Woonsocket to Pay $35K in Grant Funds to Sojourner House Following Settlement with RI ACLU
GoLocalProv News Team
Woonsocket to Pay $35K in Grant Funds to Sojourner House Following Settlement with RI ACLU
Under the settlement, Woonsocket agrees to withdraw its suspension of Sojourner House from taking part in the City’s Community Development Block Grant Program and to pay the agency $35,000 in grant funds.
Woonsocket also agreed to pay $25,000 in attorneys’ fees.
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“This was a classic case of a municipal bureaucracy trampling on basic constitutional rights. We are pleased that Sojourner House chose to stand up and fight the punitive actions taken against it, and that, as a result, their funding to serve some of the City’s most vulnerable populations has been restored,” said ACLU of RI executive director Steven Brown.
The Case
Sojourner House helps victims of domestic violence and sexual abuse through a number of programs, including the operation of an emergency shelter and an apartment complex in Woonsocket.
As GoLocalProv reported, in 2017, Sojourner House was notified that it had been selected to receive $35,000 in funds from the grant programs.
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 the grant programs. He based this decision on 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 decision.
Last February, Sojourner House executive director Vanessa Volz responded in detail to the 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, Carcifero notified the organization 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 was final and unreviewable. Carcifero specifically cited the agency’s efforts in seeking help from state and other officials as a basis for the punitive action.
Thursday’s settlement reverses these actions.
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