On December 21st each year, communities around the country commemorate National Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day to remember our neighbors who lost their lives before they could exit homelessness. The vigils held on this day, coinciding with the longest night of the year, serve as a stark but necessary reminder that homelessness—especially unsheltered homelessness—can be a death sentence.
Homelessness is undoubtedly traumatic, but we don’t talk enough about the deadly toll it can take. What’s most tragic is that most of these deaths are preventable: those who lost their life to extreme weather conditions would still be alive if they had been housed; those like Jordan Neely, who died because of violence from other citizens, or at the hands of law enforcement would still be safe if they’d had a place to call home; and those who died as a result of treatable health conditions would still be healthy because, after all, housing is healthcare.
Knowing Who’s Homeless
There is no national data on the number of deaths associated with homelessness. Communities track this data differently; there is no standard for local reporting. Morgues don’t typically track the housing status of those who come into their care. Housing status is likely not recorded in any “cause of death” report made by a medical professional. More often than not, it’s up to the local organizations to track the deaths of the people they know. There is no one counting the deaths of the people they don’t. And it is often up to these organizations, too, to ensure that people who have died while experiencing homelessness receive the same dignity in their death that housed people do. It is not surprising that people who were homeless at their death are all too often forgotten, when every day our society forgets that they too are human, and that they too deserve love, life, and joy.
We Mourn – and We Act
While National Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day gives us an opportunity to mourn those who have been lost, it is also a time to reflect on the lives of our unhoused neighbors who are fighting to survive. There are thousands of people across the country hoping that this will be the day, the week, or the year that they can be off the streets and in a place of their own.
We must use this day to ground ourselves in the knowledge that homelessness is both preventable and curable—and for both, the treatment is the same: housing with different doses of healthcare and supportive services tailored to individual needs.
Let this day be a day of mourning and reflection. But let tomorrow be a day that you take action. Use your voice and your influence to support greater investment in local and federal housing programs that are significantly underfunded. Make the case in your community for why more affordable housing options benefit everyone, and why accompanying services are so important. Support local and state ballot measures that protect the civil and human rights of people experiencing homelessness, and advocate against those that would seek to punish people who have nowhere else to go.
Together, we can inspire faith that ending homelessness is possible. Let’s lead with love and equity as we go into the new year so that we can bring people home.