from the September 20, 2005 San Francisco Independent Media Center - http://sf.indymedia.org/news/2005/09/1719882.php

Homeless Memorial Recalls Hundreds Who Have Died on the Streets

by SFIMC - http://sf.indymedia.org/

1,993 men, women and children died homeless over the past 18 years – 149 died last year alone.

From www.BeyondChron.org:

1,993 men, women and children died homeless over the past 18 years – 149 died last year alone. This Sunday, a three-day memorial held to honor their lives will begin. Organized by Religious Witness with Homeless People, the event will include a 94-foot memorial wall bearing the names of every person who died on the streets, as well as vigils, sacred song and dance, and a reading of the wall’s names led by religious leaders. The service presents a rare opportunity for San Franciscans to honor and recognize the deaths of those often ignored by our city while they lived.

Volunteers will erect the wall in front of City Hall over the weekend, with services opening the wall to the public beginning at 3 p.m. Following that, the wall remain open all day Monday and most of Tuesday, with vigils taking place every hour on the hour by various community organizations.

Sister Bernie Galvin, a tireless advocate for homeless people who heads up the yearly event, has been working long hours over the past few weeks to ensure the services provide the profound respect for the dead she believes they deserve. Past memorials by Religious Witness have been some of the most powerful events calling attention to homelessness in recent memory, and Galvin believes this year’s will be no exception.

“In this past year of 2004, at least 149 people died homeless in our city of Saint Francis,” said Galvin. “Caring San Franciscans will gather this coming Sunday to remember this social tragedy and to ensure that, at the very least, these individuals will not past from our midst unmarked and unnamed.”

In addition to calling attention to the loss of so much human life, the event will also seek to expose some of the underlying causes of homelessness and reasons for the problem to have continued on for so long.

Speakers at the event, for example, will point out the sometimes negative affects of the media attention recently heaped upon San Francisco prioritizing housing hundreds of homeless individuals. The attention, says the event’s organizers, often makes it easier for people to forget about the 10-12 thousand homeless people not being taken care of by the city.

In addition, organizers hope the event will also help the public realize that with the enormous amount of wealth in San Francisco – including seven corporate billionaires and almost 20 individual billionaires – the fact that anyone dies on our streets remains a moral tragedy.

For more information about the event, e-mail relwithome@yahoo.com.

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