Across the country, memorials are held each year on the Winter Solstice for homeless people who died in the streets. Two memorials were held on Dec. 21 in Santa Cruz, California. Santa Cruz County, which is the most expensive rental market in the country, had a staggering 122 deaths of homeless men and women in 2023 so far. All were memorialized with the reading of their names and comments from family and friends at the two Santa Cruz events. Excerpts from speakers at the memorial organized by the California Homeless Union-Santa Cruz, held at the Town Clock in downtown Santa Cruz, are below.
Alicia Kuhl, president of the Santa Cruz Homeless Union, and Keith McHenry, co-founder of Food Not Bombs, opened the memorial.
“People may not realize,” said Keith McHenry, “that the homeless population in the United States increased by at least 12% or by almost 71,000 people this year. More people are homeless in America today than there were last year, according to HUD, which means it’s probably two or three times that . . . the ‘point in time’ count [used by cities] is not a very good way to count people living outside. The logic is that everybody is in a shelter. So you could go to the shelter and count 50 homeless people [in such and such a place]. The theory is that homeless people would be freezing and go to a shelter. But we know millions of people don’t make it into a shelter. So it’s an under count. But for even the New York Times to say that there are almost 71,000 additional homeless people this year is shocking. And one of the most disturbing things is how many of the 122 people who have died on the streets of Santa Cruz County have Spanish surnames on this list. It’s outrageous.”
Drew played the guitar and sang a song expressing confidence that we’ll get to a brighter future. “This is a song of solidarity, to bring us together in spite of all our losses . . we should be in homes in a community that supports love, that vital need,” he said. “This song is from the African nation of Ghana. And the name of the song is Woyaya [Amen]. It goes: ‘Heaven knows how we are going. We know we will get there. Heaven knows how we will get there. . . It may be hard, we know, and the road may be muddy and rough, but we’ll get there.’ I invite all to sing in solidarity. It’s that message, Woyaya.”
Alicia Kuhl began reading the names of each of the 122 unhoused people who have died in the streets. It was a long list so several people helped out with the reading. The audience was encouraged to come up and speak about their friends and loved ones, or just about how they feel. Comments are below:
“Kevin Leland was a good guy,” said Alica Kuhl. “He lived at the Benchlands [a now-dismantled camp in downtown Santa Cruz]. He would be outside of Starbucks a lot. He must have gotten really depressed over his circumstances. He committed suicide. So we lost a really great person who cared a lot about animals and the environment. Bless Kevin. I also knew Brian Funk. He was so willing to help. I’ve got pictures of me and Brian trying to resurrect the Roth camp in Desiree’s memory [an unhoused woman who was killed by a fallen tree] since the city lied about giving everybody a shelter alternative when they broke up that camp. Brian was right there, willing to rake leaves and prepare everything for the upcoming people that we were hoping to give a safe space to. Unfortunately, it was short-lived. Brian and I knew many other people on this list as well. It’s very unfortunate that with all the money and where we live in this country, that we have anybody dying on the street. It’s always just heart wrenching. Every single name on the list lost a life. We have lost so many people. A lot of those people didn’t even reach their forties, it’s so sad and so tragic. I work with a nonprofit and I provide services . . . but we can always, always do better. And we all have to work until we’re where there are no more homeless deaths on the street. We all should be writing our City Council about our opposition to the harmful ordinances that criminalize people instead of helping them. And it’s up to all of us to keep fighting for that until we get what we truly need. I have a little poem that I took off of the Internet. I did not write it, but I found it fitting. It goes like this:”
Homeland
So when we judge them with our eyes,
The reason for their slow demise.
For each of them, it’s not the same.
A different story is behind their name.
“Thank you. That was awesome. I miss Joe [who died last year. He was living in a tent in a parking garage after the Benchlands camp was closed.] He used to be the security guy here. He was so peaceful. He would stop any fight. He was a great guy to have around. I miss them all.”
“I want everybody here to notice that there’s not a single person from the City Council here, and all these new buildings are going up downtown without a single public access bathroom. So what is the City Council doing for the citizenry of this town? It’s time to go to the City Council meetings and tell them when a building goes up, so does a public bathroom. Yes, it’s a basic right, a basic human function. And they’re pretending it doesn’t exist. They pretend if they don’t give it to you, you don’t need it. Go to the meeting.”
“Yes. And they’ll move you in the rain. Take all your camp stuff and everything you’re sleeping in, put you in jail and then they throw you out in the rain with none of your stuff. That was your property. How does that work?”
“The city really killed these people in the county because they had millions and millions of dollars and they could have housed everybody. They could have provided all the services anyone needed, but they chose not to.”
“They want us to think that all the homeless are drug addicts. We’re not, we’re not all drug addicts, we’re not all losers that need to go to an island. A lot of us are good people that need to get back to work.”
“I’m homeless now. I’ve been homeless for 25 or 30 years. I was the owner of two houses. Like my name was on the title. Yeah. One of them was worth half a million dollars. This was in ’91. What would that be worth right now? Wow. Where am I right now? Wow.”
“My ex-husband had a master’s in psychology and he worked many jobs. He ended up homeless for two years. He almost died out there. They got him into El Centro. He was there for 11 years. He’s 82 now. He was in the critical care. . .There’s a bunch of different kinds of people who become homeless. The number one cause of homelessness is the loss of a job. It is the number one cause and loss of a house and money to keep that house together. He lost his job.”
“I wanted to remember Eric Knight, who lived at the dog park over by the river in his last years and died. He was a very kind person. And also Brent Micuda, another kind soul.”
“Michael Miller who worked with a downtown street team was an extremely good worker. Very kind. Michael always had what we called ‘Mikeisms,’— little sayings that he would say over again and again. He would say like, ‘I hate you’ when he saw you but we knew he meant ‘I love you.’ And one of the last Mikeisms that I remember is he would always get into trouble. He’d get kicked out of a shelter, he’d get drunk, whatever. And the next time he saw you, he would look very contrite and say, ‘I know I messed up. Do you still love me?’ And I spoke at his memorial and I just said, ‘Yes Mike, we still love you no matter what.’ But he died on the streets. He drank himself to death. And almost without family until the very last moment. A couple of his friends got him to see his brother on Zoom. That was it. And so at least his brother knew when he had died. Michael Miller, maybe you saw him around. Short guy. Very friendly. Very nice, very helpful.”
“Perhaps some of you knew Robert Holdridge. He played jazz piano. . . . A lot of people are going die out here unless some things change. Because the slum lords have the power. They’re in control.”
Editor’s note: The comments above were transcribed from a recording of the event. Some were excerpts from longer comments. Also, a few words may have been omitted in some places where it was difficult to hear the comments.
