Support Ryan and Ryno’s Fight Against Homelessness

January 7th we met Ryan Yergeau while he was living in his car. He was for outside BJs in Middletown holding up a sign for help. It was 15* in the wind chill and Ryan's body was visibly shaking. It could be easy to prejudge Ryan due to his appearance , but he is a soft-spoken, unassuming, intelligent, kind young man with a progressive disease that destroys his skin and leaves him unable to feel the cold. To find out better how to help him, we found the ProJo article about his family from 2023. Please take a look at it for more background. (https://www.providencejournal.com/story/news/local/2022/11/27/ri-homeless-familys-story-and-good-samaritan-helping/69594177007/)

His mother, now deceased, was worried about his future when she passed away, with good reason. Ryan is connected with all the services available in our area, but there is no housing for him and his family dog. In 2014, another homeless man, Michael Bourque, 34, died in a fire in a moving truck in Newport while trying to keep warm overnight. We cannot let this happen again.

You can see from the original article to the current picture that Ryan's skin disease has worsened, leaving him vulnerable to infection. The disease affects every part of his body. He lived in a broken car with his dog "Ryno", the last remnant of his family which he cannot give up. Ryno also helps keep Ryan warm at night. Thanks to the outpouring of support from the community, our original goal to replace Ryan's car with a viable one has been met. Now our goal is to make sure they have food, gas, healthcare items and car maintenence when Ryan's SNAP and SSDI fall short, until subsidized housing for them both can be found.

Ryan is not a stranger. He is one of us. He was raised in Middletown. He attended J.F. Kennedy elementary school. He loves reading. He loves fixing things. He loves his namesake dog of 12 years. He has a great sense of humor. He could be any one of our children. A system that overlooks the dire situation of such a special person is broken, but WE can get around him. Living in a small, clean room with the privacy of a bathroom could save Ryan's life.

Please share this with everyone you can, and thank you for whatever help you can give Ryan now.