As a crowd hung outside, smoking and asking for spare change, about 50 people met at the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce to figure out how to change that scene.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — As people hung out smoking and asking for spare change around Kennedy Plaza and Burnside Park, representatives from downtown businesses, city officials, homeless advocates, lawyers and social service agencies met at the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce Thursday morning to figure out how to change that scene.

The Rhode Island Public Transportation Authority bus hub has always been a draw for people who are homeless or transient, but in the months since Mayor Jorge Elorza decided to stop enforcing ordinances against aggressive panhandling, the crowd has multiplied, along with complaints about trash, vagrancy, public urination and open-air drug dealing.

The mayor and officials of other cities bowed under pressure from the homeless advocates and the ACLU, which successfully argued in several federal court cases that those ordinances are unconstitutional and a violation of free speech.

"The environment has changed dramatically," said Cliff Wood, the executive director of the Downtown Providence Parks Conservancy, at the meeting. "Almost overnight, the dysfunction has increased."

The meeting was called by former mayor Joseph Paolino Jr., a managing partner at Paolino Properties headquartered in its building at 100 Westminster Street. A facade of the building is on Kennedy Plaza.

Paolino arranged the get-together as his first act as the new chairman of the Downtown Improvement District. Paolino said he ran for the chairmanship solely to fix the problems in Kennedy Plaza, and he invited Elorza to the meeting to discuss what they all could accomplish — starting with coming up with an action plan in a month. They ended up organizing into committees to tackle issues of social-service needs and law enforcement.

"It's not us against them. It's not them against us. It's us working together," Paolino said. (Watch Paolino's video on YouTube.)

RIPTA recently hired security guards, who move along people who are loitering or sleeping in the bus waiting area, and simply end up across Fulton Street from the plaza. Property owners and business managers said in the meeting that they've had enough. Customers were afraid to visit their businesses, and employees were afraid to walk by throngs of people, asking for change and openly dealing drugs.

People sleep on the loading dock at 10 Dorrance St., and one man sets up a blanket out front and panhandles all day, threatening to call police on the business owners who complain, according to property owners.

There are people throwing trash and hanging out on the stairs, despite no loitering signs at Dr. Deepak Saluja's dental office on Fulton Street. "It's a combat zone," Saluja said. "I don't understand why it's being allowed."

Outreach workers from Crossroads Rhode Island and the Providence Center go out and offer help to people who need housing and services for mental health and substance abuse. But there isn't enough affordable housing for everyone who needs it, nor enough treatment for people who are mentally ill, advocates for the homeless told the gathering.

They could use another 200 to 300 affordable housing units in the Greater Providence area, for one. They needed more resources for mental health and drug treatment.

They could also use more police officers. The Providence Police Department's roster is at historic lows, and new officers won't be on the job for at least another year. Several property owners complained that the police are responding late to complaints about trespassers and loitering.

"It's a constant problem. If I could, we'd have several police officers in Kennedy Plaza all the time, and the behavior would stop," said Public Safety Commissioner Steven M. Paré. "But you'd be looking at 35 officers dedicated to Kennedy Plaza."

Providence is not alone in trying to handle these same problems, but other cities are finding some solutions. Mayor Elorza said the city needs to act with compassion and address the roots of the problems causing people to end up homeless or vagrant in the heart of downtown.

"If you look around this room, you can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Everybody's here," said Frank LaTorre, senior director of the Downtown Improvement District. "We know the problems are terrible, so now what do we do to focus [this] incredible energy?"

—amilkovi@providencejournal.com

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On Twitter @AmandaMilkovits