Stabbing victim: 'Now, I feel safe nowhere'

PROVIDENCE — Eileen Boarman slept outside, even in the dead of winter, because it was one of the few places where she felt relatively safe.

But early on the morning on Jan. 2, as she slept inside a pedestrian tunnel between Kennedy Plaza and Waterplace Park, she was stabbed in the left hand by a passerby.

“Now, I feel safe nowhere,” Boarman said on Tuesday as she stood near the site where she was stabbed more than three months ago, surrounded by news cameras and homeless-rights advocates.

Boarman, 59, who is now staying at a homeless shelter run by House of Hope at Saint Paul’s Episcopal Church in Pawtucket, decided to share her story to raise awareness about the ongoing struggles of homeless people in Rhode Island.

“There are many, many, many incidents and experiences that were not good that I had in shelters from the time I became homeless that made me feel as though the only safe place for me to be is on the street,” Boarman said. “I survived for four years out on the street, in and out of an apartment or a shelter here and there, until this attack occurred, which made it even unsafe for me to even sleep on the street.”

Shortly after the attack, Providence police released surveillance footage that showed a man walking through the pedestrian tunnel and toward a woman sleeping on the pavement. Conor Noll, a 22-year-old Johnson & Wales student, later turned himself in to police and was charged with one count of felony assault.

Boarman said she was sleeping in the tunnel that night with a blanket over her head when she heard a voice whisper in her ear and felt air go by her face.

“I thought I was going to get punched, because I knew somebody was still there,” she said. “I might’ve put my hand up. And then the person seemed to be gone.”

She said her hand felt funny. She pulled the blankets off her head and saw blood everywhere. She needed surgery on her hand and will require continued physical therapy.

And after the whole ordeal, she may still end up back on the street, she said.

The shelter where she’s been staying is closing for the season on April 20. She has a housing voucher funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development but has not been able to find an apartment. She’s also been unsuccessful in accessing money through the state’s Crime Victim Compensation Program that pays certain expenses for victims of crime.

Boarman graduated from Rhode Island College in 1982 and worked in television production and theater for most of her life. She said she became homeless in 2013 when she lost her apartment after a series of events in her life, including the death of her brother.  

Advocates on Tuesday said they wanted to use Boarman’s story to highlight the need for more affordable housing and better services for homeless people.

“We live in a country without a functioning social safety net,” said Megan Smith, an outreach worker with House of Hope. “There’s an absolute scarcity of needed resources, housing first among them.”

Smith encouraged members of the public to support legislation, such as a bill banning discrimination in housing based on source of income and the residential landlord & tenant act, and oppose legislation, such as a bill to restrict panhandling, that she said criminalizes homelessness.

“We hope that what we’ve discussed today can be the start of a conversation about how we as a city and state can make meaningful changes that positively impact the lives of people experiencing homelessness,” she said. “This includes access to housing, income, health care and personal safety.

“It also means shifting our perspective from one of seeing people experiencing homelessness as pariahs to seeing them as community members.” 

— mlist@providencejournal.com

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On Twitter: @madeleine_list