18th Annual Homeless Persons’ Memorial

Date: Saturday, December 21, 2024
Time: 7:00pm
Location: Milam Park, 500 W. Commerce

Every year on December 21st – the Winter Solstice – SAMMinistries hosts the Homeless Persons’ Memorial Service to honor the names of neighbors who passed away while experiencing homelessness. This year, the names of 364 individuals were read. That is nearly one friend, family member, or neighbor per day who lost their life this year.

This remembrance is a sobering reminder of why SAMMinistries works so diligently to help our neighbors experiencing homelessness find their way to housing stability.

Serving this population is incredibly challenging, but equally rewarding. As our community continues to invest resources of time, talent, and treasure, our coordinated response will have even greater impact.

The solutions are not easy, but they are attainable when we work together. We must act with urgency to combine housing and healthcare. We must advocate for acceptance in every corner of our community for homeless services. We must support affordable housing developments to assist young families and low-wage earning households. We must invest in upstream interventions that create a safety net so that a single financial challenge does not push a vulnerable family or individual into homelessness. We must demonstrate that ours is not a community satisfied to leave its members without a basic human right – a place to call home.

May the stories of our neighbors in this report guide you to see the reward of serving. With your support and our collective teamwork, we can overcome homelessness.