Paradise CA HS Principal Resigns: He Can't Find A Place For His Family To Live
he high school principal in Paradise ― the rural California town devastated by November’s Camp fire ― resigned this week, saying he couldn’t find a place to live. “It is with great sorrow that I am resigning as Principal of Paradise High School. I loved working with your children and they are the reason I loved this job so much,” principal Loren Lighthall said in a Facebook post on Monday. “Unfortunately, I have been unable to secure housing.”
Lighthall and his wife have seven kids and need to “provide a stable environment for them,” he added. After losing their home in Paradise in the Camp fire ― the deadliest and most destructive in state history ― Lighthall’s family has been living in a three-bedroom apartment in the nearby college town of Chico, where many survivors relocated, but where housing is far more expensive.
Lighthall faces a similar predicament as many who survived the Camp fire, which killed 85 people and burned nearly 14,000 homes to the ground: where to live now? Plagued by Northern California’s affordable housing crisis, Butte County’s vacancy rate for rentals was low before the fire, about 1 to 2 percent. After the fire, the available housing stock shrunk even further, making it feel nearly impossible for those who lost homes to find an affordable place nearby.
In February, months after the blaze, some survivors were living in homeless shelters. Others were doubled up with friends, or living in trailers on others property. Many left the area or the state altogether.
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https://www.huffpost.com/entry/paradise-school-principal-resigns-camp-fire-housing_n_5caf889de4b082aab082baa4
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