It makes sense to provide year-round shelters

Warm weather is good news to most of us, but it's bad news for people without homes in Conejo Valley because they literally lose the temporary roofs over their heads.

It also is bad news for firefighters and homeowners.

Shelters at churches and other facilities are available for homeless people during the cold, damp winter months, but those programs ended on March 31.

Destitute people have been forced back onto the streets. The lucky ones at least have vehicles. But many don't. For the unlucky ones, it's time to find blankets, sleeping bags or cardboard. They must sleep wherever they can, including the foothills and under freeway overpasses.

This creates a new wrinkle to an old problem.

Many of the homeless are consumers of tobacco. Since we've just survived the driest winter on record, the foothills are full of combustible vegetation and chaparral. It's dry and ready to ignite; all it takes is a cigarette butt, a discarded cigar or a pipe with hot embers.

Some of the homeless dwell at night in the countryside that surrounds Conejo Valley. Makeshift campgrounds have been found every year by park rangers and police and fire department personnel. The inhabitants can't stay in public parks- - they'd be cited for illegal camping.

So they head for the hills.

It's not just smoking that creates a fire hazard. Southern California nights are notorious for being chilly, even on hot days.

Homeless people will try to stay warm any way they can. Some of them on unseasonably cold nights might even try to start a campfire.

The solution is a year-round shelter program. Since this could be a devastating year for brush fires, wouldn't it be nice if the risks could be reduced?

Providing nighttime shelter for the homeless- even in summer- is a good idea. And this year, it might even prevent incredibly expensive and destructive brush fires.