Cross-posted from the Washington Legal Clinic

Remarks from Patty Mullahy Fugere at the memorial honoring those who passed this year while experiencing homelessness in DC.

In Memorium

Individuals who passed away without the dignity of a home in 2017

Chris Mason

Darius Duncan

Duane “Joey” Henderson

Galaxina Robinson

James King

Lisa Jennings

Mark Jenkins

Michael Kelley

Michael Dunne

“MS”

Mweane Sikuzote

Nick

Norman Anders

Joseph Watkins

Wilkie “Bill” Woodard

And thirty unnamed residents

***

December 21st. The winter solstice. I’ve come to look forward to this day with both relief and dread….relief that we have reached the point of maximum darkness and we’ll start squeezing a few more moments of sunlight out of each coming day, and dread that we must once again gather to celebrate the lives and mourn the loss of our brothers and sisters who have passed in 2017 while experiencing homelessness. December 21st holds both promise…and pain.

When I was a kid, my mom received a phone call on the morning of December 21st, 1970, from her older sister, with whom my grandmother – my beloved “Nanny” – lived. Nanny, who had spent the evening of December 20th sitting at the kitchen table with her cigarette, her pilsner glass and her crossword puzzle, went to bed, and then never awoke. She had passed unexpectedly during the night…in the warmth of her own bed, after going through her treasured routines, and, if I know my Nanny, after kissing my aunt and uncle good night and getting down on her knees to ask God to bless us all. It was, in a sense, a perfect, dignified, passing.

Placard bearing the names of people that died while homeless in the District of Columbia.

There were 45 deaths this year of people who lived unhoused in the nation’s capital that were very far from perfect passings…deaths of women and men who had no kitchen table, no warm bed, no family members to kiss goodnight, and for some, not even a floor to kneel upon for a prayer at the end of the day.

How is it that this continues to happen? Last year, we read out 51 names. In 2015, it was 41. In 2005, there were 34.

How is it, that in this nation’s capital, in this progressive city that has declared itself to be a human rights city, in this community that has committed itself to “making homelessness rare, brief and non-recurring,” how is it that we can continue to let this happen?

Read the entire article on the Washington Legal Clinic blog.