“No one … none of our neighbors should die on the streets and none of our neighbors should die and not have their lives remembered and celebrated for what they contributed to our community,” Linda Ketcham, executive director of JustDANE, tells Madison365. “So many of the people that we’ve remembered over the years are strong advocates for fair and affordable housing and for human rights. Their housing status didn’t determine or define who they were … it was their skills, the love they had for friends and for family, and the work they did in the community … this is our way of honoring and celebrating them.”
Numerous churches and social service organizations will gather today at 3 p.m. on the Capitol Square in downtown Madison for the annual Longest Night Homeless Persons Memorial Service to remember those lost to homelessness in 2023. It’s an opportunity, on Dec. 21, this longest night of the year, for community members to come together to remember those who passed away unhoused and those who are currently living unhoused in our community every day.
(Photo by A. David Dahmer)
Today’s Longest Night Homeless Persons Memorial Service will have a brief outdoor service that will be proceeded by a horse-drawn procession around the Capitol. Folks will gather at 3 p.m. for this year’s memorial service at the intersection of E. Main St., S. Pinckney and King Streets and the names of individuals who have died this past year unhoused will be read one by one.
“I believe that we 30 or 32 people whose names were submitted that we’ll be remembering this year,” Ketcham says. “Most of them were unhoused at the time of their deaths. There were a few of them that had found housing. There’s actually been research and studies done on the great physical toll and stress that homelessness takes on your body and it’s not at all uncommon for people who have been homeless for a long time to finally find and move into permanent housing, but within a year, their bodies just give out. So there are a few folks who are housed at the time of their death, and we’ll be remembering them, as well.”
The first Longest Night Homeless Persons Memorial Service was held in Madison in 2008. Just Dane (formerly Madison area Urban Ministry) became involved in the coordination of the event the very next year inspired by the death of 38-year-old Dwayne Warren on the Capitol Square. Warren was experiencing homelessness and died of sepsis, a blood infection that could have been treated with a simple antibiotic prescription. His death prompted Madisonians who knew him to draw more awareness to the issue of homelessness in the community and nationwide.
“This is our 14th year. We are one of a growing number of communities to host this event,” Ketcham says. “I was just talking this week with some representatives from Green Bay who will be holding a longest night service, too. As homelessness continues to increase in the United States, we’re gonna see more and more people succumb to inadequate health care because they’re unhoused .. there is considerable stress and strain, there is violence, hit-and-run accidents … there’s a whole continuum of things that happen that people are vulnerable to.”
Dec. 21 marks this year’s winter solstice for the Northern Hemisphere, bringing the shortest day and longest night of the year. The date is remembered annually across the United States as Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day, a time when the nation reflects on the people who have lost their lives while experiencing homelessness. More and more cities have joined the hundreds of cities that honor this day.
“I believe that we are the longest-running one in Wisconsin and we are always happy to help other communities that want to start this tradition,” Ketcham says. “Dec. 21st is the longest night of the year. It’s cold. Tonight is another extreme weather night in the shelter system because the temperatures are gonna drop. It’s just a reminder of what it’s like to be unhoused and the need to develop real solutions.”
JustDane is asking for donations of warm socks, long underwear, scarves, gloves, and hats. Donations can be dropped off at JustDane’s Offices at 128 E. Olin Ave., Suite 202.
