KITCHEN RENOVATION
New Beginnings Soup Kitchen planning move to new location
WOONSOCKET – The City Council approved $120,000 for programs to aid the homeless this week, including
$50,000 to help the New Beginnings soup kitchen smooth the transition to a new home in the Fairmount neighborhood.
Nicole Brien, secretary of the New Beginnings board of directors, said the nonprofit kitchen wants to relocate to what is presently a single-family home located at 303 Third Ave.
New Beginnings has until May 14 to vacate its current location in the basement of All Saints Church because the Diocese of Providence is expected to close the church and merge the membership with St. Joseph’s parish in early 2022. The date, ironed out by mutual agreement between New Beginnings and representatives of the diocese, is six months after the disclosure of their intentions during a meeting of the parish council last month.
“Were very fortunate that people realize the need for the services that New Beginnings provides,” said Brien. “We are aggressively in the process of looking at another property. We’ve already signed a purchase and sales agreement.”
But Brien said the sale is far from a done deal. While New Beginnings has some savings, the organization intends to secure grants and a bank loan to cover most of the $299,000 price tag on the house. And the organization can’t begin assembling a financing package until the property is fully inspected, a process that’s ongoing.
In addition, Brien said, New Beginnings hopes to be on the agenda of a meeting of the Zoning Board of Review no later than February to secure a variance to operate a commercial kitchen with indoor seating at the Third Avenue site. It’s unclear if the variance is needed, she said, because the property is located in a mixed use zone. That
provides some flexibility on how the property may be used, but New Beginnings wants to play it safe and seek the board’s blessing to operate in the overwhelmingly residential neighborhood.
Ultimately, she said, the state Department of Health will have the last word on whether New Beginnings may operate from the site. The organiza
tion will need a permit from RIDOH to do so.
“We are in the process...the first thing we need to do is get the property inspected,” said Brien. “We need to get the report from the inspector. We need to make sure the structure is sound. At the end of the day DOH needs to approve of our location.”
New Beginnings provides hundreds of meals per week to the homeless and working poor – including many that are delivered to Harvest Community Church, which provides shelter for homeless men during the winter, and Safe Haven, the drop-in center operated by Community Care Alliance that steers homeless people and struggling families to emergency shelter and other supportive services.
If all goes according to plan, Brien – wife of former Council Vice President Jon Brien – said New Beginnings will expand services at its new location. It wants to provide homeless people with an opportunity to shower and do their laundry from the site.
“I will tell you, I was surprised to hear how much they do,” Council President Dan Gendron said during a recent work session held to discuss the appropriation for New Beginnings, which is coming from American Rescue Plan Act funds. The city is slated to receive about $36 million from the $1.9 trillion stimulus package approved by Congress earlier this year. “There is a strong feeling in the city for the need for New Beginnings and the great work that they do.”
A resolution authorizing the city to convey the funds to New Beginnings, approved on a 5-0 vote of the council on Monday, says the organization may use the funds for “any activities and/or purposes that meet and satisfy the ARPA rules.”
Brien said the plan is to use the funds to directly offset the acquisition costs of the property.
According to the city assessor’s database, the property has been owned by Thomas and Sharon Geving since 2015. The brick house has about 3,400 square feet of combined living space on two stories. The upstairs is framed but not finished, Brien said.
Brien said the property will require substantial renovation to meet the needs of New Beginnings. In addition to bank loans and grants, the organization is hoping private donations of both money and, when the time comes, skilled labor, may help the organization make ends meet. Donors can send checks to New Beginnings at PO Box 244, Woonsocket, 02895, or they can leave a message for Executive Director Jeanne Michon at 356-4066.
In addition to the funds for New Beginnings, the council also approved a companion resolution to provide $70,000, also from ARPA funds, to reserve 10 rooms at the Woonsocket Motor Inn as emergency beds for the homeless. The rooms will be available from Jan. 1 to March 31, the resolution says, “to members of the City who are without and in need of shelter.”
Human Services Director Linda Play will run the program, evaluating requests for shelter and distributing vouchers for the rooms, with a maximum stay of up to seven days, the resolution says.
Although the measure also passed on a 5-0 vote, Councilwoman Denise Sierra had mixed feelings about it, portraying it as a short-term fix for a much deeper problem.
“I do see it as kind of an expensive Band-Aid,” Sierra said. “And I do indeed wish the funding would go to something more permanent.”
The allocations for the homeless come roughly a month after the council was criticized – on social media and in Harris Hall – for neglecting to include money for affordable housing or emergency shelter in its first ARPA spending plan. Last month, the council approved a preliminary budget that called for allocating about $13 million in all, mostly for an assortment of recreational and infrastructure projects.
Among the critics were former Councilman Alexander Kithes, who, after the approval of the funds for New Beginnings and the motel rooms were approved by the council, declared a victory of sorts, saying the council acted only in response to pressure from housing advocates.
But Councilman James Cournoyer says Kithes – now a declared candidate for House of Representatives in District 49 – is merely reinforcing a “false narrative” about the city’s support for affordable housing and emergency shelter programs. Woonsocket, Cournoyer says, does more than most communities when it comes to providing those resources.
“Any suggestion from... Kithes that the Council’s actions were the result of pressure from the so-called “activists” is incredibly naive and simply not the case,” Cournoyer said.
Gendron, who brokered the deal for rooms at the Clinton Street motel with Cournoyer, agreed.
If the critics are taking a victory lap, Gendron said, “I don’t know what race they were running because we’re simply acting as a responsible city council in addressing two issues in a very small way. I guess that’s what they want to call a victory.”