A POPULAR MISCONCEPTION is that homelessness is a bigger problem in the cold months than during the summer. While it is true that many long-term homeless (who make up only about 20 percent of the total homeless population) may use shelters less during the warm months, those people are still homeless and still using other services for the homeless — food, health care and basic needs.

In fact, family homelessness tends to increase during the summer as families become more mobile when children are not in school. During the summer, many impoverished families are unable to restore shut-off utilities or catch up on unpaid rent and may pack up their belongings and move to another place to look for work or cheaper housing. Sometimes families can stay with relatives or live in public campgrounds, but when those options run out, many will end up in a homeless shelter.

Here in Rhode Island, the foreclosure crisis has forced even more people out of their homes. Families, elders and individuals, many of whom were living in foreclosed rental properties, have lost their security deposits in the process and are finding that they have no resources and no place to go but to a homeless shelter. The just-approved 21.7 percent increase for electricity, 10 percent increase for natural gas, and the projected high cost of heating oil (already up to $4.85 a gallon at some Rhode Island dealers) will drive more households to the brink, and many of our fellow citizens will find themselves without adequate resources to stay in their homes summer or winter.

Yet, we know how to end homelessness — affordable, service-enriched housing for homeless families, elderly and disabled individuals has proven over and over to be effective in moving and keeping people out of homelessness. Service-enriched housing costs far less than operating a shelter system that provides a bed and sometimes a meal. Homeless individuals and families need a continuum of services, including job training, primary and mental-health care, counseling and low-cost housing to re-gain self-sufficiency.

As the temperatures rise this month and next, so will the number of Rhode Islanders who become homeless, and until we make a real effort to end homelessness in our state, we should not be surprised by the growing numbers. It is a disgrace that 6,773 of our neighbors spent time in a homeless shelter last year (2007 Rhode Island Emergency Shelter Annual Report), and we fear that the coming year will be worse.

The current budget crisis in Rhode Island that has led to deterioration of the existing safety net that provides for heating assistance and subsidized health and child care to low-income working families, the elderly and disabled has also led to increased homelessness for the most vulnerable among us. Crossroads Rhode Island is already seeing “sanctioned families,” those completely cut off from any services or support as of July 1, in our shelter. One woman came to us with three children, two still in diapers. She suffers from mental illness and has limited cognitive abilities. Her safety net was completely cut off on July 1. She has no-where to live. She cannot afford to buy her children diapers. If she were able to work, she still would have no day care for her children. The only hope she has at this point is to be sheltered and fed at Crossroads.

Blaming the poor for our fiscal woes and robbing the safety net to make ends meet will prove to be far more expensive in the long run and tarnish the reputation of our state as a great place to live and work.

Anne Nolan is president of Crossroads Rhode Island.