This morning, I watched as the Providence Police Department evicted four people experiencing homelessness from an encampment on Eudora Street. With the help of advocates, the four people will be able to spend one night in a hotel room before making hard decisions about where to relocate on Saturday.

Later today or tomorrow, trucks from the Department of Public Works will arrive and cart off whatever remains of their possessions, most likely to a landfill.

It’s easy to blame people for their circumstances. But mental illness, poverty, and addiction are powerful, overwhelming forces. None of us is better for having avoided these things; we are simply luckier. It’s easy to imagine sinking into the inertia of despair. The recent death of my spouse of 44 years makes getting out of bed, eating right, sleeping properly, exercising, showering, and even working much more difficult for me. Add in addiction, poverty, or mental illness, and I can’t guarantee that I wouldn’t fall as far as the world will let me.

The State of Rhode Island and the City of Providence do have a plan. By carefully revising zoning and permitting laws, they will encourage developers to build more housing at all income levels! Within ten to 15 years, elected leaders hope to have built our way out of this disaster. Never mind that most economists, including conservative analysts affiliated with RIPEC, have warned that there is little hope of marshaling the resources needed to stimulate building at the levels we need. Never mind that in that ten-to-15-year period, futures will be lost, families will be destroyed, and many, many people experiencing homelessness will die miserable, preventable deaths.

Never mind that ten-to-15-years from now, we will have a bunch of developers with larger bank accounts, corporate landlords with larger property portfolios, and the police evicting those unfortunate enough to have fallen between society’s cracks from places “unfit for human habitation.”

Demand better, Rhode Island.