ProJo: From homeless to a 'beautiful place:' Crossroads moves 172 men into permanent housing

Richard Cudworth's new studio apartment on Dexter Street already looks homey seven months after he moved in. It's worlds away from where he lived for the nine years before he arrived: the Harrington Hall shelter.

PROVIDENCE, R.I — Richard Cudworth's new studio apartment on Dexter Street already looks homey seven months after he moved in, cluttered with a bike he's fixed up, an empty bird cage he might give to his girlfriend and a keyboard he's offering to sell to his visitors.

It's worlds away from where he lived for the nine years before he arrived: the Harrington Hall homeless shelter in Cranston, cramped not with Cudworth's personal effects but rows and rows of metal bunk beds and thin foam mattresses.

“This,” the 60-year-old Cudworth said, surveying his new home at the Mike Terry Apartments on Tuesday, “is a pretty beautiful place.”

Cudworth is one of 172 formerly homeless men who have moved from Harrington Hall — where 112 men can sleep at night in a converted auditorium — to permanent housing since Crossroads Rhode Island took over operation of the shelter less than two years ago.

To view the complete article, visit Providence Journal