Three-Day Memorial Service
To Remember Those Who Have Died Homeless in San Francisco
September 18-20, 2005
Lest We Forget...
Over the past year there has been almost constant media coverage about San Francisco’s prioritizing housing* for hundreds of homeless individuals. This ongoing media attention can so easily have the effect of erasing from our hearts and minds the shameful tragedy of more than one hundred homeless deaths in our City every year.
With this ongoing media attention, is all too easy to forget
that there are approximately 10 thousand other homeless members of our community
who are not the
focus of the City’s homeless housing program.
On September 18th, Religious Witness with Homeless People erected a 94 foot-long Memorial Wall bearing the names of the nearly 2,000 individuals who have died homeless in San Francisco over the past 18 years, including 150 people who died this past year of 2004.
This Service also marked Religious Witness’ recent success in reinstating the Homeless Death Count, a City practice discontinued in 2001. This compassionate practice ensures that the names of individuals who died homeless are available to the public so that these members of our community do not pass from our midst unnamed and unmourned. (See Reinstatement of the Homeless Death Count.)
Together with religious and civic leaders and the greater San
Francisco community, we reverently remembered with loving respect the lives
of our brothers and sisters who were struck
down by extreme poverty and reissued the call to honor the basic human rights
of every member of our society, including housing, healthcare and a living-wage
job.
With San Francisco’s seven corporate billionaires, twenty individual billionaires and numerous multi-millionaires, there is absolutely no moral justification for poverty in our city, no justification whatsoever for men and women to be living on our streets, and even dying homeless. (See Where is the Money in San Francisco?)
This inspiring and dramatic Service included offerings of somber music, sacred dance and ritual. Together, we solemnly read the names of the 150 individuals who died homeless in 2004.
In addition, 14 groups conducted creative and moving hour-long vigils throughout Monday and Tuesday to pay their respects and offer passersby an opportunity to mourn. (See additional photos of the Opening Service and Vigil Prayer Services here.)
The 3-Day Memorial Service was concluded with a brief Closing Ceremony as we bid one final farewell to our sisters and brothers who lived and died homeless in this City of Saint Francis.
MAY WE BE MOVED TO COMPASSIONATE ACTION!
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* Religious Witness with Homeless People has advocated for the prioritizing of housing (with supportive services) as a primary means of eliminating homelessness for the entire 12 years of our existence. San Francisco has finally heeded that call by prioritizing such housing, albeit only for a certain section of the homeless community, namely the homeless welfare recipients under the Care Not Cash program. These 2-3 thousand poorest individuals are subsidizing the entire Care Not Cash housing program by having their monthly welfare check reduced to a paltry $59. Our religious leaders maintain a basic moral objection to the City’s provision of housing being borne on the backs of some of the most desperately needy members of our community.