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The number of homeless people living in West Marin is rising while it’s declining in Marin County overall. In a meeting at West Marin School hosted by Supervisor Dennis Rodoni and the Point Reyes Village Association, county representatives last Wednesday reported on what’s occurring here and what county government plans to do about it.

Speaking for the county, along with Supervisor Rodoni, were representatives from county Health and Human Services and West Marin Community Services, and they presented three graphs of the situation.

There’s been a 275-person reduction in homelessness countywide in the past four years.

In contrast, the homeless population of West Marin increased by 79 people during the same period. Of course, not all the homeless are living outdoors. Many are living in their vehicles.

The increase, moreover, is probably under-reported. Taking a count of all the homeless people here and there around West Marin is incredibly complex, and the county is about to devote more time to doing it.

County staff and members of the public who spoke Wednesday stressed that too often people assume drug use, or alcohol, or mental-health problems, or laziness, or personal choice accounts for almost all homelessness. That, however, turns out to be far from true. “The primary causes of homelessness are things that most people will experience in their lives without losing housing,” Health and Human Services reported. More than half of the people without permanent shelter became homeless when their households broke up or because of physical-health problems.

Billy Hobbs, who is homeless in Point Reyes Station, lost his housing when his 25-year marriage ended. He now spends most days sketching outside the post office and spends nights sleeping inside it. He showed up for Wednesday’s well-attended meeting but did not address the crowd.

One young man living out of his van told Wednesday’s meeting that he, like numerous other homeless residents of West Marin, does various kinds of work. The problem is earning enough to afford housing, he said.

Here on the coast at least, homelessness definitely isn’t a ploy for getting public assistance. In fact, the county noted, “many people who experience homelessness in West Marin are less inclined [than the homeless in East Marin] to accept services.” County government says it is now going to give particular attention to getting past that resistance and helping the homeless navigate the hurdles to receiving medical care and housing.

I delayed this posting for a couple of days, hoping I would be celebrating most American voters having preferred the decency of Hillary Clinton to the demagoguery of Donald Trump, but as of this morning, the uncouth bigot had won the election. Clinton carried this county with 78 percent of the vote and carried this country by more than 100,000 votes, as of this evening’s count. (Update: The count as of Dec. 20 had Clinton receiving almost 3 million more votes than Trump.) Yet she trailed 228 to 279 in the Electoral College, which ultimately is what counts.

Although immigrant bashing was at the core of Trump’s campaign, the candidate is for the second time married to an immigrant, Melania of Slovenia. His first wife, Ivana, was from the Czech Republic, but they divorced after he started having an affair with Marla Maples, who would become his second wife.

The now-well-known picture of the bromance between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Trump first showed up in May as a mural on the back of a barbecue restaurant in Lithuania. The nude photo of Melania first appeared on the cover of Gentlemen’s Quarterly in January 2000, shortly after she started an affair with Trump despite his still being married to Marla Maples.

Putin and Trump more than once expressed their admiration for each other during the campaign, and Putin was one of the first world leaders to congratulate Trump on his victory. In the Russian Duma (lower house of parliament), members broke into applause when Trump’s victory was announced. I personally will certainly be uncomfortable that a US president is chummy with Putin, one of this country’s longstanding adversaries. No doubt many Americans (and almost all Ukrainians) feel the same way.

In the Middle East, Islamic extremists are also celebrating Trump’s victory, which they see as a sign of America’s fragmentation, The Washington Post reported today. They also believe that Trump’s outspoken contempt for Islam is alienating Muslims everywhere. Meanwhile in North Carolina, the Ku Klux Klan is so pleased with the election results it will hold a victory parade on Dec. 3.

À la the Donald, bucks around here openly stalk females and try to poke them although the does usually trot off before they can.

When I discussed the election downtown today with Point Reyes Station residents, their comments ranged from bitter to sarcastic.

This is not a community that wants to deport immigrants, even those who marry Donald Trump.

Fortunately local races in West Marin were far more polite than the presidential race despite being hard fought. Many voters had strong feelings about the Board of Supervisors candidates, but neither side saw the election as an armageddon.

Local elections can be messy, as has been evident along West Marin’s roadways for the last few months. Hopefully, all those messes will soon disappear. Residents unhappy with roadside campaign signs tore down some of them even before the election.

In the end, Fourth District supervisor candidate Dennis Rodoni beat Dominic Grossi 53 percent to 47 percent. In the race for Superior Court judge, Sheila Lichtblau beat Michael Coffino 52 percent to 48 percent.

The high-light, so to speak, of the California election returns was the passage of Proposition 64, which by a 56 percent to 44 percent vote legalized recreational marijuana. Also highly significant was the passage of Proposition 63; by 62.6 percent to 37.4 percent, Californians approved a variety of gun controls.

As the national election results dribbled in last night, I found them so worrisome, I stopped watching the news. By the time I went to bed, the presidential battle had been lost, and I dozed off wondering if I should move back to Canada, where my mother was born, or hunker down in place. For the moment, I’m opting for hunkering, but that could change.

Sadly, I can see the lamps going out all over America, and I fear we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime, to paraphrase British Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey on the eve of World War I.

Like Rocky Raccoon (right), what we all need now is a good rest.