Luis Fred was happy to be where he was on a recent Thursday.

Outside temperatures were in the teens. Fred was in the Chelo’s Restaurant banquet hall, where it was warm and there was good food and company. Fred would be telling his story at how he ended up being homeless.

Fred and LeeAnn Byrne, policy director at the Rhode Island Coalition for the Homeless, were speakers at the weekly meeting of the Warwick Rotary Club. According to the most recent data, there were 4,447 homeless in the state for 2013, said Byrne. Of those numbers, about 40 percent were families and 25 percent were children.

While some homeless face mental health issues, most homeless can’t afford housing, she said.

“It’s a housing solution,” she said. “People deserve a place to live other than cars. It’s just not right.”

And while housing can be costly, Byrne said it is “a lot less expensive” than providing housing. She said, “Everything is an emergency” when people are homeless. They use hospital emergency rooms when sick and have to turn to agencies such as the Rhode Island Family Shelter, House of Hope and Crossroads to find shelter. On average, providing housing, costs $8,000 less a year than having the person be homeless, she said.

Fred is among the homeless. Four years ago he lived and worked in New York. He worked in restaurant kitchens preparing meals.

“I enjoy kitchens very much,” he said. It’s a job he had done for 20 years.

In a later interview with Fred he went more into detail. He said that he had grown up poor in the Bronx with his mother, two sisters and brother. He said there was trouble all around him, but he stayed out of it.

He said, “I became a productive person coming out of the Bronx. I enjoy working and doing things. I found a real passion in the kitchen.”

Fred also worked as a translator for a pastor from York, Pennsylvania. He followed him on missionary trips to the Dominican Republic and even volunteered to help in after school programs.

“I just wanted to help people when I could,” Fred said.

But then he developed tendonitis – tennis elbow – from the repetitive process of chopping vegetables and food preparation. He pushed his luck, continuing to work until his doctor told him he had no choice but to leave.

“I was frightened,” Fred said in the phone interview. “I couldn’t work and my savings were getting close to zero. I had supported myself for 25 years. I was heading towards a new life I didn’t know. I had to learn what it was like to be scared and having to cope with asking for help.”

Fred couldn’t find another job, and without a source of income he dipped into his savings to cover his rent. With his resources depleted he had no place to go but to homes of friends and the street.

A friend had offered him a place to stay in Providence, but after spending his remaining funds getting here from New York, the offer had fallen through. He was “trapped” in a city where he didn’t know anything or anyone.

“Not having no place to go, no food, it’s tough,” he said.

Living in shelters hasn’t been easy.

“It’s hard not having your own bathroom, no place to shower,” he said.

What has been even harder for Fred, and many other homeless throughout the state, has been dealing with the harsh winter we are currently experiencing.

Fred explained how he thinks about when he was working how he had always complained about the cold and snow. Now, he looks back and sees just how well he had it.

“It’s hard enough to be homeless; it’s even harder to be homeless in the cold,” Fred said. “I can’t afford a good winter jacket or the gear I need to go out in the cold. It’s very impacting. You miss appointments, you miss the bus, you miss meals all because of the cold.”

While walking through Providence, when Fred had first arrived to Rhode Island, he saw a flyer for the coalition and reached out. He applied to Crossroads and got in.

In Fred’s interview after the Rotary meeting, he said that working with the Coalition has been a “real joy” for him and they have become a family for him. He appreciates that the coalition gives him the opportunity to share his story, and that has been almost therapeutic for him.

Fred said, “Every time I share my story there’s no special effects or add-ons. I just say what I feel. I’m not looking for anything, I just want people to understand the pain I am going through. I don’t do drugs and I don’t get high. I get so sad because you know I tried to help people whenever I could and I still ended up here like this. One minute you’re fine and the next you’re not. I never thought I’d be homeless.”

Fred has been at Crossroads for the last two months. It’s not a place where he wants to stay. He is participating in activities designed to find him a job and a better life. He believes it’s not only possible for him but others also. The answer, he said, is bringing people to “what they know to do.”

Fred wants to go back to school and earn a business degree, something he knows will be able to last him a lifetime. More than that, he thinks it will help him do the most good.

“I want to be able to patch up a network for people like me,” he said. “There are so many loopholes and processes that you have to go through, and it’s hard to figure it all out when your worrying more about finding somewhere to stay at night.”

Fred wants to work hard to become a “positive and humble voice” for other people who are suffering in homelessness and be a good example, a role model, of how you can come back and go on to live a good life.

Byrne said a goal of the coalition is to end homelessness for all Rhode Island veterans, which she estimated at 350, by the end of this year. Also a goal is to end all chronic homelessness by 2016.

(With reports from Kelcy Dolan)