PROVIDENCE — While Senator Cynthia Mendes is trying to fall asleep at night in a tent on the cold, hard marble outside the Rhode Island State House, she thinks of her father, and how he turned down law school to become a prison chaplain. He died in May 2020 of COVID-19.
“Radical love is what I know. It’s what I grew up on,” Mendes, an East Providence Democrat, said Thursday night.
Mendes is running for lieutenant governor of Rhode Island, alongside former secretary of state Matt Brown, who is running for governor, under the progressive Rhode Island Political Cooperative slate. She, Brown, and a group activists pitched tents a week ago on the Smith Street side of the State House, sleeping outside to call attention to the plight of hundreds of unhoused Rhode Islanders. And they want Governor Dan McKee and state leaders to take action.
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Since Nov. 30, many nights the temperature has dipped below 40 degrees. On Wednesday, there’s a 40 percent chance of snow.
“Last night, there were strong gusts of wind and a lot of rain. It pushed my tent over and everything got completely drenched,” she said. “But it’s literally nothing compared to what our unhoused friends are going through every single night.”
After sleeping outside with nothing but a sleeping bag, a thin foam mat (which Mendes said is thinner than a yoga mat), and layers of blankets to shield her from chilly New England nights, she said her skin is starting to crack. Her jaw is in pain from clenching her teeth in the cold, and her joints are hurting.
“Emotionally, it’s hard all the time,” she said. “You feel vulnerable sleeping outside. While you’re unconscious, somebody can harm you, somebody could reach you, get to you, and it’s a tremendously vulnerable feeling that is really hard to describe unless you’ve experienced it yourself.”
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Mendes said when she wakes up each morning, she does not go home. Instead, goes inside the Providence train station across the street to use the bathroom and wash up.
“I have a whole new appreciation for the people that keep that station clean, especially during a pandemic,” she said, explaining how she has to schedule her bathroom visits while the station is open at night. “Sometimes I can’t brush my teeth until I get to a friend’s house.”
Throughout the day, Mendes said she travels to a friend’s house or a coffee shop to warm up and get Wi-Fi to start work virtually. She grabbed an orange to eat Tuesday from a friend, some people have left cups of hot tea outside her tent, and she has packets of oatmeal to eat -- if she can get hot water.
“I’m kind of bouncing around like many unhoused people do. But I have the luxury of being able to work virtually,” said Mendes, who works for Renew Rhode Island, a coalition of grassroots organizers that advocate for climate change and other social justice policies. “I know CNAs, teachers aides, and hospitality workers that are unhoused, out in the cold, and then have to be on their feet all day. How do they do that? And it’s wild that we expect them to do it.”
“I want to make clear what this is and what this isn’t. This is a direct action in solidarity. This is not even close to what unhoused people in Rhode Island go through,” she said. “They don’t have foam mats. They don’t have friends picking up their wet blankets and belongings to dry them. They don’t have camera crews showing up when the police are harassing them. They are mothers with children, they are people in the LGBTQ+ community, and veterans. They are Rhode Islanders who have been forgotten.”
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On Monday, McKee, Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi, and Senate President Ruggerio, all Democrats, held a press conference at the State House to announce their commitment to bringing the governor’s “downpayment plan” to vote in the finance committees next week.
The governor’s original plan calls for spending 10 percent of the state’s $1.13 billion in American Rescue Plan funds, investing $32 million in small businesses that have been hit hard by the pandemic, $38.5 million in social support services and addressing the child care workforce shortage, and $29.5 million in affordable housing and housing stability.
“We did our job and the General Assembly did their job,” said McKee, who refused to address questions related to the timing of the funds on Monday.
Matt Sheaff, a spokesman in the governor’s office, told the Globe that in the last 30 days, the administration has added more than 220 shelter beds on top of the baseline and is in the process of approving more projects to shelter Rhode Island families and individuals through the winter months.
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“One of the solutions that I think I’ve seen Senator Mendes has proposed was using hotel beds as emergency shelter. It’s a good idea and we have done that already,” said Sheaff. “Not only is short-term emergency shelter critical for this winter – but we also need to focus on long term solutions.”
He explained the state’s office of Housing and Community Development has expanded the hotel shelter program through the winter months using an additional $4 million of FEMA funds, which will provide an additional 150 hotel rooms for the hotel shelter program
“Do we have more work to do – of course,” said Sheaff. “The Governor said Monday that he’s committed to ‘over-building’ capacity so Rhode Island does not have to deal with the same problems year after year of not enough homeless-shelter beds. So that we can focus 100 percent on finding permanent housing options for individuals that need it.”
In October, more than 570 Rhode Islanders slept in their cars or outside, and 156 were in households with children, which do not include situations of people fleeing domestic violence situations.
But Mendes said the press conference was “lip service,” and was “too little, too late,” for unhoused individuals in Rhode Island.
“I know Rhode Islanders can see right through that,” said Mendes. “We will be out here until we are sure the homelessness crisis will be resolved.”
Alexa Gagosz can be reached at alexa.gagosz@globe.com. Follow her @alexagagosz and on Instagram @AlexaGagosz.