PROVIDENCE — There was the elderly woman who needed to take out a second mortgage to cover her living expenses and the single mother who was in danger of losing her house because of skyrocketing mortgage payments. And there was the single woman who refinanced her house only to see her mortgage payments triple in a few years.

Most of them had one thing in common: they were facing foreclosure and felt that they had nowhere else to turn. Yesterday, nearly 75 homeowners gathered at a foreclosure workshop sponsored by U.S. Rep. Jim Langevin and Rhode Island Housing, whose counselors provided free advice to residents facing financial hardship.

Rhode Island is facing one of the worst housing crises in the country, according to Richard Godfrey, executive director of Rhode Island Housing. In states such as Florida and Nevada, real-estate speculators are the ones losing their shirts. But in Rhode Island, Godfrey said, individual homeowners are bearing the brunt of the crisis because they felt compelled to take on risky loans to buy into an over-heated housing market.

“It started in Rhode Island with houses being very unaffordable,” Godfrey said. “When someone offered an easy solution, people grabbed it. Hopefully, we’ll be able to save some homes today.”

Several factors, including rising mortgage rates and falling house prices, have contributed to the current foreclosure situation. The state’s foreclosure initiations nearly tripled during the first three months of this year, with about 1,060 houses advertised for foreclosure auctions during January, February and March. And the state median price of a single-family house in February fell 4.7 percent, to $245,000, the steepest decline for that month since 1995.

Janice Bergstrum, 49, who has owned her cottage in Warwick for 27 years, knows firsthand what the housing crisis feels like. A few years ago, she took out a $150,000 mortgage to make some long-overdue repairs to her house, including a new roof, windows and heating system. She said no one ever told her that the mortgage payment would balloon from $1,200 a month to $2,200.

Now Bergstrum owes the mortgage company $17,000 in back payments and is in danger of losing her home. The heat has been turned off, she owes $300 on her water bill and she can barely afford food and gasoline. Meanwhile, her neighborhood is peppered with foreclosure signs and boarded-up houses, and she worries that her own house is worth less than the mortgage.

“What keeps me sane is that I know I’m not alone,” said Bergstrum as she waited to meet with a counselor yesterday.

When Hawazoe Robinson, who is in her 40s, bought a two-family house in Pawtucket in 2005, she thought she was buying a piece of the American dream. When her mother was dying of cancer, Robinson, a mother of three, quit her job and fell into debt. She filed for bankruptcy to hold onto her home.

When she took on an adjustable rate mortgage, Robinson said she never realized that the rate would mushroom to $2,600 a month, way beyond the $800 she gets in rent for the house’s lone apartment. Now she said that she can’t refinance her house because her credit is shot.

“I’m behind in the mortgage. I’m behind in everything,” she said yesterday. “I can’t put food on the table. But I have put so much into this house. I don’t want to lose it.”

Meanwhile, Robinson is working full-time while studying for her nursing degree at the Community College of Rhode Island. She said she just lost her second job but doesn’t want to drop out of school because that is her only hope of getting out of this mess.

“I refuse to sell,” she said before seeing a counselor. “I need a place for my children to feel safe, to feel free.”

Langevin assured the crowd that Congress is trying to solve the mortgage meltdown. The House of Representatives has filed legislation that would create more stringent mortgage standards for lenders. Under this bill, mortgage originators would have to certify that consumers have a reasonable ability to repay their loans. Another bill would allow the Federal Housing Administration to insure and guarantee refinanced mortgages to help borrowers move into more affordable loans.

Rhode Island Housing’s HelpCenter offered the following tips to avoid foreclosure:

•Contact your lender as soon as you think you may be in financial trouble.

•Know your mortgage rights.

•Prioritize your debts.

•Contact an independent counselor approved by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

•Avoid foreclosure-prevention companies. Homeowners don’t need to pay a fee for foreclosure-prevention help; use that money to pay the mortgage instead. Many for-profit companies will charge a hefty fee for promising to negotiate with your lender.

•Don’t lose your home to foreclosure-recovery scams. Act cautiously if a company claims it can stop your foreclosure immediately. You may be signing over the title to your home.

lborg@projo.com