A home that provides warmth, light and cooking heat is in perpetual danger from fires. Two Eastern U.S. social housing (rent geared to income) buildings were the sites of horrible conflagrations in the first days of 2022. They illustrate the devastating consequences that can occur when suitable fire safety protocols for housing do not exist, or are not rigorously implemented1.
The same concerns affect the lives of those who live in the flimsiest of homes — homes that are technically not homes at all. After all, how can they be homes if those who live in such ragtag shelters are homeless? This is a most convenient excuse for a community to ignore its responsibility to ensure that people who are homeless have fire protection too.
Alternatively, authorities can and do use fire risk in tent encampments as a reason why they should not be permitted to exist here, there, or anywhere else. Fire risk alone is enough to ‘un-life’ the homeless — refuse them permission to live anywhere at all, even though they obviously must live somewhere.
There are other ways to mitigate fire risks. Read more about one initiative in the Winnipeg Sun: Providing burn barrels to homeless camps a good step forward
