And, their Gov Elect wants to bring in the illegal aliens>?
2
That the wealthiest country in the history of the world is not even mentioned as a source of building desperately needed housing is breathtaking. Trump can send thousands of able bodied troops to the southern border for a phony threat, but no talk of using our paid service members to move to California and work on a real crisis affecting our people.
How about we start re-purposing the government to perform a function “for the people?”
2
Reading this article in Today’s Paper on my iPhone I love the juxtaposition of an ad for a Prada handbag with an article on homelessness. American values at their best.
2
So I guess this should be a wake-up call to all who still believe that in the event of catastrophe, our government will be there for us. And for those who somehow thought that there was indeed a difference between having a home of one's own and being homeless. We are(at least most of us) only a few paychecks or a disaster away from ourselves joining the homeless in the Walmart parking lot.
3
There exists a persistent narrative of rich versus poor. The story goes on and on about class warfare. Somewhere there is a missing element that makes simple, lives that are not easily captured by images of Walmart parking lots or the hellish inferno of a community on fire. Kernal's of truth, yes but there is more and this story does not capture the essence of the struggle that the survivors of the "Camp Fire" are enduring. It casts into a morality play where there are good guys and bad guys which like most fairy tales is best taken with a pinch of salt.
1
Seems to me the older population from Paradise, for instance, was and is a form of family in that I've read about the community and sharing lives they led pre-fire.
Couldn't several already acquainted -- or great friends -- of Paradise elders be paired or even trio-ed together to get into some appropriate housing?
'Family,' especially past 70, is a changeable thing. But no less valid.
And these older folks shouldn't be left to camp out, for goodness sake.
2
This story reminds us to be mindful of the plight of so many of our own citizens and of the limitation of our resources when formulating policies to deal with the desperate and the dispossessed coming from foreign lands.
2
The comment by those affected and neglected are a challenge
both to communities who have had fire ravage their communities
and areas who wish not to be part of the solution.
California residents have to wake up to the idea that they will
have to share in the developing saga of shared housing in the future. Communities bound together by transportation lines,
available jobs, and school will be necessary to meet the demand for housing.
The model at this moment is to move away, drive to your job,
spend needless hours in traffic in order live in a better community.
What happened to Paridise( I didn’t forget what town I’m talking about) can happen anywhere. That’s something every
one in our nation needs to remember.
1
California had a housing shortage of three million units, worsening by a hundred thousand per year, even before these tragic fires destroyed tens of thousands of homes. Governor-Elect Gavin Newsom has pledged a housing construction boom the likes of which California hasn't seen in half a century. Let's all support him to get there. We'll need to allow a few changes for a sustainable future, like turning some parking spaces into bus lanes, but it will be so worth it to make California a leader in tackling both housing affordability and greenhouse gas emissions. Let's save our communities by saying YIMBY: "Yes In Myself Back Yard!"
1
In the shadow of the wealthiest people in HISTORY, close by in Silicon Valley, it is just maddening that people with so little are competing for scarce resources. These are people who are struggling with one or more factors including economics, lack of adequate mental health care, lack of adequate medical care, addiction issues, climate refugee status after the fire, etc, and they are fighting for a meager amount of crumbs and bones while others are hoarding resources. Our depraved economic system says the rich "deserve" to have more, that these poor people could have the same things if they "worked hard". This myth is destroying lives. It's an inhumane system based, an updated version of Kings "deserving" power bestowed by God. Time for a new way of living that honors our planet and our humanity.
33
@MG. Where exactly in this world or human history is there an example of what you are hoping for? People in most of the world today and in the past have lived much harder lives than the poor today in California. It is quite possible that for humans, this is as good as it will ever get. So we must do the best we can for the poor and be very careful about trying revolutionary ideas that will almost certainly make things worse—likely, far worse.
4
@MG Another article in today's NYTimes discusses Michael Cohen's "atonement." Atonement is at-one-ment. It is the recognition that we are all one in the eyes of God. What I wonder is, with all those geniuses in Silicon Valley, why can't a series of temporary shelters be made out of shipping containers? They are easy to move, can be stacked on top of each other, retrofitted with stoves, etc.. People are already living in reconditioned containers now, and making posh quarters out of them.
1
Where are the FEMA trailers ? Get these people out of the elements immediately......sort it out later
1
@Jesse Kramer They’re sitting in Sacramento while TPTB figure out where to put them, water, power and sewer. This must be available somewhere nearby.
1
This adorable little one sitting on a pile of clothes on a Walmart parking lot illustrates the absurdity and cruelty of our country's current policy on low income housing, affordable housing and homelessness.As the wealthiest country in the entire world we should have a large and robust portfolio of low income housing,subsidized apartments and houses and new build homes based on the Levittown model. A portion of this well maintained and robust portfolio would be set aside to be utilized to house persons and families in the event of emergencies and disasters.Doing this would go a long way to mitigate the homeless problem when events such as the camp fire leave people with no place to live.It would also cost a fraction of what is being currently spent placing people in shelters,church basements and motels. As things stand now we have children and families in parking lots and in tents surrounded by piles of donated clothes, blankets and housewares. This essentially underlines the sad human tragedy that there is no house to put all this donated stuff into.
18
Post Katrina, there were small, inexpensive kit homes designed and offered for sale by Home Depot, like a 21st century version of the Sears Craftsman cottages. If something similar could be made in fire resistant form, it would be good for Paradise "burn out" victims, and good for the long term homeless of California as well. Habitat builds concrete block homes in Honduras for $6,500 in materials. They also are earthquake resistant, and have two or three bedrooms, a kitchen, and a bathroom. No doubt they would cost more in California, but if Habitat can manage the cost, so could the state and federal government . Safe, low income houses can't be any worse for the community than old trailers.
6
The fact that so many of those now homeless do not have family to stay with or insurance proceeds with which to start over is a tragedy. Is fire insurance very expensive in California?
Butte county voted for Trump in 2016. Why is it that folks who vote Red for smaller government are always the same folks who end up needing the government and blaming the government when it's not there to help them?
4
@JMart
In short, because they were lied to. That doesn’t mean we should neglect them now.
I lived in those communities ravaged by fire, both on the Feather and Yuba rivers. Me & my husband were gentlemen-campers; in the city we would have been slum-dwellers. On the Yuba, near North San Juan, we camped at a place called Bloody Run Creek, where the Ranger spied on us in our tent through binoculars, and told us we could camp there as long as we wanted. The community was less welcoming, especially those connected with Gary Snyder, winner of a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and the American Book Award, and Richard Baker, the (later, scandal rid) Zen Master of the San Francisco Zen Center as well as Tassajara. The most arrogant, exclusive group of clubbies you'd ever hope to find; or should I say 'avoid'. So their community catches fire (it was well bandied about that temporary/on-call firefighters set many of them, for the employment.) And me and my husband tried to get employment as firefighters (they were hiring people on the spot.) A local, (snob), saw us and said, passionately, "Oh yes! Help us! Please!" I forget why we were unhirable, but we didn't get the job. Meanwhile, a mobile unit was set up to make meals for all the firefighters, pro and otherwise. The odors of that cooking, wafted to our nostrils, and we rubbed black ashes on our faces and clothes. It was the best steak I have ever eaten in my life. I'm a vegetarian now, but just the same, it was the BEST!
1
If we have trouble adapting to the destruction of people's houses at a rise in temperature of just one degree C we're going to be up the proverbial creek without a paddle at the plus 3 degrees C we're heading for.
3
This situation completely lays bare the heartlessness of this nation. Homeless old competing against homeless young. I fully expect this to become commonplace as the next decade unfolds — because it won't affect the Swamp at all, it will be completely ignored. The glorification of the Survivalist "Mad Max" model is right around the corner in many places and the Media and Politicians obsess about their own careers and power struggles. If you think I'm being pessimistic, hows the opioid crisis progressing? Exactly, they recently legalized an even more powerful opiod for mass production.
2
What a remarkable conclusion to this sickening article: we are to find it uplifting that already homeless people are "educating" the newly homeless how to survive? This after explaining that neither group of homeless has a chance of getting their most basic needs met, and are now being forced to compete for already insufficient and scarce resources ?
This is the United States of America. And this is what it looks like when the rich transfer trillions of dollars to themselves, plot to shred the safety net entirely, and subsidize fossil fuel extractors, no matter the cost to the rest of us, or even of our planet's ability to sustain human life.
Is it so difficult to speak plainly about such crimes? Is it so impossible to at least spare us the obscentity of propagandizing these betrayals of trust and decency as uplifting?
29
@Julie
We are still, most of us, in our heads, back in what it was like in the US, maybe mid-20th century. Even if we ourselves didn't live during this time, we absorbed the message that it was totally possible in the US to better ones self, rise above the class we were born into and do well for ourselves and families. The realities of today are totally different but we haven't yet adjusted our heads to it. The rise of the 1%, the fact that the vast majority of the increase in wealth in recent decades has gone to the top 10% and that most of the lower 90% have not progressed beyond say 1970's levels of wages and savings(adjusted for inflation); this we havne't absorbed yet. We blame the victims without fully understanding why so many are just not making it in the US today.
5
Why not call them what they really are? Climate change refugees.
18
@Barbyr
Because that would be a tendentious, reductionist and disruptive formulation of a complex issue.
1
@Barbyr
Because that would be a tendentious, reductionist and distorting formulation of a complex issue.
Thought all the resources were used for the illegal aliens coming across the border and that's why nothing is left for taxpaying citizens.
5
Nyt, The CA homeless population of 134k is too big. But it must be considered as the tiny proportion of our 40 million population that it is. In our large cities, it has become a tyranny of the minority, as many steal, defecate, and do/deal drugs flamboyantly. We should send migrant homeless back to whence they came, whether that is Mexico or New Mexico. Addicts need to be removed and housed and treated if possible. Mentally ill need to be housed and well cared for. Then we will be down to a manageable number of chronically homeless to assist. But the homeless should not be conflated with victims of natural disasters. They have temporary needs we should and can resolve immediately. They truly are us. This has nothing to do with political party or power or income or attitude.
5
I live in South Florida and we have a lot of homeless here. I disagree with the idea of telling homeless American citizens that they cannot live here though, that’s taking away from one of their freedoms, where does that stop?
Why haven’t the yellow-jacket street protests in France spread to the U.S.?
Our revolution of 1775-1783 helped inspire the French to overthrow the upper classes and monarchy that had massively concentrated wealth.
Will the French provide a latter-day turnabout example?
If you’re a member of the vast American under class, the provocation is constant and ubiquitous. Never has a reasonable standard of living been this out of reach. Access to health care has become so skewed toward the rich, our average life expectancy has dropped for two years in a row.
Is it enough, 3-1/2 centuries later, to get Americans to rise up against the outrageous concentration of wealth by the U.S. upper class?
Picture our country as one big wildfire zone. The conditions for combustion are there. It’s a question of when the right spark will come along.
10
As of a couple days ago the field adjacent to Walmart has been cleared of campers and fenced off. Many of the campers were moved to an indoor/outdoor shelter the red cross opened at the nearby Silver Dollar Fairgrounds. There's a lot of chatter on the local social media concerned the shelter has a low barrier to entry, in other words previous homeless, drug users, criminals are welcome along with the new homeless from Paradise and Magalia, including families with children. That's just one of the sources of tension, another being the concern transients are coming from out of the area to take advantage of all the disaster relief.
10
@babymf This notion of the new homeless (aka good homeless) as opposed to those that were already homeless(aka bad homeless) is a big part of the problem. There should be nobody who is homeless. We are a wealthy country and we have the resources and wealth to solve this problem for all who are homeless regardless of when they became homeless. No more pitting the people against each other.
4
@babymf So? What’s wrong with homeless from elsewhere coming to get help?
2
It's simply amazing to me to see the climate change report come out last week and be denounced by the GOP pundits as a money making scheme for scientists and unspecified boogy persons. Meanwhile the disastrous economic losses and permanent damage done to the these communities are what the bottom liners should be scrutinizing. I would be interested to see an analysis of the amount of money profited from fighting global warming vs the amount of money lost on disaster relief, droughts, crop damage, frequent power outages, work loss etc., etc... Maybe some of the bottom line types would convert if Democrats let the money talk on this matter more???
5
The housing shortage was so bad in Chico before the fire that there is simply no possible way to house most of the refugees from the fire anywhere near their jobs. Besides being a retirement community, Paradise was a bedroom community half an hour from work for working folks priced out of Chico. It will be years before they can find a home to live in, in this county. Only a fraction of people living in Paradise had work there and they are likely to have to leave the area for both work and a place to live.
There is no visible effort to create places to put trailers for the newly homeless. FEMA is not even trying to create temporary housing on the scale needed. The City of Chico government was at full stretch trying to create a tiny house village for a few of the homeless seniors who were living in the City parks before the fire.
The federal plan seems to be to let the freezing cold rain force people to migrate away.
13
An on-going tragedy, so saddening. Where is the federal assistance?
9
Pay your insurance premiums.........
Pay.
Them.
12
@There
Well yes, unless the cost of paying them is so prohibitive that one decides they'd rather eat and keep the lights on. As well, if you own an old mobile home, I'm not sure whether the proceeds from insuring that would help you afford new housing. And for those who rent, insurance would cover personal possessions but one is still homeless after a big fire and in need to housing that doesn't exist.
The overclass has been taking all new income and wealth for the past two decades and now the U.S. has the worst wealth/income inequality and most miserable social programs among wealthy democracies.
But hey! Tax cuts forever!
28
After the 1906 fire in San Francisco, the army housed folks in tents in the Presidio. Subsequently, many thousands of ‘earthquake houses’, small homes built quickly, were made for those refugees.
America knows how.
23
@Woodrat
America knew how.
7
@Woodrat
Those tents and later 8x6 sheds were built on sand dunes and other undeveloped land to house families. There was no plumbing or kitchen, floors were sand. My grandparents lived in one and later a shed. There is no undeveloped land near Chico/Paradise that is leveled to accommodate these people. Nor is there a nearby decommissioned military facility. County fairgrounds and large parking lots are what is available unless folks want to stake out a spot in a national forest.
4
@Woodrat Boston and New England sent temporary apartment buildings to Halifax Nova Scotia after two munitions ships exploded in 1917. No idea why we can't house 20,000 suddenly homeless now.
3
My best guess is there are more guest rooms in California than homeless.
Living in a fire prone area with horses, we have emergency plans which include reciprocal arrangements for boarding our ponies in case of catastrophe...no questions, no calls, just get there.
The current mentality seems to be 'I wash my hands...let a millionaire do it.' That just won't work. It would have them paying for health, education, housing, income, et al. Pay more? They already do. Lots more. And , in reality, they are just people who made different choices than we did.
We are in this together and we need to preface any call for the 'other' to step up with an offer of what we are are willing to do.
9
You and your friends have horses and guest rooms What makes you think your average Californian has either of these?
4
We can supply the Saudis with bombs to kill, maim and starve innocent civilians in Yemen, yet we cannot spare much of anything to help these people and end homelessness. It’s nauseating and is huge black mark of shame.
Where are the billionaires, right, left and center? Surely the Kochs , Zuckerberg,
Soros , Bezos, et al could buy up used and new RVs for these people and partner with FEMA to set up camps?
53
True.....
All very true......
3
Imagine
Betsy DeVos
AmWay
Black water
Koch
Trump
All rich all the time
Yet they could together alleviate homelessness completely
Yet will not
Christianity and all” true Religion”
That cares for the other are not represented in this debacle of forced homelessness.
Yet payroll taxes continue
Resist
Vote 2020
Send Congress videos of their sin against humanity
17
What happened to all the the FEMA trailers? Remember Katrina? It would be better than tents.
20
During WW11 thousands of shelters were built for the many new Army recruits. Why not do the same? We have the $$ although we like to give it to the military and we have the workers and we need jobs. So, do it.
30
Wait a minute. Why are these people still sleeping in a parking lot???
Where in the world are the temporary FEMA housing trailers???
46
@John
90 FEMA trailers are sitting in Sacramento waiting for a location with “infrastructure” to be found.
1
Where are the tents?
Where are the trailers?
Where is FEMA?
When do we treat our fire refugees as well as political refugees or prisoners?
Not in Sonoma.
Not even in Paradise.
Heckuva job, Donny. Get them to hate the government more.
Oh, and Winter... is here.
43
since Trump hates CA don't expect FEMA money to flow...it has not in Dallas, as reported in today's Times
6
We -- California, San Francisco -- cannot and should not house, feed, treat all the homeless who pour in. Not to sound like the GOP at voting time, but we need to identify and prioritize. From where do you hail? If it's the recent fires, you get priority. Next, are you a Californian or not? Where did you last have an address or legal ID? Idaho? we will transport you back there. San Diego? We'll help you get there..... We simply cannot house, feed. treat all the homeless in the world and we have to prioritize to help or risk being overwhelmed and helping no one.
26
If there is a god, she looks down on the beautiful planet she created and sees no state or national lines. And if she perhaps created human beings in her image, she knows nothing about California or Utah or Mexico, nor dark skin or light skin. She just sees women - and even men.
8
@Andy People aree allowed to move freely.
5
@Andy
actually we can. if only wed fairly tax the filthy rich like bezos, zuckerberg, and the rest of the silicon valley fat cats.
we have money for war but cant feed the poor. more tax cuts for the rich!
soon it will be off with their heads!
7
One interesting thing about the Camp Fire and Butte Country is that its resident demographics are very different than what many disparage/assume as "liberal leftist multi-culti millionaires living large in California."
The reality: Donald Trump won Butte County by about 4% over Hillary Clinton.
Butte County is 86.1% white.
Butte County residents who are 65 and over account for 18.2% of the population.
Butte County median 2016 income was (a whopping) $44,366.
https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/buttecountycalifornia/PST120217
In other words, not the land of the fabled "coastal PC liberal rich" but instead those (white) working class Americans Donald Trump claims to care about so much.
So the continuing lie that Donald Trump really cares about "his people"? Apparently some of them are waking up; some Butte County Trump voters are apparently furious with him now. Too bad it takes a life-changing disaster at one's doorstep to realize Donald Trump is only concerned about taking care of...Donald Trump.
From 2016: "In Trump they trust: Why these Californians voted red: The 13 counties at the top of California went big for Trump"
https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-trump-california-20161115-story.html
49
Then there is also the problem of many 1,000s of migrants entering California, both legal and illegal, who are also competing for the rare housing opening and availability and other resources for basic survival. We should not put services and help out to foreigners over our struggling Americans.
11
After Katrina, FEMA provided trailers for those who lost their homes & apartments. Why aren't there any trailers provided in both No & So California?
9
This is a reflection of the failure of this country, the wealthiest on the planet, to care for those in need. Shameful. At what point do we demand that the wealth in this country not be hoarded by those who can pay for that entitlement through the best representation that money can buy?
17
I agree with you, but we can't.
We are a capitalist nation, ruled by capitalism.....
If you think this is a democracy, you're grossly out of touch.
Their money is theirs and yours is yours to do with what you wish. We do not need the government interceding in private wealth regardless of the circumstances.
2
@There
"If you think this is a democracy, you're grossly out of touch. Their money is theirs and yours is yours to do with what you wish. We do not need the government interceding in private wealth regardless of the circumstances."
Our Democracy has been stolen from us by a kleptocracy. Until we kick them out of our government, we can't. I cannot agree with you that there is no recourse but to give our government over to those who only understand individual power. Our Republic was not formed to provide support for the individual, but all of the people our Constitution was designed to serve. It appears people like you are grossly out of touch with our true purpose and history as a nation.
1
@Thyere
The wealth isn't private. My taxes dispreportionally paid for the roads, the power grid, the universities, the police that these fat cats run on.
.
As a resident of San Francisco’s Mission District, I feel obliged to point out that these tent camps increasingly are not occupied by the “homeless,” which rich people like to preach about from their tony suburban enclaves.
We are besieged with open air criminal enterprise zones — of sales and consumption of synthetic heroin manufactured in China and Mexico and controlled by cartels; Sprawling tarps cover dozens of stolen bicycles at numerous “chop shops” as locals call them; Car break ins and outright armed robbery abound, and the vast majority of 911 police emergencies associated with street behavior track back to these camps.
Equating folks who lost their homes to these insane fires with what most of us who actually live here know to be something entirely different than the “homelessness” too often portrayed in these pages is at best disingenuous.
32
@Mia Homeless is homeless, period. All suffer from lack of housing.
9
I live in California, and have been frustrated with the homeless/vagrant problem in urban areas on the coast for decades.
Not all the homeless actually want housing -- some are not accurately termed "homeless", but are drug addicts or criminals.
For those who do want housing, most cities dont' have a good plan. There are no plans about how to build housing that is inexpensive to rent or buy, because it's inexpensive to build. Rather, cities and the state are focused on building more "standard" housing that is expensive to build, and then using violence or force of law to "force" property owners to provide lower rent units, say by charging higher rent for other renters. Or cities pass more and more property taxes so that homeowners, many of whom are already struggling to stay in their homes, are being expected to pay for housing for "the homeless", many of whom they can clearly see are drug addicts and criminals.
A better solution, the one that is greatly needed, is to actually build housing that is inexpensive to construct, so it's inexpensive to buy or rent. Build SROs, grant more permits for boarding or lodging houses, which is the type of housing transients and low income folks have historically lived in, but which began to disappear around the early 20th century. Use the genius that too often only goes to creating new electronic gadgets, to find ways to create prefab or tiny homes and put them in places in the nation where it's less expensive to live.
40
@Oakbranch Local governments control building permits and zoning and do not want low cost housing in existing neighborhoods. So it is not happening, period. There would have to be a Statewide proposition voted in that takes away local control of zoning and permitting for low cost housing. Good luck getting a majority for that.
9
@Federalist
Local and national building codes have strict standards. You know, for things like fire proofing. Calls to relax standards can create dangerous housing.
3
@Federalist
There are a lot of plans to create low cost housing in cities in my area, Berkeley, Oakland, SF -- as well as in Los Angeles, San Diego -- but the problem is, it's being done in the ill-conceived way I mentioned, which simply passes one person's costs on to others of moderate means who can ill afford to pay extra to support thousands of poor people in their city or state.
Paradise already had many low income persons, according to the news stories. Other inland California cities (Stockton, Modesto and the like) also have a disproportionately large number of low income persons compared to the coastal cities. So creating more low cost housing there is not upsetting anyone's apple cart in that sense. The equivalent of a boatload of FEMA trailers or mobile homes could be hauled in to build a new community, in a way that would be fairly quick to set up, once adequate infrastructure had been rebuilt.
3
The newly homeless will teach us lessons about the chronically homeless if we listen. Top distinguishing feature: Wanting to be in a home, not camping on the street or in a parking lot. When nothing is available, the only way to handle it is to accept being on the street and seek to survive. To exit that state, one must both want it and have a place to move into.
In California, we need more places to move into. Let’s figure out how to help ALL newly homeless, regardless of the reason, get back into a home quickly, before chronic sets in.
14
@Terry G Every local jurisdiction in California refuses to permit much cheap dense housing. NIMBY. What people want is for the homeless to be helped, but not if it means a trailer park next door. So far there is no solution to that local refusal backed up by voters not wanting new housing built near them.
2
This is a stark reminder that with the exception of the dysfunctional people, homelessness is a problem of supply and demand. There is not enough low cost housing, and persons at the low end of the economic food chain find themselves squeezed out.
When a fire destroys thousands of homes, the problem moves up the economic food chain, and we see it more clearly because it affects many more people, and you can no longer blame the victims for having made poor choices. Paradise was by all accounts a good and safe place to live.
Of course we need to temporary shelters for now, and we need to replace the burned homes as quickly as possible. We also need services for the more visible dysfunctional homeless.
In the longer term, we have a simple choice: we need inexpensive options, or we need to accept the fact that persons of lesser means will be forced to move or become homeless. It's really that simple.
63
@mlbex “with the exception of dysfunctional people”?? So the supply of housing is not a problem for them?
2
@mileena: Not at all. You can parse that sentence several ways: I meant it to say that the dysfunctional homeless would need the services even if they had inexpensive housing options.
Writing can become dry and boring if you try to cover every possible interpretation of a complex problem.
16
@mileena
Housing is a problem for the dysfunctional population as well, but they also need additional services such as drug/alcohol rehab, mental health etc. Many of them would need these services in order to be able to remain in a home provided to them.
2
“The homeless here are actually teaching the people who have never been homeless how to survive...And that’s a big positive,” [Mr Brown] said.
Unbelievable. Teaching homeless people how to survive is a big positive?
California just got added to the still-incomplete east coast, Texas, and Puerto Rico disaster areas. This speaks volumes not just about President Midas and his rolls of paper towels, but the heartlessness that seems to be the defining characteristic of Americans today.
The military can't account for the billions it is given every year, two years after Russia's election cyber-attacks the GOP is whistling past the graveyard of information insecurity and identify theft, and this great country can't manage to provide basic food, shelter, and health care to millions of people.
62
Perhaps this is a heartless thought but why do "homeless" people need to stay and be housed in a disaster area?
I don't believe the reason is just lack of transportation money.
5
@Donna So just move them to a new area where they have no connections, even though many have lived there their entire lives?
11
A pre-fire census in Chico, where most of the ‘burnouts’ are staying, indicated that the majority of the homeless in Chico have lived here for 5 or more years. So, to answer your question, they live here because this is their home.
The burgeoning homeless population of California will continue to grow as long as the Democrat controlled state house in Sacramento continues to give the homeless a free pass to encamp anywhere they wish and to live off the dole paid for by California taxpayers. The homeless are now equating themselves with the homeowners who lost everything in the fires, even to the point of invading the shelters set up for the fire victims. California needs to take a page from the playbook of New York City under Mayor Giuliani. Demand that the homeless get into a shelter and also demand that they actively look for work. Get them off the streets where they accost and harass passersby. And stop enabling them with free stuff paid for by taxpayers.
16
And where are the homeless supposed to go? Did you read the statistics about vacancy rates?
8
@paul Homeless is homeless, period. It doesn't matter when they became homeless. Plus, many who are homeless are retired or disabled and cannot work. Social Security does not pay enough, and most HUD waiting lists are closed.
11
@paul I was homeless AND held a job. Anyone can become homeless in the blink of an eye, including you. "Demand that the homeless get into a shelter..." Do you understand that there is not enough shelter space for the demand in California, let alone the rest of the country? Natural and economic disasters are creating 21st century Hoovervilles all over the country.
23
Good stuff, Alexandra. That I survived a fire which rendered me temporarily homeless might raise my empathy, but I cannot deliver trailers. Astute reporters finding stories such as this raise awareness of persons and organizations than can try.
6
@Brendan Carroll I wonder if FEMA could deliver trailers?
3
Wishing heart's ease to all the thousands of people whose homes were destroyed by fire and flood. When you have lost your home, no matter how small or large, to Mother Nature's and Father Time's wrath, you learn life's valuable lessons. That all that remains are your memories and your friendships with beloved family and friends. People who stay to comfort you are the sweetening in life. People who turn away in fear that the same thing could happen to them are pitiable. People displaced by floods (in North Carolina) by wildfires (California) and by poor countries that persecute and oppress their citizens -- migrants fleeing north from Central America to our southern border -- learn life's bitter and sweet lessons. Life doesn't hand out medals to the most deserving poor and burdened humans. In this life sooner or later we all await losing our homes in some way or other.
22
@Nan Socolow
Thank you Nan. We forget that the only thing we can hold onto in times of disaster are human relationships. Our material possessions can be gone in an instant. Even then some people will run away thinking your problems will become their problems. We are all in this together.
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I would have thought the homeowners would have seen some relief through their homeowners insurance policies. Unless of course their properties weren't insured, in which case it's too bad for them.
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@Kurt Pickard
I hope your insurance provider is quick on the draw to get you in a vacant unit if you ever lose your home, at the exact same time as 14,000 of your neighbors. Also, imagine that some people didn't own their homes, yep...people live like that...just imagine.
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@Kurt Pickard Many were renters. Some could not afford insurance.
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@Q
One doesn't have to own a home to have insurance. I believe they call it renters insurance. Imagine that! So let me get this right. I didn't insure my home, or rental. It burns to the ground and now you and the rest of the good people of the community is going to make me whole again. Why have insurance?
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The majority of middle and upper class Americans are unable to empathize with the homeless. The concept alone is distasteful, and often only acknowledged during major holidays when people make a donation or say a prayer in a public display of their humanity. It is imperative that Americans elect individuals who are truly committed to making this a country where adequate housing, food, education, employment and healthcare are available to all.
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The Times and other media outlets need to keep articles like this in the news to remind us of the difficulties that follow a tragedy like the Camp Fire. Our memories of these events are short lived, and we need to be reminded.
Maybe the federal and state governments will take notice and do something. Let us hope so.
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California is the most conservative state in the union - when it comes to housing. It didn’t happen by accident.
When you dismantle external borders, internal borders come up. California doesn’t protect its external borders, so it’s up to the towns and villages to protect themselves.
Villages can’t build walls, so this is how they do it: by banning home construction and restricting housing supply, so they can keep the newcomers out.
Homelessness is a side effect of this process.
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@jk. That may be how it looks on the other side of the continent, but you are utterly clueless about California's "external borders". The only "external border" California has is the southern border with Mexico, and that is under federal control.
Our interfaces with Arizona, Nevada, and Oregon are state lines within the United States of America, and states haven't throttled interstate movement since the infamous restrictions of the Dust Bowl era.
1
It is real hard or me to feel sorry for millionaires that lost money.
Meantime those of us who work work work and avoid disaster, well, good luck to you, the millionaires will once again get a bail out.
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Paradise is not a community of millionaires. It's not an economically thriving place. There aren't a lot of jobs there.
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@AutumLeaff
Newsflash! Paradise fire and Malibu fire were completely different events. CA is a big state. Like, really big. I know that it's hard to comprehend from across the country in a tiny place like Manhattan.
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@AutumLeaff The people who lost their homes in Paradise weren’t rich.
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This is heartbreaking. With all of the resources in our country, we should not witness this displacement and overall lack of regard for our citizens and neighbors.
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@Mickey California has a tremendous group of people who are not citizens of USA but they get free schooling, housing, medical care food and everything else possible. Why?
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@MimiBecause many, many years ago our country's leaders decided that ALL children in our nation are entitled to public education and help getting enough food to eat. Not just in CA, but in all states. By saying that some children can go to school and some cannot....in the long run that would damage our nation, both economically and ethically.
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@Mimi
Are you really conflating your distaste for immigrants and the homeless effected by the wildfire?
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God almighty, I wish GOP senators had to sleep in this tent city for one night - ONE NIGHT.
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@CarolSon
Make the Slumber Party bi-partisan and there will be a pillow fight.
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@CarolSon - because GOP senators have a hand in how the California National Guard is (or apparently isn't) deployed?
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@CarolSon California is controlled by Democrats so not sure why you want the GOP to sleep in tents.
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And, ironically, your headliner opinion piece is "When CEOs Cared about America". Read it, and connect the dots.
Talk, talk, talk. Blah, blah, blah.
That is all it is, cheap talk, when the backyards of the buried wealth of dozens of multi-billionaires practically abut Butte County, California. That is what we have come to expect, when in fact, these few people could, with a stroke of their pens, completely rebuild that part of the world, Homeless, California, which helped made them so rich.
How bout it, billionaires?. Charity begins at home, and it takes some good-hearted Solomons to do it. Get off your collective rears and get something DONE for your country.
The time for talk is over.
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No numbers yet?
Pre-fab housing of some sort, trailer that can vary in size , it is hoped are available.
Housing in the US is a huge problem and yet there are many cities/towns losing population and with empty - possibly habitable housing
OTOH not everyone belongs in a single family house; for a growing part of the population some sort of assisted living in a multi-family structure seems preferable..
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@Make America Sane
There are prefab builders in the area like bluhomes on Mare Island but they are yupscale. Seems like there is room for another, affordable line which could also be built from the get go to be fire resistant. Doing so would also create new jobs.
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Every time I think the US is in the first world something like this happens to remind how much of a third world country it is. California needs to get its act together on housing across the state and do a better job for these poor homeless people.
If all the politicians and celebrities could take on such social issues with the same passion they have for hating Trump, many of these problems might be solved. If you want to “resist” - actions speak louder than words.
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@Adib Why bring in Trump haters. My guess is that Trump fans are less interested in helping the unfortunate than the rest of us. After all their hero's first instinct when anything is amiss is to blame someone else and to offer unrealistic solutions. Got your rake yet?
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@Adib Other OECD countries spend about five per cent more of gdp on social programs and benefits. With its vast underclass, the US is no longer a first world nation.
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