COVID-19 Community Links

COVID-19 Health Updates

Resources for Those Experiencing Homelessness

RI Coalition for the Homeless Community Resources

Economic Progress Institute COVID-19 Resources
Factsheet for Immigrants Islanders — English and Spanish
Resources for DACA, TPS and DED Holders in Rhode Island — English and Spanish
Federal and State Paid Leave and UI Factsheet
What to Know About SNAP
What to Know About WIC
Homes RI Tenant FAQ — English and Spanish (court closure until May 17 means that evictions will not move forward during this time)

COVID-19 Resources for Rhode Island Seniors — Office of Healthy Aging

Governor’s Commission on Disabilities COVID-19 Resource Guide

Meals for Children and Youth

Statewide, Rhode Island school districts are providing grab and go meals for all children and youth under 18. Parents/guardians can bring children of all ages to the sites to receive a lunch and breakfast for the following day. No ID is necessary, but children must be present. Statewide sites

IRS Filing Deadline Extended

The IRS and Rhode Island tax filing deadlines have been extended to July 15, which should be helpful for those needing extra time, and potentially the opportunity for VITA sites to open in the future. Both the state and the IRS are still encouraging people to file as soon as they are able to, in order to receive timely refunds.

Elections

The Rhode Island presidential primary has been rescheduled for June 2 as a primary-by-mail. The deadline is May 3 to register to vote, and May 4 to disaffiliate from a political party. The secretary of state’s office will be sending mail ballot applications to all registered voters in the coming weeks. Voters can register or verify their information online at vote.ri.gov or by calling the state elections division at 401-222-2340.

Health Insurance

HealthSourceRI has a special open enrollment period. Visit HealthSourceRI.com or call 1-855-840-4774

Per the Governor’s order, Medicaid recipients cannot lose coverage during the crisis.

Blood Donation

Rhode Island Blood Center (RIBC) is requesting healthy blood and platelet donors. Fifty percent of blood donations in the region comes from blood drives that are hosted by schools, organizations and businesses, many of which have cancelled due to building closures. Since blood drive and individual donor cancellations pose a significant threat to the blood supply, RIBC is seeking to double the blood reserves now so that it can prevent shortages if coronavirus cancellations continue. Please share with your networks. FAQs on blood donation and coronavirus Schedule appointments

Free Office Supports Available

Please share with your networks — a number of companies are offering free access to programs allowing remote work.

For organizations and K-12, Microsoft is providing six months of Office 365 tools for free to enable remote collaboration, file sharing and video conferencing. They are also offering free assistance to set up these tools. Microsoft Teams is free for individuals Please share with your grantees. For questions, contact, jon.huber@microsoft.com
Cisco is offering free WebEx video conferencing and a remote-work adoption toolkit to help guide businesses in their transition to working at home.
Google is offering free access to their Hangouts Meet, another video conferencing system, for all of their GSuite and GSuite education customers.
Schools and school districts can contact Zoom and the company will lift their 40-minute meeting limit on their free basic accounts.

Housing

RI courts are closed for nonessential business through May 17, which effectively functions as an eviction moratorium. The Governor’s Office will be making available $1.5 million in rental assistance for low-income Rhode Islanders, with the application anticipated to open on Thursday.

The Governor also announced that more than 20 Rhode Island financial institutions have pledged the following relief to their residential borrowers:

A 90-day grace period for all residential mortgage payments for individuals impacted by COVID-19, with the opportunity to request additional relief;
An agreement to not report late payments to credit reporting agencies for residential borrowers who take advantage of this relief;
A 60-day moratorium on initiating residential foreclosures and evictions; and
An agreement to waive mortgage-related late fees.

Domestic Violence

RI Department of Health resource document in English and Spanish