With the ongoing plight of hundreds of Rhode Islanders without a stable place to live front and center in ongoing news coverage, we can’t help but wonder what combination of factors is contributing to this problem not being solved, or at least mitigated as the weather drops into deadly degrees.

The actual numbers, to us, are largely irrelevant in regards to how many people are left out in the cold. Rhode Island, as the smallest state in the nation, should not have difficulty identifying actively or at-risk homeless individuals and families and establishing temporary accommodations sufficient for those who find themselves outdoors during the brutal winter months — and yet we do.

Governor Dan McKee has included money in the budget to assist these people, and has made public announcements of making more shelter beds available by Thanksgiving — and yet the problem persists. This is not to lay the blame of the entire complex situation at one person’s feet, but we do feel obligated to ask where the disconnect is occurring here between the clearly-stated will to help these people, and the lack of actual observed impact on the streets.

Is it a lack of available places to set up shelters? That seems hard to believe given the number of state-owned properties and vacant private properties. We would certainly hope that there are some goodhearted property owners out there willing to entertain a sort of deal with the state to provide space. Maybe it is due to a lack of human capital to actually run and administer these shelters? Or is it a classic NIMBY issue regarding an unwillingness of communities to be the ones opening their arms and accepting a group of people who are often unfairly stereotyped as “dangerous”, as we have disappointingly seen among some political leaders in Cranston. Perhaps it is a combination of all of these factors, among others.

It is not as though the solution is tremendously difficult to imagine. We need more structures where people can get out of the cold, store some of their things, and be reassured that they are not in danger. Those structures may be large and open to dozens at once, they may be tiny and intended for two, or somewhere in between. But they need to be built, renovated, or established all the same. And the clock is ticking, because it isn’t getting any warmer.