"If it stays down, it won't be as bad as we anticipated," Guglielmetti says, although there's no guarantee that it won't climb with the approach of winter.
Distribution of heating assistance is based on income-eligibility, with the cutoff being 60 percent of median income for the state. Guglielmetti says the high level of local unemployment means that many families will be seeking help for the first time. "If were only to receive $15 million with the way the unemployment is, I'm not sure how we would have managed it," he says.
SIGNS OF THE TIMES
For another sign of the severity of the current moment in Rhode Island, consider how the Jonnycake Center in the Peace Dale village of South Kingstown has decided to scrap its annual giveaway of December holiday baskets, focusing instead on the general food needs of its clients. (It will still have holiday items, and holiday food, but not individual allotments of a ham or turkey as in the past.)
The growing need for the center's food pantry can be seen by how 960 people have signed up for assistance, up from 567 as of last December. The number has grown so much, says development director Lisa Wright, that the center moved its food pantry to a different location in October.
Wright says the community has responded generously to the heightened level of need, with a food drive by Boy Scouts raising more than 8000 pounds of food at the beginning of November.
On a statewide basis, the Rhode Island Community Food Bank (rifoodbank.org; 401.942.6325) has seen a 12 percent increase from last year in the demand for emergency food, says spokesman Michael Cerio. "It has been placing a strain," he says. "Food leaves the facility as quick as it's coming in. What we're seeing now is our stock is regularly quite low. Food is flying out as fast it is coming in."
As winter settles in with the prospect of higher heating costs and other expenses, Cerio expects the demand to only increase.
One upside of the current fiscal crisis is the ability of many ordinary Rhode Islanders to help others through even modest donations.
As Cerio says, "Though the economy is struggling, Rhode Islanders in general are very generous, and when they see a need, they want to do everything they can to help . . . Every donation, regardless of size, is important to our work." (The Food Bank also welcomes volunteers and those looking to learn about the problem of hunger in Rhode Island.)
THE COST OF CUTS
As bad economic conditions persist, the danger remains that still more people will fall through the cracks, and that Rhode Island's deficit-plagued government will enact short-sighted cuts.
As is stands, 2006-2007, the most recent period for which figures are available, showed that 6773 homeless people, an all-time high, were living in shelters across the state.
As noted by Jim Ryczek, executive director of the Rhode Island Coalition for the Homeless, the number doesn't include people living on the streets or those doubled-up with friends or relatives. Only 10 percent of the population is chronic long-term homeless, people with mental health and/or substance issues, he says. About ninety percent, by contrast, Ryczek says, are "economically deprived situational homeless people."
