If you’ve never been left outside in the cold without a place to go, or a bed to sleep in, consider yourself lucky. For an increasing amount (and an all-time record number of) Rhode Islanders, that is their day-to-day reality.

And although it may be easy to forget about the unsheltered when temperatures stay above 60 throughout the evenings, now is exactly the time when progress must be made in order to make proper preparations for when the colder weather comes, and being out of doors becomes a deadly proposition.

State leaders, including Governor Dan McKee, House Speaker Joe Shekarchi, Senate President Dominick Ruggerio, and Housing Secretary Stefan Pryor, should be regularly meeting with homelessness advocates and housing support agencies throughout the summer to prepare for a fall and winter season that is barreling down the track, because the evidence suggests that more people than ever will be at risk when it does.

The numbers speak for themselves. The amount of people living without permanent shelter increased by 370% between 2019 and June of this year, according to the Rhode Island Coalition to End Homelessness. That count, which is likely vastly underestimated considering how difficult it can be to identify the homeless and how people can fall in and out of homelessness rapidly, showed that the 1,810 people without access to housing constituted a 15% jump from last year and a 65% jump from 2020.

The problem is not going away, and the numbers say it is getting worse. And yet, recent news has shown more emphasis on breaking up homeless encampments rather than figuring out how to account for the chilling fact that there are far more unhoused people in Rhode Island today (at the low estimate) than there are shelter beds; almost by a two to one margin.

There is no  magic bullet or simple solution to this, but we are advocating for more regular and serious dialogue to be had among state leaders who are charged with providing a quality life for all Rhode Islanders, particularly the ones most at risk.

Warwick has demonstrated an imperfect and temporary, but perhaps nonetheless replicable model, utilizing the Motel 6 on Jefferson Boulevard to house more people — and each time the state has come to them asking to increase the number of beds, the City has obliged. It’s not ideal, but it surely has to be better than scrambling for a solution during the height of winter, as happened last year with the Cranston Street Armory.

As summer winds down, the desperation of people living out of doors will increase. Some will rely on lighting camp fires to keep from freezing, and any number of disasters could occur. State leaders must put their heads together now, when it’s warm, to figure out how best to ensure everyone experiencing homelessness has, at the very least, a reliable, safe, and warm place to go when the winter begins.