The festive Christmas lights on Denver’s City and County Building were dimmed for 30 minutes Wednesday night, replaced by the flickering candles of the city’s annual Homeless Persons’ Memorial Vigil.
About 200 people gathered, many of them holding their candles aloft as the names of those who lived on Denver streets and died in 2014 were read aloud. After each name was read, the crowd solemnly chanted, “We will remember.”
Four speakers, including Mayor Michael Hancock and John Parvensky, president of the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless, read 85 names. Afterward, members of the crowd added an additional 10.
“There are just too many names. One name is too many,” Hancock said afterward. “It’s great that we do this, but I keep hoping and praying that the list will be shorter each year — I keep hoping and praying that we didn’t have to keep doing this.”
According to a study by the Metro Denver Homeless Initiative, on this Jan. 27, there were 5,812 homeless men, women and children in the seven-county metro area. Of that group, according to the report, 724 were living on the street.
According to respondents to the study, of all people regarded as homeless, 830 were chronically homeless. That is defined by the Department of Housing and Urban Development as:
• Having a chronic debilitating condition.
• Sleeping in a place not meant for human habitation or in an emergency homeless shelter or in a safe haven.
• Having been homeless continually for one year or more or having four or more episodes of homelessness in three or more years.
