Newly-Elected Officials Tour Shelter

Gov. Gina Raimondo and other new elected officials are touring the state's largest shelter to see the homeless problem in Rhode Island firsthand and to think about ways to solve it.

Raimondo, Lt. Gov. Daniel McKee, Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea and Treasurer Seth Magaziner plan to visit Harrington Hall in Cranston on Tuesday.

Jim Ryczek, executive director of the Rhode Island Coalition for the Homeless, says it's a congregate shelter where everyone sleeps in one large room. He says it has 88 beds and is routinely over capacity by 30 to 40 people.

Ryczek says the coalition plans to ask the general officers to endorse a national campaign Rhode Island is participating in, Zero: 2016. The campaign's goal is to end veteran and chronic homelessness by next year.