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Amicable Church will be hosting its 20th homelessness awareness sleepover on its front lawn, 3736 Main Road, on Saturday, Feb. 2, in conjunction with local food drive efforts, and organizers are asking for donations to support the participants.

A 72-acre farm in the south end of town is being eyed for 70 condominiums restricted to people older than the age of 55. Wingover Farm is at 1513-1519 Crandall Road in an area of town that does not have public water or sewer service. The density of the development concerns the Planning Board because the development would have to rely on wells and septic systems.

Several Rhode Island towns are facing negative impacts after being notified in late July that many of the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) applications for local programs and agencies will not receive the funding they typically see. Locally, six social services programs applied for a total of $136,702 to fund several projects in the area, and after the meeting in late July, East Greenwich, along with many other towns across the state, were notified that none of their applications from the Plan Year 2016 will receive funding.

Melissa Pacheco, a single mother of a 7-year-old daughter, says there is a certain stigma attached to public or subsidized housing because it often conjures images of unsavory characters. But she counts herself among “the good people on Section 8 that just need help.” “It’s just a few that lead to that stigma,” she said.