Editor’s Note: Housing Secretary Stefan Pryor has departed, leaving behind a trail of questionable business practices. Pryor’s right-hand communications man, Matt Shaeff, had left a few months earlier. Any mention of the man Pryor had replaced, Josh Saal, barely makes a ripple in the waters in news stories about housing from the past.

Housing is still a hot mess in Rhode Island, despite billions of dollars and trillions of words and thousands of promises and hundreds of news conferences and groundbreakings. The only folks who appear to be profiting these days are the real estate and investment management firms such as Jones Lang LaSalle, which seems to have its tentacles in multiple financial pies in Rhode Island, including the $45 million R.I. Life Science Hub.

The really big news is that Jennifer Hawkins, president and CEO of ONE Neighborhood Builders, is stepping away from the housing treadmill after eight years on the front lines on the mean streets of Olneyville. Hawkins had made it clear that she is not interested in pursuing Pryor’s former position as Secretary of Housing.  [The best choice to replace Pryor may well be Brenda Clement, leader of HousingWorks RI, if talent and tenaciousness and expert knowledge of the housing market are the attributes being sought.]

As ConvergenceRI wrote in praising the results achieved by Hawkins in July of 2021, “If Providence had its own home-grown breakfast cereal to celebrate its champions of place-based development, one of the faces on the inaugural cereal boxes would no doubt be Jennifer Hawkins, the president and CEO of ONE Neighborhood Builders, who in the last few years has stewarded a series of remarkable achievements and tangible results [though Hawkins would certainly demur and insist that members of her team share in the spotlight]. [See link below to ConvergenceRI story, “Investing in neighborhood and residents.”]

Call it a coincidence. Hawkins’ decision to leave was marked by the decision announced by email to the staff on Friday, June 28, at 5:02 p.m., by Merrill Thomas, CEO of Providence Community Health Centers, to lay off more 40 community health workers at the only federally qualified community health center in Providence, decimating the workforce of the community health center’s accountable entity in one of the state’s poorest ZIP codes in Rhode Island, 02909. [After sending out the email, Thomas did the very Rhode Island thing – he apparently went on a two-week vacation for the first two weeks in July.]

In the email, Thomas sought to blame the poor Medicaid reimbursement rates by the state as a primary reason for axing more than 40 community health workers. However, the fact that Providence Community Health Centers was, according to sources, receiving some $200 for each 15-minute visit by a Medicaid patient visit and not the standard $70 Medicaid fee for such a 15-minute visit, begs the question: Who is accountable for the flow of money? 

Providence Community Health Centers still has a billboard in fading colors rising up above the traffic jam on Route 95 northbound, adjacent to Allens Avenue and its heaps of metal recycling, that proclaims “60,000 Patients. One great team.”

Here is a ConvergenceRI interview with Jennifer Hawkins, as she leaves her position as president and CEO of ONE Neighborhood Builders.

ConvergenceRI: What is needed beyond words? I attended the news conference yesterday about the $3.8 million grant by HUD to allegedly overcome barriers to affordable housing — there were Sen. Whitehouse, House Speaker Shekarchi, Ana Novais, Reps. Magaziner and Amo, Pryor, Sen. DiPalma, and Carol Ventura, all singing along to the same familiar chorus, but what’s missing from the equation?    
HAWKINS: The Pathways to Removing Obstacles to Housing (PRO) grant that Rhode Island received recognizes the work that folks have been doing to solidify the connection of health and housing.

As a leading affordable housing developer and the backbone of the place-based collective impact initiative, Central Providence Opportunities Health Equity Zone, we are firmly working in both arenas and have demonstrated that safe and stable housing is the most salient social determinant of health. I believe the PRO grant will be used to stimulate housing production in a few health equity zones in the East Bay.

ConvergenceRI: What is the story that needs to be written now?    
HAWKINS: Housing is the solution to homelessness. Affordable housing developers must be fully engaged in the development and ownership of permanent supportive housing, and do so in concert with homeless outreach and emergency service providers.

I think Rhode Island could do much more to encourage the development of permanent supportive housing. For example, the Department of Housing could line-up and match rental subsidies and ‘housing first’ social services with developers who commit to producing housing for persons on RI’s coordinated entry list.

ConvergenceRI: How can the work of Dr. Beata Nelken in Central Falls, combining housing for women and children at risk with wrap-around health care services, be replicated?    
HAWKINS: Replicating Dr. Beata Nelken’s work requires a multi-pronged strategy. Vital to the success of this work is cross-sector collaboration that fosters partnerships between healthcare providers, housing organizations, and social services to create holistic support systems.

Advocating for policies that support integrated service delivery can make it easier for organizations to collaborate and share resources. Providing training and resources to local leaders and organizations to replicate successful models helps build capacity to scale and replicate this work. Engaging with the community to tailor services to their specific needs, ensures that programs are culturally competent and accessible.

ConvergenceRI: How do you plan to recharge your own internal batteries for the challenges ahead?    
HAWKINS: This mini sabbatical will provide me with time to reflect on where my career has brought me and to really consider what I want my next chapter to be. I’ll be spending time with my family, catching up on reading, and generally recharging.

ConvergenceRI: Would you be willing to write a monthly column for ConvergenceRI about the challenges facing professional women and finding a balance between work and life?    
HAWKINS: I appreciate the offer but am not looking to take on any additional work at this time.