PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Kennedy Plaza may be the city's historic public gathering place, but there are competing visions for the people who congregate here.

Former Mayor Joseph Paolino Jr., the new chairman of the Downtown Improvement District, says he has suggestions to clean up Kennedy Plaza and help the needy, including an ordinance against roadside panhandling, funding for social workers and jobs to panhandlers, and help lobbying for millions in state funding to provide housing.

But as he spoke about his plan in a meeting Wednesday, chants of "Whose city? Our city!" rang out in the halls at the Convention Center.

Some homeless advocates, including the Rhode Island Homeless Bill of Rights Defense Committee, Rhode Island Homeless Advocacy Project, and Direct Action for Rights and Equality, marched there after holding a protest rally outside the Paolino Properties headquarters in Kennedy Plaza, where Paolino is a managing partner.

Security officers and police stopped protesters from going into the meeting and also barred people who'd been invited — including reporters from The Providence Journal, Providence Business News, Rhode Island Public Radio and Rhode Island Future — and advocates who'd been part of the discussions with the Downtown Improvement District. Paolino said he closed the meeting out of concern of disruptions.

The homeless coalition had its own suggestions for Kennedy Plaza: Less enforcement of minor criminal offenses against people who are poor; more jobs for panhandlers; funding for 150 housing vouchers; drug and alcohol treatment; and amenities such as a day center, public bathrooms and free food distribution. They want the Rhode Island Public Transportation Authority bus terminal to remain.

Andy Horwitz, director of the Criminal Defense Clinic at Roger Williams University School of Law, and Eric Hirsch, a Providence College professor and government relations chairman of the Rhode Island Coalition for the Homeless, accused Paolino of "criminalizing" the homeless. "It's the whole idea that we need to clean up Kennedy Plaza to move people along who don't look the way we want," Hirsch said.

Paolino disagreed. "I believe people shouldn't sleep in the street; they should be sleeping in a bed. I don't believe people should be arrested because of a drug problem; they should be taken into treatment. I don't think people should be shirtless against a wall in downtown; they should be sitting on a park bench," he said.

He said he'll ask the district's board to spend about $100,000 on one or two outreach workers through Crossroads Rhode Island and to help Amos House hire two panhandlers to work with the district's "Clean Team."

Paolino said he will offer one unit in the micro-loft apartments being built downtown for Crossroads Rhode Island. He also said he will lobby at the State House alongside social service agencies to raise $1.3 million to $5 million for housing.

Paolino drafted an ordinance to make it a violation to pass anything from vehicles in traffic to pedestrians — from panhandlers to charity. The ordinance is on the City Council docket for Thursday.

And, Paolino supports Governor Raimondo's intent to fast-track moving the buses out of Kennedy Plaza to the Amtrak station.

Anchored by RIPTA's main bus terminal, the plaza has long been a draw for people who are homeless or transient. Complaints about vagrancy, open drug-dealing and drinking exploded after Mayor Jorge O. Elorza decided months ago to stop enforcing ordinances against aggressive panhandling and loitering.

Under pressure, the mayor recently ordered more police patrols in Kennedy Plaza, leading to dozens of arrests for drugs, alcohol, disorderly conduct and warrants. Paolino led meetings with property owners and residents, law enforcement, businesses and social-service agencies to address the problems of crime, homelessness, and open drug and alcohol use.

Elorza will announce his plan Thursday at 10 a.m., from the steps of City Hall, where homeless people occasionally sleep.

Homeless or housed, the people who gather at Kennedy Plaza most days say this is where they socialize.

"People give you change. You've got friends. You've got the buses. You're close to everything," Josue Baldayac, 25, formerly homeless, said one afternoon. "On Broad Street, you get robbed. But here, you're safe."

McKinley Threats, jumpy and restless, said he's been homeless for years, so he and his girlfriend sleep in the plaza. At 22, his drug record keeps him from working, so Threats said he panhandles. (He was arrested here Saturday after a police officer found him with monkey weed, a popular synthetic marijuana.)

Andrea "Sparky" Massini said she lives at a group home but would rather be here, sitting against the wall of the CVS, which she calls "Sparky's corner." She says she used to be a nurse, but that was long before addiction, mental illness and sporadic homelessness.

"I think people should know we're great people, kind people, compassionate," she said. "We've been through hell."

Asked what she thinks about businesses and residents who want them to move on, Massini raised a middle finger and yelled an obscenity. "We belong here! We got no other place to go."

-- amilkovi@providencejournal.com

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On Twitter @AmandaMilkovits