Shay Dufour lost a dear friend in 2023. Cassie Erin Irish and Dufour became fast friends while they were both homeless in 2003. Dufour remembers Irish as a kind and amazing friend, passionate about her family and her artwork.

Irish secured housing in 2022, after years without. But she lost a battle to cancer in August of this year, before she had a chance to make it big in the art world, Dufour said.

Through tears, in the blistering and windy cold, Dufour told Irish’s story in a speech Thursday night at the annual Homeless Persons’ Memorial Vigil in Portland.

More than 100 people marched through downtown to Monument Square, where the names of 45 homeless people who have died in 2023 were projected on the base of the Lady of Victories statue, atop the words “to her sons, who died for the union.” They carried candles, though it was so windy that very few stayed lit. Some marched at the front carrying a banner that said “Together our community can end homelessness.”

At Monument Square, the names of all 45 people who died this year while homeless were read aloud by friends and family while “Amazing Grace” played in the background. The community softly sang “Bridge Over Troubled Water” by Paul Simon while candles were lit for each person.

DARK DAYS AHEAD

The vigil falls each year on the winter solstice, the longest night of the year – a time that is remarkably challenging for people without housing. It’s held nationwide to honor homeless people who passed away, offer empathy to those still on the streets, and call for change.

Portland has been holding this memorial vigil for over 20 years. But this winter solstice, amid a mounting housing crisis and growing count of people with no place to live, the vigil was all the more sobering.

Encampments and the controversial question about where homeless people can go have been challenging the city for months. In November, the Portland City Council shot down a proposal to allow public camping through April.

Along with starting the Encampment Crisis Response Team and adding beds to some homeless shelters, the city and state have been collaboratively sweeping encampments of homeless people and clearing hundreds of tents since the spring. Homeless people have been forced out of encampments at the Bayside Trail, Fore River Parkway and Marginal Way.

The city is planning to sweep a homeless encampment at Harbor View Park on Dec. 28, where a city tracker estimated there were more than 100 tents. A city official said Friday the number of tents there has decreased to 64.

The next sweep comes at a particularly challenging time of year, when the bitter cold makes finding where next to go all the more challenging, said Terence Miller, advocacy director at Preble Street.

“As you look around and you see the turnout tonight in this really cold, it’s going to be the coldest night (so far), it’s evidence of people’s support for those that are unsheltered,” Miller said. “To sweep camps so that people go deeper into the woods on a winter night is unjust.”

THE HARDSHIPS ON THE MIND AND BODY

The life expectancy of someone who experiences chronic homelessness is 28 years less than people who are housed, according to Preble Street. That’s something Greater Portland Health doctor Kevin Sullivan has witnessed firsthand, he said in a speech during the vigil. Homeless people are also 3.5 times more likely to die in any given year than people who are housed, according to a study from the National Bureau of Economic Research.

“One of the hardest parts of my job is to be witness to all the deaths,” Sullivan said. “I know how each of them tried to live and not be in pain or suffering. I grieve the senseless loss of life in each of these cases.”

Cheryl Harkins and Lisa Franklin stood together at the memorial, listening with teary eyes. They have both been homeless at different points in their lives and now work as advocates at Homeless Voices for Justice. And while the list of 45 community members was upsetting on its own, they were shocked to learn during the service that another community member was in the hospital.

This unnamed friend is no longer homeless, Harkins said, but the impacts of that experience stay with someone for life.

“It’s a hard life, a full time job,” Harkins said. “You lose hope out here and you end up on the wall (of names).”

Learning the news at a vigil, calling attention to the physical and mental tolls of being homeless, instilled a sense of fear that his name will be read aloud next year.

For Alicia Morris, who was previously homeless, that’s the most challenging part of attending the vigil year after year: knowing the names of so many who passed away and feeling scared about who will be on that list next year.

“The list only gets bigger. It hurts even more every year,” Morris said.

But Morris, who is studying to become a substance abuse counselor at the University of Maine, also sees the vigil as a moment of hope. She hopes that the system can change – and that she will be a part of that change.

“It also puts a fire in me to get my voice out there, to get out here with these people and make a difference,” she said.

Note: This story was updated Dec. 22 to include the city’s latest count of tents at Harbor View Park.

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