Crack Down on Cranston Encampments: Mayor Hopkins issues executive order allowing police to displace encampments

Cranston Mayor Kenneth Hopkins recently issued an executive order granting immediate authority to the Cranston Police Department to enter and clear the encampments of unhoused people. This comes less than a week after the Cranston City Council Ordinance Committee declined to pass his ordinance that would have granted the police such powers. Under the executive order, police can enter and inspect encampments on public property, issue a no-trespass order to campers, and have their personal effects thrown into the trash by DPW or a contractor, with the caveat that these steps cannot be taken “before contacting and cooperating with any social services necessary to relocate and provide temporary housing for any violator of this executive order.” This will be difficult because there is no shelter, permanent or temporary, for hundreds of Rhode Islanders living outside.

The original ordinance contained a $50 fine as well as the issuance of no-trespass orders and the trashing of personal belongings. The executive order omits this. Last week 14 people, including Cranston residents as well as advocates and experts on homelessness from across the state, testified against the ordinance. [During that meeting Cranston Police Chief Michael Winquist speculated that those in favor of the ordinance “chose not to be here because speaking for this ordinance may not be the popular thing.”] The City Council decided not to pass the ordinance, but to develop a compassionate response to the issue over the next three months. Asked for comment, Mayor Hopkins’ Chief of Staff Anthony Moretti replied, “Please be assured that the intention of this order is to protect the general public as well as all encampment occupants. As to timing, there was no consideration relating to an election. It was felt that conditions currently pose a risk to public health and safety.”

The ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) of Rhode Island issued the following press release in response: “Just like the anti-homeless ordinance the Mayor recently proposed, and that members of the public uniformly condemned at the last City Council Ordinance Committee meeting last week, the power this executive order gives the police department to remove encampments is 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. 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 … His attempt to completely bypass the City Council process is a dangerous misuse of executive authority.”

In response, the campaign to elect Robert Ferri as Mayor of Cranston issued the following statement. “When the committee heard the Mayor’s ordinance last week, 14 people testified against it, and the committee had a very long discussion. All city 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 not the answer. It was resolved in the meeting that we would bring in experts and possibly rewrite the ordinance to protect all involved… “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 for the needs of RI’s homeless population… “Based on my conversations with homelessness experts, we need to offer services to them and identify a place for them to go. Most people who 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 anymore. We are the second largest city in Rhode Island and we need to do our part. “In Cranston, we have not built an affordable housing unit in over 13 years. I believe that instead of creating a law to displace the homeless, we must bring experts to the table and work with them to deal with this problem in a way that may solve the problem. Let’s not kick people who have the least while they’re down.” •