highlighting a building opened on Summer Street last fall that provides 176 permanent supportive apartments for formerly homeless people.

“We’re the largest provider of temporary emergency shelter. We have the only couple’s shelter for adult couples. We run significant problem-solving programs – to avoid the shelter system. The rub here is the demand is far outpacing the supply. There isn’t enough housing, there isn’t enough affordable housing.”

Chelsea DeCesare, a senior account executive with Half Point Group who sat in on our interview, wrote in a follow-up email: “In 2024, 85% of our budget…was spent on direct client support such as shelter, housing and education and employment programming. That earned us an ‘exceptional’ four-star rating from Charity Navigator indicating that Crossroads exceeds industry standards and outperforms most other charities in our sector for operational excellence and fiscal responsibility (strong financial health and program spending of at least 75%).”

Some advocates say Gov. McKee is not doing enough in the homeless sector. Hirsch, from The Rhode Island Homeless Advocacy Project, said McKee’s 2030 plan proposes creating 350 units of permanent supportive housing over the next five years, and 500 units of deeply subsidized housing – both not nearly enough to meet the need.

“At the moment the state has 1,355 units of permanent supportive housing,” Hirsch said. “At the same time, often in a given month we’ll have 1,00 people who become homeless for the first time. That’s unbelievably inadequate.”

Hirsch’s suggestion: “My proposal would be 1,000 units of permanent supportive housing between now and 2030. That would make a dent. What they propose will not make a dent.”

McKee defended what he’s done around the issue of housing and homelessness. In an interview with The Hummel Report last month, he said: “On the housing, it’s night and day compared to when I showed up.

“So as we’re putting together a new governance model, setting up a new housing office , putting a new secretary in, and going through all of the areas that will empower our housing office to actually manage and help make these improvements, I’m pretty satisfied that you’re not going to get all the way there, but compared to when I showed up, it’s night and day.”

The governor noted that $250 million of the American Rescue Plan Act has been dedicated to housing, with two subsequent state bonds of more than $100 million.

And still, the problems persist. Luongo, who works regularly with the homeless population, has urged the governor to do more. When people experiencing homelessness and advocates set up tents in 2021 and 2022 on the pavement in front of the State House, Luongo approached McKee.

“I told him on the Statehouse stairs: ‘What a legacy you could have. You could virtually eradicate homelessness.’”

The Hummel Report is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that relies, in part, on donations. For more information, go to HummelReport.org. Reach Jim at Jim@HummelReport.org.