PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) — Two days after Providence’s City Council Chambers were controversially opened to the city’s homeless population, the council was back in those same chambers demanding Gov. Dan McKee declared a public health emergency. A non-binding resolution passed by the council urged the governor to declare homelessness in Rhode Island a state of emergency. Councilors Justin Roias and Miguel Sanchez had been at the forefront of the movement, with the former warning officials that people were “suffering, freezing, and dying” in the cold. “This city council takes issues of housing and homelessness seriously, knows that it’s a crisis for our city, and is looking for the state to join us in that urgency,” Council President Rachel Miller said. Councilors had previously shared concerns about the number of available shelters, and Roias and Sanchez opened the chambers as a warm place to sleep on Jan. 7. Mayor Brett Smiley said he was not pleased with the move and was skeptical of the proposed resolution. “I’d be curious to see what’s actually in that resolution and what they think that would accomplish,” he said on Wednesday. “I’m not one on making big statements with no action.” One potential action highlighted by Roias at the meeting was to open the array of empty pallet houses sitting vacant off Interstate 95. “Four years of delays while people slept in cars, under bridges or on the frozen ground,” he said. “Every day this project remains incomplete we are making a choice, a choice to let people suffer while we debate logistics.” That project remains on hold as the state tries to get the pallet houses up to code. Sanchez said he believed the resolution would allow for more flexibility in easing the burden on the city’s homeless population. In a statement released Wednesday, Governor McKee said an emergency declaration would not solve the problem, saying in part: “If I were to use that emergency power to waive capacity limits in shelters or ignore other safety concerns such as sprinkler systems and adequate egress, I would be solving one problem by creating a new one.” Miller did not rule out the possibility of opening the chamber as a shelter in the future and confirmed the DaVinci center on Charles Street will remain open as a shelter through Jan. 10. Categories: News, Providence, Rhode Island