This Sunday, Dec. 21, is the winter solstice and it will be both the shortest day and the longest night of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. It’s the date every year that the Longest Night Homeless Persons’ Memorial Service uses as an opportunity to remember, honor, celebrate and mourn the passing of those homeless people in the greater Madison community who have died, many of whom would have no funeral or obituary otherwise.
This year’s Longest Night Homeless Persons’ Memorial will take place on the Capitol Square in downtown Madison at a place near the bench where 38-year-old Dwayne Warren’s body was found on June 16th, 2009. Warren was experiencing homelessness and died of sepsis, a blood infection that could have been treated with a simple antibiotic prescription. His death was the impetus behind bringing the community together to create this annual event
Linda Ketcham, the longtime executive director of Just Dane (formerly Madison-area Urban Ministry), who helps to host the annual memorial service, tells Madison365 that this is the 17th year hosting the event.
“I think it’s really kind of become something that the community has embraced as a way to remember and honor people who have died,” she says.
This Longest Night Homeless Persons’ Memorial Service is an opportunity to ensure that every life is celebrated and remembered. Sunday’s event will begin at 3 p.m. at the intersection of East Main/South Pinckney and King Streets, by the marble bench where Warren died.
(Photo by A. David Dahmer)
At the annual event, there will be a brief interfaith service of reflection and remembrance and then all of the names of people who died over the last year will be read and remembered. Agencies from around the county, advocates, clergy, friends, and attorneys all submit the names of folks for the opportunity to be remembered.
“The City [of Madison] has joined us in terms of partnering to assemble this list of names. They have a tracking that they do when they hear of someone who’s died,” Ketcham says. “We have a form that we send out through the homeless services consortium. But the City also learns of deaths, and so we compare what we get in and what they get in. We spend some time trying to find obituaries for the names of folks we have, especially if we don’t have any other information. We try to find out as much as we can about what they liked to do and what they were known for from their family and friends.
“The community really remembers that this is happening, and we’ll get folks submitting names throughout the year, as they learn of someone who died,” she adds. “It’s sad that we have to have this service, but I’m so glad that people are paying attention and that we’re remembering folks and mourning their deaths.”
(Photo by David Dahmer)
The date, Dec. 21, is also 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.
After the short interfaith service of remembrance and the reading of the names of people who passed away in 2025, there will be a horse-drawn hearse, courtesy of the Osterhaus family, that will lead a procession around the Capitol Square with mourners following.
“There are a couple of ways that people can help folks who are unhoused. People can bring hats, gloves, and warm socks to the event, and we will get them to the shelter,” Ketcham says. “Or they can drop them off directly at Porchlight or First Congregational, United Church of Christ, and we will get them to the shelters, as well.”
Participating in the service will be representatives from First Congregational United Church of Christ, First United Methodist Church, Lakeview Lutheran Church, MOSES, Congregation Shaarei Shamayim, Beth Israel Center, Unity of Madison, JustDane, and other faith community representatives and advocates working for housing for all.
Along with creating memorial cards for each of the individuals remembered at the event, and for those who may have passed and been remembered in previous years, Ketcham says that they would love to create a “Remembrance Wall” that would include these cards and could travel to various locations to serve as a traveling memorial to those who have passed away.
“I’m not even quite sure how many folks we have remembered over the years but it is in the hundreds,” Ketcham says. “And we know that that’s not everyone. So the Remembrance Wall will be another important way that people can honor those folks that they knew and loved.”
Ketcham also hopes the Longest Night Homeless Persons’ Memorial Service continues to draw attention to the many who remain unhoused in our community, our state, and in the United States. The US has experienced an unprecedented rise in homelessness, driven by the nation’s affordability crisis, according to the National Alliance to End Homelessness. Homelessness in America increased 18 percent, from 653,104 in 2023 to 771,480 people in 2024.
“We just got out of a terrible cold snap [last weekend] and the men’s shelter is seeing record numbers every night,” Ketcham says. “When the new men’s shelter opens, it’s not going to be able to house the number of men the temporary shelter can. The family shelter has waiting lists every night … there are families who can’t get in. The women’s shelter is seeing capacity and going over their numbers, and it’s just going to continue to grow.
“I think it’s scary when we look at the cuts to HUD (Housing and Urban Development) and some of the proposed changes that are happening from the federal government and how we treat folks who are unhoused … I think that is really, really scary and disturbing.”
