'It's not OK to have this many deaths on the streets': Honoring over 700 lives lost in 2023
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The winter solstice is often referred to as the “longest night” of the year.
It’s widely recognized as a day for reflecting on loss. For over 30 years, communities across the country have gathered to remember and read the names of people experiencing homelessness who died in the past year, marking Dec. 21 as Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day.
According to estimates from the most recent point-in-time count, on any given night more than 13,000 people experience homelessness in Arizona.
“We shouldn’t have to be here,” Rev. Eric Ledermann told the quiet crowd gathered outside Phoenix’s King of Glory Lutheran Church as the sky darkened. “To gather, to remember the too-often-forgotten tens of thousands who died in our streets, often alone, every single year.”
Candles were lit, remembrances were chanted and prayers were said.
A moment of silence was held for the at least 732 people experiencing homelessness in Maricopa County who died in 2023.
“They just need to be recognized,” said Kay Wright, president of Women4Women Tempe. “They should be recognized. They’re human beings, and we’re all human beings.”
Wright described the evening memorial as bittersweet, a community coming together to mourn but also to embrace each other.
Just 20 minutes away, visitors to the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix placed candles in wrought-iron trees, along with cards displaying the names and ages of those who died unhoused.
“We have names of people who were 17 all the way to, in their 80s,” said Lisa Glow, CEO of Central Arizona Shelter Services (CASS).
Glow said she and the CASS staff members setting out candles were “ blown away at the interest, the compassion, the kindness of people” who didn’t know how big the problem has grown.
One visitor said it was “sobering” to read the names and varying ages under the flickering candlelight.
When it comes to making change, awareness is a crucial first step, Glow said.
“It's gonna take persistent action and persistent awareness-raising,” Glow said. “And just saying it's not OK to have this many deaths on the streets. It’s not OK.”
The way we honor those who died without shelter, she said, is just as important as the way we treat those still living on the street.
Willie Smith is a father of six, grandfather of 15, and great-grandfather of three. When his wife of 15 years died of cancer in August, he said he felt lost.
“I didn't realize how much I leaned on her until she was gone,” Smith said. “Then I didn't know what steps to take.”
He and his dog, Wuff, have been unhoused since late October.
Nonprofits and other organizations offered information and resources at a daytime gathering outside Phoenix City Church. Smith said it was encouraging to go from “zero steps, negative steps” toward housing, to mapping a path forward with the resources available.
“I’m certain there’s a way everybody could be touched,” he said. “You wouldn’t have to be homeless to benefit from this.”
Nonprofits and other organizations offered information and resources. Steven Lundy, who supervises the Turning the Tide program at Terros Health, described the relationships he and his co-workers build with the people they serve.
“A lot of times you've been turned down so many places, you’ve hit so many brick walls and so many barriers,” Lundy said. “And people have treated you so badly that you're not gonna ask anymore for help. So somebody’s gotta reach out and build a relationship with you.”
Phoenix City Church’s associate pastor, Cleo Lewis, said it’s about building trust and simply “loving people.”
“Loving them right where they’re at,” Lewis said. “Love ‘em back to health. And in a place called America we not only should welcome that, we deserve that.”
Since the onset of the pandemic, Arizona has seen one of the steepest hikes in the rate of homelessness in the country.
“Nowadays it’s become to where we’ll walk downtown and we’ll walk right by someone who you can’t tell if they’re alive or dead,” Lundy said, “‘cause you don’t wanna check. And society’s just kind of ignoring it and we’re just letting people die on the street. We have to figure out how not to let that happen.”
Lewis said it’s important to keep working at solutions, continue offering help to those who need it, and getting better at doing both.
“We're gonna do this not because of tragedy, but in spite of tragedy,” Lewis said. “We're gonna prevent tragedy.”
Whether they recognize them or not, reading the many names of people who died never gets any easier.
“I was thinking to myself, what if that was one of my loved ones’ names that I could’ve been reading on that list?” said Andre Green, a Terros Health clinician and licensed associate counselor. “What if that was a friend, a sibling, an aunt, an uncle? So I think when you personalize it that way it helps you put things into perspective, because this could happen to anyone.”
While the winter solstice marks the shortest period of daylight and the longest, darkest night of the year, many also take it as an opportunity to look forward to the future. From the solstice on, the daylight hours get longer every day.
Going into the new year, Smith said he’s hopeful to get a roof over his and Wuff’s heads.
“I can't tell each person what to do and what I think they should take away from this, if it's even the same thing that I do,” he said. “But find your own light in the darkness and follow that light! Fervently, follow that light. Because if not, you will be stuck back in the dark.”
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