Governor McKee talks about homelessness on Gene Valicenti, annotated
Governor McKee slurred advocates and lied. Valicenti did not correct him.
Rhode Island Governor Daniel McKee was on 10 News Conference with extreme right-wing shock jock Gene Valicenti on Sunday morning. Valicenti covered several topics with the Governor over twenty minutes, but he began where he is most comfortable, villainizing the unhoused.
During the interview, Valicenti ran images of the Charles Street Tent Encampment taken during the police raid on Monday, and drone footage secured by Channel 10 of the encampment, over the objections of residents. The use of a drone in this context is especially problematic given that the law expressly says that an unhoused person should have the same expectation of privacy as a person living in a house, and it is hard to imagine Channel 10 using a drone on the East Side of Providence, for instance, without incurring a lawsuit.
The following has been edited for clarity and annotated:
Gene Valicenti: The homeless encampments have been cleared out,1 Governor. That's at the top of the news. Was that the right thing to do?
Governor McKee: Yeah, it was, and we're working to find shelter for people who are in that homelessness situation.2 Clearing out the encampments has been something that we've been trying to do. We're working through, our new secretary of housing to address that as best we can.
Gene Valicenti: The conversation is going to move forward because the winter's going to come and the cold weather's going to come. Are you prepared to put the homeless out there somewhere to keep warm? Do you have the space? Do you have the buildings?
Governor McKee: I think we're working towards that and Stefan is working with me to make that happen. As I mentioned, many times, we put money in the budget so that we can acquire property or manage property so that we have facilities. I think the number is about 200 more beds in that vicinity,3 maybe a little bit more than we have currently active. That's pretty much replacing the Armory, what we had last year in the Armory with a couple hundred shelter beds.
Gene Valicenti: So you're looking to buy buildings to create new shelters, so to speak. Is it as simple as that? Where do you have your eye on?
Governor McKee: Well, I think that in Providence, we're working with the mayor about some facilities. We are in discussions about using Charlesgate4 as one option to take a look at. We're looking at other facilities that we may be currently using if they can be purchased. That's the top priority. But again, winter's coming and we're going to do what we need to do to have the shelter beds to accommodate the people that have the need.
Gene Valicenti: Since the three parcels up on the Charles section were cleared out, just a couple of days ago, there's been this notion that the advocates are asking for a legal piece of land. In other words, let us have our encampment and you won't bother us there. You'll collect the trash, you'll put a porta potty in. What do you think about that notion, a legal encampment?5 Where would you put that?
Governor McKee: Well, that wouldn't be my first option. If local communities want to entertain something, they control their land, and we certainly would talk to them about anything, but [we] always look for a better option than creating a tent city strategy. We're looking to contract the problem, not expand the problem.6 When you start talking about encampments and officially sanctioning them, you're talking about potentially growing the problem.7 We're trying to help the people who have the need, so that wouldn't be a first option as far as I'm concerned. But we would talk to local communities if they thought that was an option in that community.
Gene Valicenti: Is it a non-starter with you?
Governor McKee: On a state level I believe it is, but if local communities feel as though it's an option to them, we're always talking to the local municipality [and] municipal leaders about options that make sense.
Gene Valicenti: You've tangled with these advocates and there are several groups out there, volunteer advocates [and] paid advocates. There's Crossroads, which got $10 million of the last tranche of money, according to what Speaker Shekarchi told me. Now, governor, are you frustrated with these advocates?8 I sense that you are, you told me a little bit on the radio.
Governor McKee: Well, I've publicly stated that when we were working on the issues in front of the State House last year and our staff was going out [and] meeting people that were outside in the tents, trying to find places for them to go, in many cases, we were able to do that.9 And when we put the order in that we need to vacate for their safety and the safety of the people who live in the State of Rhode Island who are coming to the State House, they went to court. Some advocates went to court to keep the homeless, homeless, and I thought that that was wrong.10 I think what we need to do is work together. I have no problem with strong advocacy, but it's difficult to manage and advocate at the same time.
Gene Valicenti: Governor, do you have any more money to pay for hotel rooms, rack rate, millions?11 It sounds like that money is gone and you're going to buy your own shelter. Call it a homeless hotel, whatever you'd like to call it, but that's where you're moving. Is that money gone for hotels?
Governor McKee: We had $30 million that we appropriated in the budget that was passed by the General Assembly to work on homeless shelter issues. Whether it's permanent or whether it's rental. Our preference is to own the property, control the real estate, and then we can create long-term management agreements with providers that are doing the work. I don't think that the state necessarily wants to get into that social work, and that is being done by an Amos House, for instance, or someone like Crossroads. But at the same point in time, you got to understand that the cost is something that you have to manage.
By “encampments” Valicenti I here referring to only one encampment, the Charles Street Tent Encampment. Valicenti has been demonizing the people who lived in this encampment for a while now, creating controversy for ratings.
Of the 40 or so people who were living at that encampment, perhaps 10 of them were provided shelter beds. Of those ten or so who found shelter, a few have already been thrown out and are once again experiencing unsheltered homelessness.
The Cranston Street Armory housed over 200 people during the winter. It was expected to hold less than 80, in part because Governor McKee openly disputed the number of people experiencing homelessness in the state.
Governor McKee had ignored union workers at Charlesgate who had asked him to intervene and prevent or delay the closure of the Charlesgate eldercare facilities.
Valicenti is creating a strawman here. Advocates are not asking for a permanent tent facility because they want one. They are asking because the state is currently providing no other options. A managed tent encampment, for some advocates, is the least bad option.
A Coalition of advocacy groups is demanding:
Instruct the Providence police to hold harmless and not arrest, ticket, or harass those camped in Providence, given that his administration has done little to nothing to provide any alternatives to their tents.
Provide and service trash receptacles and Porta Potties if requested by those living in tent encampments in the city.
Immediately identify city-owned (or acquire privately owned) buildings to provide at least 100 emergency shelter beds, preferably buildings that can eventually be converted to permanent supportive and/or deeply subsidized housing for extremely low-income households. The city must hire service provider(s) to operate the new shelter(s).
Identify sites for, purchase, and have shipped to Providence enough rapidly deployable shelters to provide beds for 100 individuals in at least two separate shelter villages. Provide electricity, bathrooms, showers, and meal sites for residents.
The problem is not “contracted” by raids and eviction. Instead, unhoused people find their lives uprooted, security and personal belongings are lost, access to services is disrupted, few people are moved into supportive shelters, and ultimately they end up in another encampment, only to face raids and eviction again at some future date. I’ve spoken to people who are experiencing homelessness and have been raided and evicted from tent encampments at least five times.
Governor McKee states, without evidence, that sanctioned encampments will grow the problem of unhoused people in the state. In fact, under Governor McKee’s leadership, homelessness in Rhode Island has exploded.
Governor McKee, I believe, is not frustrated with the advocates. He is frustrated with the reality of homelessness and that the advocates constantly point out how useless he has been, as Governor, in dealing with the issue.
The Governor has never released any numbers on how many people were evicted from the State House encampment, or where the people evicted from the State House encampment ended up. This is because very few, if any, went from the State House encampment to permanent supportive housing or even shelter. The vast majority of them ended up at the Cranston Street Armory. Some went to jail. Attempts to find out these numbers were thwarted when the McKee Administration attached a huge price tag to an Access to Public Records Act request I made.
This is a lie. The lawsuit to prevent the eviction of the State House tent encampment was not motivated by a desire to keep homeless people homeless. This is a lie Governor McKee has told before. As pointed out above, the number of unhoused people in Rhode Island continues to grow. The number of people evicted in these high-profile raids and evictions of homeless encampments who find actual shelter is extremely low. The only person involved in keeping homeless people homeless is Governor McKee and his enablers in the media and his administration.
The advocates went to court to prevent the McKee Administration from evicting the State House encampment for several reasons. For instance, it was a protected, first amendment protest against the Governor’s housing and homeless policies. Another is that unhoused people are usually safer in encampments because they can look out for each other.
I don’t know any advocates who want to keep unhoused people homeless. With this statement, Governor McKee slurred advocates and lied. Worse, he is going on a show hosted by Gene Valicenti, a right-wing shock jock who victimized vulnerable people for ratings on a station owned by Sinclair Media, an ideologically slanted, right-wing media company that has supported the worst excess of the Trump Administration.
The full price at which hotel rooms are rented, before deals are made.