By KEVIN KENNEY
When you’re homeless, each evening is hard, each evening a battle to remain heat and dry and protected. However Sunday evening — Dec. 21, the official begin of winter, the longest evening of the yr — is perhaps one of many hardest of all.
Dec. 21 additionally marks Nationwide Homeless Individuals’ Memorial Day, symbolically noticed yearly since 1990 on the primary day of winter to recollect the hundreds of unhoused individuals throughout the nation who in some unspecified time in the future misplaced that nightly battle and perished.
In Los Angeles, two occasions have been held Sunday to mark Nationwide Homeless Individuals’ Memorial Day, honoring the lives of Southern California residents who died whereas unhoused in 2025.
On common, seven unhoused individuals die on daily basis in Los Angeles, “a lot of them alone and with out acknowledgement,” based on the AIDS Healthcare Basis’s Housing Is a Human Proper advocacy group — performed a candlelight vigil Sunday evening in Hollywood.
In the course of the 5-6 p.m. vigil on the southwest nook of Sundown Boulevard and Hudson Avenue, members and employees from homeless-service organizations joined members of the general public for a studying of names of people that died in Los Angeles “earlier than they may exit homelessness.”
Archbishop José H. Gomez presided over a Homeless Individuals’ Interreligious Memorial on the Cathedral of Our Girl of the Angels.
Gomez was joined by group, civic and spiritual leaders who got here “collectively in prayer to recollect and honor our brothers and sisters who died whereas experiencing homelessness through the previous yr within the Los Angeles and Ventura counties,” the archdiocese stated.
“This yr, we’ll elevate up the lives of 1,564 individuals — amongst them 84 whose names are unknown — every represented by a candle bearing their identify,” an archdiocese assertion stated.
The candles have been carried into the Cathedral by Catholic and non-Catholic college college students, “an indication of hope and shared accountability throughout generations and religion traditions,” the assertion stated.
In the course of the memorial, Gomez and different non secular leaders invited these current “to replicate on our name to stroll alongside those that are unhoused, and to resume our dedication to compassion, solidarity, and works of mercy.”
Attendees have been additionally invited “to take a candle and proceed the prayer, entrusting the soul of that individual to God’s loving care.”
An announcement by the archdiocese famous that, “Since 1990, Nationwide Homeless Individuals’ Memorial Day has been noticed every year on December 21, reminding us — on the coldest and darkest evening of the yr — of the sacred dignity of each human life and our shared accountability to make sure that nobody is forgotten.”
In March, the Los Angeles County Division of Public Well being launched a report saying the county’s homeless mortality charge had plateaued for a second straight yr in 2023 — the newest accessible information. It known as the information a major improvement due largely to a discount in drug overdoses.
The DPH’s sixth annual report on mortality amongst individuals experiencing homelessness confirmed there have been 2,508 deaths of unhoused people in 2023. From 2021 to 2022, the mortality charge elevated by 2%, adopted by a 1% enhance from 2022 to 2023.
Whereas the latest report discovered the mortality charge remained excessive at 3,326 deaths per 100,000 individuals, county officers famous that it has leveled off in comparison with a beforehand devastating enhance of 56% from 2019 to 2021.
“It’s excellent news that the speed has leveled off, but it surely’s nonetheless very excessive, and we’re working collectively with many companions to lower the mortality charge over the following three years,” William Nicholas, director of DPH’s Middle for Well being Influence Analysis, stated in March.
Total, based on the 2025 Larger Los Angeles Homeless Depend — performed between Feb. 18 and 20 all through the Los Angeles County, with outcomes launched in July — there have been 72,308 homeless individuals within the county, together with 43,669 within the metropolis of Los Angeles.
That mirrored a drop from 2024’s “cut-off date” figures of 75,312 homeless individuals within the county, together with 45,252 within the metropolis — a second straight yr reflecting a slight drop.
Nonetheless, officers famous the continuing disaster stays at a formidable scale, and that extra work stays.
“However 72,308 persons are nonetheless residing with out everlasting shelter. We are able to, and should, do extra,” county Supervisor Lindsey Horvath stated in July.
“At this tempo, it might take three centuries to finish homelessness in Los Angeles County. On daily basis, seven lives are being misplaced on our streets — an unacceptable actuality that calls for daring, coordinated motion.”
