People are still freezing to death in RI during ‘Operation No One Dies’

• Three people in Rhode Island have died so far from cold-weather exposure this winter.
• The deaths occurred despite a new program by the Rhode Island State Council of Churches called “Operation No One Dies,” aimed at providing shelter.
• Advocates say more beds and better coordination between organizations are needed to protect vulnerable people.

A missing Narragansett man died on a downtown Providence street, in freezing temperatures, in late January.

Police had found his body under a blanket near Dunkin’ and The Strand Ballroom & Theatre.

Ryan Boisvert’s death came during the first winter of “Operation No One Dies” – a new effort by the Rhode Island State Council of Churches to provide beds to people who need them when the forecast calls for “real feel” temperatures of 22 degrees or below.

The circumstances underscored a message expressed at the time by the council’s warming center coordinator, Harrison Tuttle: Rhode Island must do a better job protecting vulnerable people from dangerous temperatures.

Then, on Friday, Feb. 13, police announced two more wintertime deaths, both “weather-related with possible health complications,” saying that investigators believe Stanislaw Kozav, 49, and his mother, Irina Kozav, 75, were living in the car where their bodies were found, which was in a lot at Miriam Hospital.

Barriers to finding warm beds for homeless Rhode Islanders

It wasn’t clear, based on the information provided by police, if Boisvert or either one of the two Kozavs had tried and failed to find one of the beds offered by the council or any other bed that might have been available.

But Tuttle, who has some expertise, says he’s often unable to hurdle the barriers he runs into when trying to find beds for people who need them.

Such efforts tend to happen in situations where the 51 beds offered in three Providence churches, through the council’s program, have already been taken, he says.

Tuttle says he believes the right coordination between the right organizations can open up other resources.

He says he doesn’t want to lay blame on any particular entity or person.

He just wants to sound an alarm that finding beds for people, even when the temperatures outside are below freezing, can be extraordinarily difficult. Not everyone meets the criteria for admittance to certain facilities.

He emphasizes that Operation No One Dies has resources, including some transportation, for moving people to places with available beds, including facilities outside Providence.

Some of these volunteer drivers are already patrolling local streets in search of people who need shelter on frigid nights.

A call for collaboration to prevent cold-weather deaths

The availability of the beds provided by the council is a new program, funded through a $200,000 grant from the Executive Office of Housing, and it’s an accomplishment of sorts.

But people are still freezing to death. And more beds are needed.

Tuttle says he just wants more responsiveness from organizations that can help, that can “come together to have a conversation around solutions to prevent freezing deaths in the community.”

“Can we patch up a system here for the remainder of the winter?” he asks.

Tuttle had made an appeal after Boisvert’s death, calling for “immediate, concrete collaboration.”

“No single organization can solve this alone,” he wrote. “It is only through committed partnership and shared accountability that we can build a system strong enough to prevent future deaths.”

On Feb. 10 and Feb. 11, each of the beds provided by Operation No One Dies were taken.

The Kozavs were found at 6:28 p.m. on Feb. 11.