PROVIDENCE — After years of delays, ECHO Village, a temporary shelter for homeless individuals and couples, has finally opened. A ceremonial opening with pageantry and pomp on Tuesday afternoon celebrated the new shelter, in sharp contrast to the years of bureaucracy faced by advocates trying to open a few dozen units.
The grand opening felt like a party: A marching band of brass, reeds and percussion decked in red and gold performed as observers filed down a hill from the Foxy Lady strip club to the open field by a highway where ECHO Village stands. More than 200 advocates, politicians, and the state’s largest nonprofit leaders filled rows of folding chairs, bundled in the freezing winter air as politicians spoke, one after another, for more than an hour.
“I’ve been out here for 15 minutes and I’m cold. Imagine sleeping in the cold,” said Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi. “This is something to celebrate, but let’s not lose sight that people are outside.”
Shekarchi recalled Rico Timez Ramy, a homeless individual who slept outside in the Smith Hill neighborhood and allegedly froze to death last month, according to Shekarchi and service providers. He was 48.
“Everyone here: We need to do more, and we need to do better,” Shekarchi said.
ECHO Village, 45 small, one-room structures on a vacant plot of state-owned land on Victor Street behind the Foxy Lady, has been in the works since at least 2020. In that time, the number of people experiencing homelessness in Rhode Island has more than doubled, from 1,104 people in 2020 to more than 2,400 people in 2024, according to Rhode Island’s Point in Time Count, a federally-mandated count of sheltered and unsheltered people experiencing homelessness on a single night in January. Data from the January 2025 count will be released in June.
”This village is more than a roof. It’s a path to dignity and change,” said House of Hope executive director Laura Jaworski.
The shelter will have around-the-clock services on-site from House of Hope, one of the state’s leading providers of services for homeless people.
As the pandemic began in 2020, Jaworski suggested using pallet shelters in a plan she called “ECHO Village,” for “Emergency COVID Housing Opportunities.” While pallet shelters are new to Rhode Island, they have been used in other parts of New England, including Boston and Burlington, Vt.
The idea to use temporary, rapidly deployable pallet shelters to provide emergency winter housing has been in the works for the last several winters, but the state had failed to identify a location. In October 2022, advocates called on the state to place 30 of these tiny homes at the Pastore Complex in Cranston, but the idea faced swift opposition from the city’s council members. In all, there were six attempts before the state-owned land was determined to be a viable solution last year. Yet the shelter still faced multiple delays.
Despite growing public scrutiny and pressure from advocates, the state has had to address potential public safety concerns — such as building code and fire safety requirements — before opening the 70-square-foot sleeping units.
During a recent oversight hearing, state Acting Housing Secretary Deborah Goddard, who was just appointed in late 2024, said the delays to opening ECHO Village have been “inhumane.”
With the units sitting vacant for months, the delays have been the subject of frustration among some elected officials.
“It’s like you’re on a boat, see people drowning, have space on the boat, and say ‘I wish someone could help them,’” said Senator Jessica De La Cruz, a North Smithfield Republican.
In addition to the 45 one-room units, the project also includes four office units; three hygiene units that include four full baths, one ADA-compliant bathroom, and one staff bathroom; one laundry unit; and one large community unit. Each unit is equipped with fire suppression systems, smoke and carbon-monoxide detectors, heating and cooling units, and fire-retardant paint.
House of Hope staff will provide on-site case management, housing and benefits application assistance, job training, and health-related services such as substance use recovery and mental health support. Amos House, a shelter and homeless services provider, will partner with House of Hope to provide daily meals to those on site.
Individuals who will be staying in the units will be moving in on Wednesday.
Providence Mayor Brett Smiley called on his counterparts throughout the state to “step up.”
“It is our hope that this is the first, and not the last, ECHO Village in Rhode Island. It is our hope that this is the first, but not the last ECHO Village in Providence,” said Smiley.
Under Governor Dan McKee‘s administration, the number of shelter beds for homeless individuals has increased from 800 to about 1,300. But homelessness has also increased, and more work needs to be done, he said.
“There are too many people in Rhode Island, and in the nation, that do not have a bed” to go home to, said McKee.
Material from previous Globe articles was used in this report.
Follow Alexa Gagosz on Bluesky at @alexa.gagosz.bsky.social.
Alexa Gagosz can be reached at alexa.gagosz@globe.com. Follow her @alexagagosz and on Instagram @AlexaGagosz.