![]() ![]() While the Pawtucket Housing Authority owns the building, funds from the Rhode Island Department of Housing and the federal government pay for its operation. The center opened in February, at the tail end of winter. If it's still early enough in the day, they are given a raffle ticket for that evening's drawing for the 31 available beds. When people walk into the shelter, even when coming back from a smoke break, they get a pat-down before being let in. I just do." Three meals a day, pat-downs and air conditioning When he's too late, or too unlucky, to get a bed at OpenDoors, instead of laying his head down on a table, he tries to stay up during the night. "After 28 years, it's not led me to where I want to be, all the fast money," he said.īen said he's looking forward to having an apartment again one day, ending the shuffle between shelter beds. Working as a barber leaves him with too much cash burning a hole in his pocket. ![]() This winter, from January to February, he spent nights in a friend's barber shop, then he had to decamp to the Cranston Street Armory.Ī barber by trade, Ben said he is interviewing for warehouse jobs, hoping for a more scheduled paycheck, a more structured job. Then came the motel rooms, which burned through all his savings. That was before rents began to skyrocket during and after the pandemic. Ben had been living in an apartment in 2019, but after he split up with his partner, he couldn't afford the rent anymore.
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