Is it not helping that I am pasting previews of the story in the comments? This is important information, and I think it's critical for a broad audience to know and not just those with a subscription to the Boston Globe.

If you are able to read the story, it talks about how people also simply can't find apartments because of the lack of a housing stock in Rhode Island. Here's a snippet from the story:

There are 49,032 extremely low-income households in Rhode Island and a shortage of 24,050 affordable and available rental homes — which is an 11 percent increase in shortages compared to 2021, according to The Gap. “I think that number is fairly conservative,” noted Cortney Nicolato, the CEO of United Way of Rhode Island, on a call Monday.
So people who do have housing vouchers, which help pay the rent, are at risk of losing them. If they can’t find an apartment by the six-month deadline, the vouchers will be taken away. Some people wait years to get on a housing voucher list.
“If you have a safe space to live in another state, we’ll send you there,” said Hunt. “I just sent a mom and her daughter to Oregon because they had family out there. It was a one-way ticket. They can’t come back. There’s nothing here for them.”

PREVIEW FROM THE STORY:

Holding hand-written signs that read, “Housing is a human right,” and “End homelessness now,” about 50 advocates for the homeless marched to Governor Dan McKee’s office Monday, demanding the state declare a state of emergency over the inadequate number of shelter beds available this winter. Advocates and outreach workers say they are expecting more people will be forced to live outside this winter than at any other point in decades.
“I’ve been tracking this data since 1990. We’ve never had this many people outside as winter is approaching,” said Eric Hirsch, a Providence College sociology professor and co-chair of the state’s Homeless Management Information System Steering Committee.

Approximately 1,260 people — including children — were waiting for shelter in Rhode Island, according to data by the Rhode Island Coalition to End Homelessness as of Sept. 24. That’s an increase of 70 people compared to the week prior. Of those, 405 people reported that they were living outside or in their cars between Sept. 11 and Sept. 24. Some say that’s only skimming the surface of the problem.
“Those are only the people who reported being outside or that we can find,” said Ehren Hunt, a housing specialist at Tri-County Community Action Agency, on a recent call regarding the data. “There are plenty of people living in the middle of the woods. Then there are those who are living in their cars with children and are hiding because they’re afraid of DCYF getting involved.”
The Rhode Island Department of Housing announced on Friday it was distributing $3.5 million to six local organizations to create 231 shelter beds in addition to the 64 beds that were funded this summer. But housing specialists say that’s not enough.

One of the main issues, Hirsch said, is that nonprofits and providers have been unable to identify sites — both rapidly deployable and in existing buildings — for shelter beds. For example, Pallet Shelters is a Washington-based company produces tiny prefabricated homes that can be erected in half an hour. In Rhode Island, House of Hope CDC has a proposed a group of those tiny homes called ECHO (Emergency COVID Housing Opportunities) Village. But after two years, they haven’t been able to find a location for the village. “We need the governor’s help to override the ‘Not in My Backyard’ sentiments that we find in the towns and cities,” said Hirsch.
Kristina Brown, a program officer at the United Way of Rhode Island, said homelessness can be an “invisible issue” to those who live outside certain neighborhoods in Providence, Woonsocket, and other cities where many social services are concentrated. “There’s a lot of ways people can detach from these issues,” said Brown, who explained this detachment could be fueling “NIMBY-ism.” “But the people who are suffering are not just from Providence. They are your neighbors.”
Brown said the unhoused population represents “every town and city” in Rhode Island.

It does not appear that McKee will declare homelessness an emergency, but while it’s a relatively new strategy to combat the issue, other cities on the West Coast have declared states of emergency over the last two decades.

READ MORE IN THE LINK. TY!

My childhood is jumping for joy at whoever drives this van around.