RI ACLU Sues Woonsocket for Withholding Grant Funds from Sojourner House
GoLocalProv News Team
RI ACLU Sues Woonsocket for Withholding Grant Funds from Sojourner House
According to the ACLU, Soujourner House, a social service agency that helps victims of domestic violence, has applied for and received federal funds via two City grant programs which support domestic violence advocacy and the shelter’s operation.
"The City’s recent abrupt and arbitrary rescission of these federal pass-through grants is the impetus behind today’s lawsuit," stated the ACLU.
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The suit alleges that Woonsocket withheld the funds without cause or due process, and retaliated against the agency after it petitioned other government agencies for help in resolving the dispute.
“Sojourner House provides critical resources to individuals and families impacted by abuse in Woonsocket. We are disappointed with the City's unwillingness to follow through on grant award commitments to help these individuals who are in dire need of our assistance. Furthermore, the City’s position that we are indefinitely suspended from applying for future funds unnecessarily limits our ability to provide housing and supportive services to those who need it most,” said Sojourner House Executive Director Vanessa Volz.
ACLU of RI executive director Steven Brown added, “The City’s arbitrary and punitive actions against this important community resource cannot stand. Woonsocket officials must administer funds fairly, and its retaliatory actions display a disturbing insensitivity to the vulnerable population that Sojourner House seeks to serve.”
Sojourner House vs Woonsocket
According to the ACLU’s press release, in 2017, Sojourner House was notified it had been selected to receive a combination of about $35,000 in funds from the grant programs. However, in January 2018, Christopher Carcifero, Woonsocket’s Deputy Director of Housing and Community Development, sent the agency a letter indicating that the City intended to withhold the funding and potentially suspend the agency’s eligibility to participate in future grant programs.
The suit claims he based this decision on various inaccurate and irrelevant claims, including property code violations involving the emergency shelter that Sojourner House had diligently worked with the City to correct. Carcifero offered Sojourner House no procedures to formally challenge the City’s decision to withhold the grant funding.
In February of 2018, Sojourner House executive director Vanessa Volz responded in detail to Carcifero’s letter and extended an invitation to work cooperatively with the City to secure the funds. Volz also contacted other city, state and federal agencies for assistance in intervening with the City on Sojourner House’s behalf to seek a reinstatement of the grants.
In direct response to this, the City notified Sojourner House that the City was reaffirming its denial of funds and also unilaterally imposing an indefinite suspension on the agency’s future participation in City grant programs – a suspension that the City said was final and unreviewable. The City explicitly cited the agency’s efforts in seeking help from state and other officials as a basis for the punitive action. The lawsuit argues that this retaliation against Sojourner House for petitioning other government agencies for assistance violated the First Amendment, and that the lack of any appeal process to contest the funding suspension violated due process.
The lawsuit notes that the City’s suspension of the grants has put Sojourner House at risk of potentially losing other grant opportunities because it may need to notify funders it has been the subject of a suspension.
Among a number of legal remedies, the suit seeks reinstatement of the grants, compensatory and punitive damages, and an order barring the City from interfering with the agency’s exercise of its First Amendment rights.
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