National Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day

Each year, ForKids joins with other organizations, municipalities, and individuals around the country in marking National Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day. 

The event, held this year on Dec. 21, the longest night of the year, brings our community together to honor those who have died.

At ForKids, our team gathered virtually and in person at Landmark Center for a shared experience of remembrance and gratitude, marked by both laughter and tears, as we reflected on precious lives lost.

Part of our tradition is to place a glass ball, handcrafted by our team with the help of our friends at the Chrysler Museum’s Perry Glass Studio, on a tree in our campfire gathering space. 

These beautiful, one-of-a-kind ornaments represent the fullness and fragility of life.

We hold our participants and their loved ones in our hearts and our memories.

“He dreamed of going back to school and opening an autism-centered program for low-income families. I will always remember his dedication, his heart, and the love he had for his children.”
Karla Rodriguez, ForKids Family Case Manager, remembering a former participant who passed away.

“I see my daughter being a nurtured, loved and well-behaved adolescent, enjoying her life and knowing that she could do anything. I see myself having enough money to put down on my first home.”
Excerpted from the initial questionnaire of a former participant, now deceased.

During our gathering, Billy Hallal, ForKids Senior Grant Writer, shared the following:

“One death from homelessness is too many. 

We know that mass homelessness, our modern incarnation of homelessness, is less than fifty years old. We know it is preventable through policies and methods we have known—and for which thousands have, with limited success, campaigned—for decades. We know it continues unabated. Its persistence is one of the great moral failings of our time. 

We have to hope that future generations will view mass homelessness with bafflement, shame, and horror. We have to hope they live in a world in which they will turn to each other and ask, How could they possibly have allowed this to happen? How did anyone think this was okay? How could anyone have looked away from this?

We’re fighting homelessness, but homelessness can seem like an unbeatable enemy. Lately, it’s been growing every year. We help one family to find housing, meanwhile four more lose their homes. We apply for a grant with no guarantee it will even exist the following year. It can be easy to lose heart. 

And there are no clear answers, no easy attaboy rallying cries, for the work that lies ahead. It will be long and trying and difficult. Most of us in this room will likely not see its end. But I hope we can all draw strength from knowing that the work we do, today and every day, helps make that end, whenever it comes, possible.

Recently I came across a post that speaks to our moment: ‘Despair is an enemy. You don’t need to have constant hope. You can get by with grim determination or spite but never despair.’

The work you all are doing keeps me from despair.

Today, we’ll carry forward the memory of the people we’ve lost to homelessness. For them, for all the families we serve, we’ll keep the fight going.”

The City of Norfolk and partners will host a Night of Remembrance on Sunday, Dec. 21. Find out more.