FARGO (KFGO) – On the longest night of the year, the F-M Coalition to End Homelessness is inviting the public to take part in a procession and service in downtown Fargo in observance of Homeless Memorial Day.
This is the 24th year the coalition will hold the event, which is a solemn remembrance of the people who have died in the community due to being unhoused.
John Campbell, the coalition’s executive director, said the number of people who will be mourned during the Thursday evening service has grown by about 25-30 this year. He said the most concerning trend service providers and advocates are seeing beyond the growing numbers of homeless people is that they are not able to identify some of the people who are accessing their services.
“We’re seeing more and more people that we don’t know. We’re seeing younger people, we’re seeing older people. We’re seeing new people. It’s scary. With the winter coming and the temperatures dropping, it’s a real possibility as a community that we see more and more people lost to being unhoused or unsheltered. We want to bring awareness to that in hopes to make change and save lives,” Campbell said.
At a memorial service in Washington, DC Thursday morning the head of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness said it is not enough to remember the people who have been lost because there is still “an epic fight ahead for the living…which means saying over and over again that housing is health care.”
“The longest night—the winter solstice—may be inescapable, but these deaths are not inevitable. Despite the feelings of exhaustion, trauma, and uncertainty so many of our friends and neighbors may feel tonight, a different future is possible,” USICH Director Jeff Olivet said.
Olivet said prevention is the key to solving homelessness and the Biden-Harris administration has set a short-term goal of reducing it 25% by 2025 by expanding affordable housing.
Campbell echoed Olivet’s call for communities to get more engaged in solving the homelessness crisis in America.
“Without the whole community’s support – the metro area as a whole, we will experience folks passing away due to the elements and I don’t think Fargo-Moorhead or anybody wants that. We need to come together to find ways to build relationships and procedures and policy that makes sense – so people aren’t evicted, so people aren’t on the streets, so people aren’t unhoused,” Campbell said.
The procession starts at 6:15 p.m. Thursday at Broadway Square with a memorial service at First Lutheran Church to follow.
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