A father and son face an uncertain future as Rhode Island closes family shelters

"These are family shelters they’re shutting down, and there is no place for people to go. They’re shutting down two of them, not one. Do you know the vacuum this is going to cause?"

The Rhode Island Department of Housing is closing two family shelters at the end of this month, shelters that provide a safe place for families with children to sleep indoors. As of this writing, there are no announced plans to replace these beds. Instead, the department is “actively working” to transition these families to other accommodations.

These shelter closings are part of a larger issue - a potential $17.8 million budget cut to homeless services in the next state budget that may ultimately lead to the loss of 1,000 beds for people experiencing homelessness. [See: Hundreds gather in the Rhode Island State House to restore funding for homelessness and shelter beds]

I spoke to Jay, a father who, with his teen son Davin, currently shelters at the Eleanor Slater Hospital’s Zambarano unit in Burrillville. That facility opened in 2023 as a temporary shelter and currently shelters nine parents and 14 children.

Jay: My background is that I screwed up as a kid. I grew up as a foster kid, so a lot of bad shit happened to me. I got locked up, and when I got out, I was in a halfway house. I got a girl pregnant, and Davin was born. I was not going to let what happened to me happen to my son. I’ve been a single dad since I got out, and I’ve done a lot. I went to school, but they wouldn’t give me my electrical license, even though I passed the test, because of my record. Everything’s been extremely hard.

But the point is, I’ve done nothing but take care of my kid, and I’ve done nothing but try to make sure that my kid has a chance. I ended up getting diagnosed with what’s called Waldenström’s cancer.

Steve Ahlquist: What is that?

Jay: Waldenström. It’s German. It’s named after the doctor who discovered it. Basically, the ring around the red blood cell is messed up. I get blood clots, and my blood gets thick. It hits white men after the age of 45. They don’t know why, and it’s very rare. It’s very odd.

But the point is, I can’t work. Before this, I would work. I would do construction, anything, no matter what it was. I would do everything. When I got sick, I couldn’t take care of my son. The girl I was with, who I shared stuff with, passed away, and my son ended up staying with grandparents. I ended up getting him back because he couldn’t stay there. We went to this shelter, and things were going well.

The shelter is awesome. I’ve been to a lot of places. I’ve been institutionalized my whole life, and I’ve seen horrible places. I’ve seen horrible things and I’ve seen shitty places. The guy running this place is awesome. I was taken aback by it because it’s nice. It’s clean. The people are respectful. He pays the people there a living wage, so they care and do their job. The place has no drugs, no prostitution, no problems. It’s a good place for me and my son.

The guy who runs this place, his name’s Aaron. This poor guy right now is trying to handle this, the stress he has, and the guilt he has of not knowing what to do with all these families.

Like I said, I’m sick, and I can’t work. I have disability checks, but I can’t afford housing. I was paying $1,200 a month for a room, and the guy evicted me because I had my son.

I’ve only been here for three months. And the time that I was here, the money that I did get went to paying back rent to the guy who evicted me, so I wouldn’t get an eviction on my record, so I can get a place in the future, you know what I mean?

Steve Ahlquist: Yep.

Jay: So I’ve been here for three months, and then they announced that they’re closing this place. Not only are they closing this place, but they are also closing the one down by URI. They’re going to close two family shelters.

This family shelter houses nine families. There was something like 14 kids here at one point. This shelter is not bothering anybody. If you see this property, this is a pristine property to do this. There’s no better property for them to do this on. What else are they going to use this property for? This shelter runs under budget. It’s clean. The people here care. They try to help people. They are helping people get their lives together. A lot of shelters have drugs and prostitution, but this one isn’t like that. That’s the reason I brought my son in. Now they’re closing it, and they don’t have anywhere to put us. They don’t know what they’re going to do with us. They’re like, “We don’t know what to do.” Nobody is getting involved, and no one cares.

Aaron’s under so much pressure, and they’re not sending anybody in here to help him. He has 27 days to get nine families and 14 kids out of this place. Are you fucking kidding me? How is that fair to him? How is that fair to those families?

They’re just families trying to stay together.

All I want - I’m not asking for anything crazy - I’m asking for affordable housing so I can take care of my son until he starts school. If no one wants to help me, I don’t care. You can let me die somewhere. What bothers me is they’re not closing this place for good reasons. They’re closing this place because people don’t like it. They don’t want it in their backyard. But my question is, what are you going to do with all the homeless families from here and URI? Where are they all going to go? Where do people think they’re going to go, and do they think housing people in prison or jail costs less? Because it doesn’t.

Steve Ahlquist: I know it costs a lot more.

Jay: Now you’re going to house me in prison - because I’m going to end up doing something to get money to get a place for my son, and now you’re going to house me in prison with my medical bills. Do you know what that’s going to cost instead of just giving me assisted housing?

Steve Ahlquist: And your son will go into the system, and that’ll be even more costly.

Jay: Exactly. I will die before I let that happen because I grew up in that system, and I will not let it happen to my son. That’s why I fought so hard to keep that from happening to him. But it’s close because I am running out of fucking options.

Steve Ahlquist: I can tell. How old is your son?

Jay: He’s 16. My son gets straight A’s, and he’s a member of the National Honor Society.

Steve Ahlquist: Awesome.

Jay: I’ve done nothing but make sure my son gets straight A’s in school, no matter what’s going on. My kid had to transfer from seven different schools because I’ve had to move - because I’m a felon who’s a single dad, and I can’t keep a job or a place.

Steve Ahlquist: You want to give Davin a chance. You want to get him into a college where he can make something of himself.

Jay: I’m trying to get him into the Air Force Academy. My son is very smart; he gets straight A’s, but this isn’t fair to him. I’m not asking for anything crazy here. I have a disability because of my cancer. All I’m asking for is assisted living, and these people won’t even keep shelters open. I don’t understand what this state intends to do. These shelters that are closing are not single, individual, drug addict housing. Do you understand what I’m telling you?

This is family housing. These are family shelters they’re shutting down, and there is no place for people to go. They’re shutting down two of them, not one. Do you know the vacuum this is going to cause?

Steve Ahlquist: I do. I’ve been writing about this for a while, and I’ll tell you - these budget cuts may result in as many as a thousand extra people on the street in a couple of months.

Jay: Yes. And they don’t understand what it’s going to do. They’re going to do the same thing over and over again. I get it because you know what? I was that person. I was the person working my ass off and struggling and saying, “Why should anybody else get help? I’m struggling. I need help.” Everybody is like that right now. It’s hard for people to have empathy for someone else when we are all one paycheck away from being in that situation.

Steve Ahlquist: You’re right.

Jay: It’s hard for people to want to help when they’re in the same place. And I get it because I was in that position. It’s like, how can I help someone else when I’m barely making it?

Then I ended up in a situation where I got sick and had no choice.

Steve Ahlquist: How soon is the shelter closing?

Jay: On June 27th, we have to leave.

Steve Ahlquist: So you have less than a month.

Jay: My kid finishes school on the 24th, and they want us out three days later.

Steve Ahlquist: Where does he go to school? In Burrillville?

Jay: No. That’s the thing. Here’s the big issue: These assholes, this is the state’s great idea. Do you want to talk about fucking idiots? You can write about this and put it in there. One of the complaints from the Burrillville Town Council was about the transportation cost of shipping the kids to school every day. My kid attends school in Providence, while other kids attend Exeter, because they come from different places. If they had spoken to the people in the shelter and said, “You need to register your children in Burrillville Schools,” everybody would have done that if it kept the shelter open.

Steve Ahlquist: So they say the kids have to take a bus. And you agree to that, but then they ask, “Do you know how much the bus costs?”

Jay: When we said we’ll put our kids in the local schools, they say, “What’s the special education cost going to be?”

These people don’t want us in their town. The town of Burrillville didn’t want us in their town from the beginning, but can I tell you something?

I’ve been in the system my whole life. I’m telling you right now, I’ve never seen a place function as well as this shelter. If there is a shelter that can work and help people, this would be the fucking one. And they’re closing it. I’ve been inside every type of place you can imagine. I’ve been in Amos House, Crossroads, and out in a tent. I’ve been everywhere, and I’m telling you, right now, this place has no drugs and no prostitution because it’s so far from Providence that if you wanted to be here, you had to have a reason to be here.

Do you understand what I’m saying? There’s no way out of there, so you have to deal with your demons and figure out what you want to do. That makes people think. And the setting - the nature and trails - helps people get their heads into focus. If you look this place up and see the abandoned buildings out here - and they’re going to close these buildings - I’m going to tell you something - I’ve been in construction my whole life. They are not refitting these places for anything else. I’m telling you that these buildings are going to sit here and fucking rot. That’s what they’re going to do. That makes me sick.

Steve Ahlquist: There’s no money to fix them up.

Jay: There’s no money, but right now, they’re workable for what they’re using them for. So why are they doing this? I don’t get it. Can they give me a good reason? I can have a conversation with anybody. Yes, I’m a felon. Yes, I did 17 years in prison. Yes, I fucking did all that shit. But I can read, comprehend, and articulate myself. My point is that there is no good reason to close this place. The guy who runs this place stayed under budget. He pays his people $25 an hour, and he still stays under budget.

Steve Ahlquist: He seems to know where to put the money, right?

Jay: That’s right. This guy did this place perfectly. You should see this place. The way he runs this place - he runs it like a family. He runs it like a unit, he made people care and help, and he dealt with all the drama. I’ve never seen a place work like this, and they’re closing it. I want people to ask why. I want people to ask, “Where are these people going to go? If you don’t want them here, where do you want them? Do you want them on the streets of Providence? Is that what you want?”

Steve Ahlquist: Can I ask: Cancer treatments are difficult. How are you managing your treatments?

Jay: I don’t have treatments. There are no treatments for what I have. They’ve done everything they can do. What’s going to end up happening to me is I’m going to die of the flu or the cold. Basically, my cancer makes me autoimmune.

Steve Ahlquist: Oh...

Jay: My red blood cells reproduce messed up. So my immune system constantly thinks I’m sick. I get sick easily. I get blood clots, I get infections. I can’t fight off infections. Being in these family shelters, in these environments, I get sick. That’s why it’s hard for me to go to one of these other shelters, you know what I mean? Honestly, I don’t care about me. I get it. If you want to look at me and say I’m a piece of shit, that’s fine. But my son is the most important thing. He’s a straight-A student. My son doesn’t deserve this.

Steve Ahlquist: I agree. No question.

Jay: You don’t know how hard it’s been being a single dad. I’m not asking for free shit, dude. I’m not the guy who wants free shit. I want my son to have a chance. How is there no affordable housing? With all these vacant places, how can there be so many families without homes?

Steve Ahlquist: That is the nightmare question I ask every day.

Jay: The numbers don’t make sense to me. Anyone with intelligence, if you look at the numbers, it doesn’t make sense.

Steve Ahlquist: It also doesn’t make moral sense. And even if it did make sense, what the hell? Change the numbers. Get more money. Do what you have to do to help these kids.

Jay: I don’t think about the morals because I feel we’ve lost our morality as a society.

Steve Ahlquist: You’re probably right. Maybe I beat that drum for no reason.

Jay: We have a monetary system. Morality is out the window.

Steve Ahlquist: They only care about themselves. These politicians are just monsters. To them, it would be better if you all died or didn’t exist.

Jay: I had this parole officer, and my parole officer got close to me. He helped me raise my son because the girl that I got pregnant, when I was in a halfway house, had drug problems. I took my son and I said, “If I have a kid, I will never let him go through what I went through.” My kid was born, and I had full custody. So I take this kid, and I don’t know what to do. My kid was crying and I didn’t know what to do. Do you know who I called that night? My parole officer. He came to my house and helped me take care of my kid. He was a single dad with two kids.

Steve Ahlquist: That’s amazing.

Jay: You know what I mean? Because of that guy, I’ve made it 16 or 17 years out of prison. He’s the only reason I made it this far. I have worked so hard to give my son the chances I was never given and to show him the love I was never shown. I tell my son I love him a hundred times a day because I want him to know that. I was never told that.

You know who makes me sick? The people who would rather my son go to someone else because they know that I have a friend of the family who my son could go to. This counselor told my son, not knowing my background, “There are other people here who have it worse. You have someone to go to.” My son goes, “What about my dad? My dad’s sick.” The counselor said, “They’ll figure something out.” My kid came home crying. This is what the counselor, who’s supposed to help, told my son.

That’s what you say to a kid? You don’t know the bond I have with my son. Do you know any single fathers who have their kids? Not a lot. I’ve had him since he was six months old.

Steve Ahlquist: Some fathers walk out.

Jay: Dude, I did it out of prison.

Steve Ahlquist: That’s amazing.

Jay: I am not amazing. I just don’t want what happened to me to happen to him.