The Olympia Unitarian Universalist Congregation's hosting of Camp Quixote ends today. Our experience with this fledgling tent city helped us grow as a religious community even as it helped Camp Quixote evolve as a community in its own right.

The quest undertaken by Camp Quixote's residents has brought greater stability to residents' lives, and it has fostered commitment to their community's overall well-being.

It's one of the most inspiring aspects of our humanity when people come together - especially under adverse conditions - to create a community that invites mutual caring.

Yet Camp Quixote isn't Utopia. I have yet to see a human community that is. There have been occasional internal difficulties.

And although they're strongly committed to being good neighbors - and have been these past three months - one recent incident that disturbed our neighbors marred that record.

However, what distinguishes a healthy community from an unhealthy one isn't whether it's trouble free but whether it responds constructively to its difficulties.

From what I've witnessed, as Camp Quixote's residents have grappled with problems that have arisen, their community has continued to develop in healthy ways.

I'm sure that no matter how ideally I portray life in Camp Quixote, some people will remain skeptical of the idea that tent cities represent an appropriate response to the problem of homelessness.

And I would agree that we sh ould never conclude that pro viding for the existence of tent cities is a wholly satisfactory response by tself.

But tent cities need to be accepted as one appropriate way to respond.

Camp Quixote wasn't created by a government, nonprofit or religious entity but by the homeless themselves.

We ought to assume they know what is best for themselves.

Being homeless means you've l ost your home, not necessarily your ability to care or think for yourself.

They understand that while physical living conditions in a t ent city might be fairly primitive, they will have the security and safety they lack when living alone on the street or in the woods. They also understand they will have greater stability in their lives.

Perhaps most importantly, they understand they will have a place to simply be.

For those of us who have never been homeless, can we even imagine what it is like to have no place where we can comfortably exist from one day to the next?

Even those fortunate enough to gain access to a shelter, in most cases, have to find a way to survive on the streets during t he day until they're allowed back into the shelter in the evening.

The most fundamental right we have as human beings is the right to be somewhere.

It is the right not just to have a place to sleep, but the right to have a physical space where we can reliably live without fear of being harmed, run off or treated disdainfully by our fellow citizens.

For most of us, that place is what we call our home.

I have heard the residents of Camp Quixote refer to themselves as being houseless rather than homeless. Having established a community where they can rest securely and gather freely in the company of people who care for one another, they have succeeded in creating a home for themselves.

It is my hope that our larger community will find a way to support Camp Quixote's quest to establish a permanent site with relativelyinexpensive housing that might be nonstand ard yet is still superior to tents.

In the meanwhile, may we in our various religious communities exercise our right and our responsibility to host or otherwise support Camp Quixote in whatever ways we're able.