RI- New agency, rules at homeless shelter

6-2-2009 Rhode Island:

CRANSTON — The state has hired a new agency to run the Harrington Hall homeless shelter, ending a controversial arrangement in which beds were being reserved for convicted sex offenders.

Starting July 1, the Urban League of Rhode Island will be out, and the House of Hope Community Development Corporation will be in.

The switch does not mean sex offenders will be turned away if they show up needing a place to stay, but it does mean the shelter, about a quarter-mile from a playground and about a half-mile from the nearest school, will no longer reserve space for them.

The state, in fact, has asked the Urban League to evict all registered sex offenders who are using Harrington Hall as their address by June 15, said Amy Kempe, spokeswoman for Governor Carcieri.

“It will be first-come, first-serve,” Kempe said. “They won’t be reserving beds.”

But Kempe said the switch to a new contractor for the coming year “had nothing to do” with the outcry over offenders having reserved beds at Harrington Hall. She said officials liked the plans that House of Hope outlined to give added help to shelter residents.

“The bid process was already under way when the issue about sex offenders came up,” she said.

Word of the change drew applause in Cranston, where nearby residents heatedly opposed the Urban League’s designation of the shelter as a living site for sex offenders who are homeless.

“I’m extremely happy for the people in my area,” said City Council member Michelle Bergin-Andrews, who was vacationing and learned of the state’s decision when contacted by the Journal. “I really want people to know that their voice makes a difference.”

Mayor Allan W. Fung was expected to announce the change Monday night at a meeting of Keep Cranston Safe, a neighborhood group that was pushing for sex offenders to be removed from Harrington Hall, at 30 Howard Ave. Until they are removed, the police will continue to make bed checks, monitoring whether offenders who have listed the shelter as their address return in the evening, said Robin Muksian-Schutt, the mayor’s chief of staff.

City officials have estimated that about 10 registered sex offenders are staying at the men-only facility. It was unclear Monday where they will be relocated.

The Urban League, which provides discharge services for high-risk inmates being released from state prison, also reserves beds for sex offenders at a shelter on Prairie Avenue, in Providence.

Dennis Langley, the Urban League’s president and CEO, declined to comment when reached by phone.

Jean Johnson, executive director of Warwick-based House of Hope, said her agency will focus on not just providing a safe shelter but also helping the homeless men with medical issues, job issues and finding permanent housing — a must if they are going to change their circumstances, she said.

“Housing is the first building block that everything else rests on,” Johnson said.

House of Hope and the Urban League were the only agencies to submit qualified proposals to run Harrington Hall, Kempe said.

The state did not seek proposals, but House of Hope knew the contract to run Rhode Island’s only state-owned homeless shelter — awarded to the Urban League since the shelter opened in 2003 — is renewed annually, she said.

Jim Ryczek, executive director of the Rhode Island Coalition for the Homeless, praised the focus House of Hope plans for the shelter, but he said Rhode Island needs to provide reentry programs, other than shelters, for high-risk sex offenders.

“We’ve ignored the sex-offender issue,” he said.

House of Hope will be paid $210,000 to run the shelter from July 1 through June 30, 2010, Kempe said. ..Source.. by Randal Edgar, Journal Staff Writer