What Did We Miss?: While we’ve been watching the big stories, the little stories still have legs

The pandemic and the election have completely taken over our minds, so many of the stories of yesteryear have been forgotten by most people (and news outlets) at large. We here at Motif thought we’d give a quick update on stories we’ve covered over the last few years and where they are today.

Hope Point Tower: Dominating news for months pre-pandemic, the Hope Point Tower was the centerpiece of our Future issue in 2018. With a dramatic flourish, we put it on the cover, with the Superman building being literally erased from the Providence skyline. It’s been nearly two years, so what’s going on?

Well, the pandemic. Developer of the Hope Point Tower, Jason Fane of the Fane organization, has cited financial troubles and COVID-19 as the reason for missing several key deadlines. Fane received a tax break worth over $54 million, and the I95 commission approved the (controversial with locals) design in September 2019. Back in March, mere weeks after the pandemic began, Fane asked for extensions on several deadlines, anticipating an inability to meet them from extraordinary world-historical circumstances. Originally, the Fane Organization was supposed to apply for any and all permits needed to construct and operate the building by this month.

Progress on construction remains somewhere in Purgatory. Also ongoing is the litigation from Providence alleging the city council illegally zoned the land for the tower. 

Utility Justice: What now seems like decades ago, we reported on the efforts of utility justice activists from Providence DSA and George Wiley Center to combat the profit-hungry energy giant we know as National Grid. Those activists are still pushing for a percentage-income plan, with not a ton of victories since then. National Grid has filed a request for the same wintertime increases it asks for every winter. Last month, the Public Utilities Commission approved the Grid’s request for electricity hikes for the fall and winter. With an economy sluggish for most working folks, the average family using 500 kilowatts will see their bill rise $10.78 per month. The rate per kilowatt hour rose from 8.3 cents to 10.4 cents. These increased rates are set to expire at the end of March.

Just last week, National Grid filed requests with the PUC for natural gas hikes. The cumulative increase would start in November and go until next October with charges rising 7.3%, or just over $90 a year for the average family. PUC members indicated they might be open to a deferral for the rate increase, something not done for six years. With complete inaction from the federal government for public assistance for months, many Rhode Islanders could sink deeper into poverty this winter.

Changes to SNAP: Back in January, Motif reported pending federal changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). President Trump announced three major changes to the various rules governing who gets public dollars for food assistance every month. At the time, at least 38,000 households across the state were facing cuts to their benefits or being kicked off the rolls entirely. 

“Basically nothing went through,” says Kathleen Gorman, director of the URI Feinstein Center for a Hunger Free America. “It all coincided with COVID.” All the proposed changes from the federal government — changes to income guidelines, work requirements, and the state utility allowance — have been postponed until 2021. However, the economic implosion from the coronavirus has still put Rhode Islanders in a precarious survival situation.

“People are really struggling,” says Gorman. “They don’t have jobs or they can’t go to work. “ Some emergency legislation was passed earlier in the year that helped families scrape by. Families on SNAP saw a boost in their benefits once schools started shutting down. Added benefits were determined by the number of children in the family. Struggling Rhode Islanders found it to be a big help. Families that were not in the SNAP program but still had a child receiving free or reduced lunch had debit cards mailed directly to their homes. 

It wasn’t all easy going. Gorman says a lot of states struggled with the implementation of added benefits. SNAP data and Department of Education data tend not to be warehoused by the same people. Cross referencing information, even in Rhode Island, resulted in a lot of administrative mistakes. The bad news for Rhode Island is they only did the match once, anyone who applied to SNAP after did not receive a boost.

There were 91,000 households on benefits in Rhode Island, before that rate slowly dropped in subsequent months. Gorman guesses a drop during the summer may reflect folks getting unemployment benefits. A cumbersome administrative data system means any SNAP data is delayed by a few months, and the state doesn’t keep track of why someone ends SNAP benefits. 

Food banks and pantries were slammed for the first few months during the pandemic. The crowds slowed by June, as pandemic EBT, government stimulus checks and UI boosts reached entire populations. But ultimately, data on food insecurity during the pandemic is scarce. But according to Gorman, federal data from April says 18% of white, non-Hispanic households nationwide were food insecure. For Black families it was 29%, for Hispanic families it was 34%. The information was only a snapshot from the spring, and we may not know the full extent of hunger caused by the pandemic for some time to come.