Tag: houselessness

Lahaina Fire

Thousands of miles away, it seems too familiar. We can remember the CZU Fire three years ago. The first flash of lightning occurred at a minute prior to midnight on August 15. The fire started soon afterward. Initially, for most of us, it did not seem to be much of a threat. It was not moving fast, and was still quite a distance from populous areas. Two days later, a change in the weather accelerated the fire into several Communities, where it burned more than nine hundred homes on more than eighty-five thousand acres.

The Lahaina Fire is much worse. Although it burned a relatively small area, it burned almost twice as many homes and most of Lahaina so far. Worst of all, it has killed at least eighty people. By the time it is over, and its damages are calculated, it may have killed more than the Camp Fire, which killed eighty five people in 2018, and is the deadliest wildfire in the history of California. (The Great Earthquake and Fire of San Francisco in 1906 killed more than three thousand people, but is not classified as a wildfire.) The Lahaina Fire is already the deadliest natural disaster in the history of Hawaii.

From experience, we know that the Community there will help victims recover afterward. That is what Community does. It is certainly what the Community here did in response to the CZU Fire three years ago. It will not be easy, and will take a long time, but a Community can accomplish so much more and do so much more efficiently than any individual. Hopefully, those who have so suddenly become houseless will not be houseless for long. Hopefully, the Community of Lahaina and all associated Communities recover as efficiently as the Community here is recovering.

Unpleasant Topic

Houselessness is an unpleasant topic. Those who do not need to talk about it prefer to not do so. No one has all the answers anyway. It is just too complex and too daunting.

Yet, for quite a while, it had been the primary theme of this blog. Only a few years ago, it was a much more significant social problem.

It is not so daunting now. It might even be less unpleasant to discuss than it had formerly been. However, there are so many more pleasant topics to discuss, such as how well those who had formerly been houseless are doing now.

If writing about the personal affairs of the formerly unhoused Community here were not so invasive, it might make a good blog. This blog could have transitioned into that theme rather than be discontinued.

Of course, regardless of the improvements, houselessness remains a problem within the Community. It may not be an important topic to as many as it formerly had been, but to those who are affected by houselessness, it is still a major problem. It is a topic that is never completely irrelevant. As those who are unhoused become housed, others become unhoused to replace them.

Sometimes though, it is gratifying to realize how fortunate we are to live within a society that is so sympathetic and generous with the unhoused, and that so many benefit from such graciousness. Otherwise, houselessness might still be as major of a social problem here as it is within so many other Communities.