Homeless people who died on US streets are increasingly remembered at winter solstice gatherings
ABC News
Thousands of homeless people who died this year are being memorialized this week around the U.S. Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day events have become increasingly popular in communities from Cape Cod, Massachusetts, to La Crosse, Wisconsin, to Riverside, ...
PHOENIX -- With his gap-tooth smile, hip-hop routines and volunteer work for a food charity, Roosevelt White III was well known in the downtown Phoenix tent city known as “The Zone.”
But like many homeless people, White suffered from diabetes and cardiovascular disease. He died unexpectedly one sweltering September day at age 36.
Thousands of people like White who died this year without a permanent home are being memorialized on Thursday in communities from Cape Cod, Massachusetts to La Crosse, Wisconsin, to Riverside, California. Established in 1990, the increasingly popular Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day is observed with prayers, candles, moments of silence and the reading of names on Dec. 21, the first day of winter and the longest night of the year.
A national gathering called “One Life, Too Many. Another Year, Too Long” is planned Thursday afternoon in Washington, with a Zoom call so people can follow from afar.
Other gatherings will be in Cincinnati, Ohio; Wilmington, Delaware; and San Diego. A ceremony in Phoenix will honor 758 homeless people confirmed to have died so far this year in Maricopa County, the most populous in Arizona and home to Phoenix, the state's largest city.
