This year 24 people died in Santa Cruz County while homeless. They died from a number of causes including drug overdose, chronic alcoholism, suicide, homicide, and a variety of health issues related to the homeless lifestyle.

They were remembered Tuesday morning in a dramatic service at the Santa Cruz County Homeless Person’s Health Project (HPHP) on Coral Street.

It was the 13th annual Homeless Memorial attended by homeless people and advocates and officials including Mayor Done Lane,  Santa Cruz Police Chief Kevin Vogel.

The hushed and somber mood at the service – which is held each year on December 20th, near the winter solstice, the longest night of the year, and the day before the 21st, which is the National Homeless Person's Memorial Day – was punctuated by moments of tearful sadness and joyful remembrances of some of the more humorous antics employed by the recently deceased.

"Housing is the core issue, and we need to find out how to do that in a cost effective way," said Forrest Cook, farm manager at the Homeless Garden Project. "It's not as expensive as people think. It’s the political expense of how you are going to do it which is the biggest problem. I don't think ghetto-izing and having all the homeless in one trailer park is a good idea, but there are enough places around town to do this."

Cook suggested that one possible solution to this problem is to create special trailer parks in various locations around town for homeless people who need shelter. 

There are a variety of projects at work in the community working to shelter homeless people.  One such project is the RV Guest Program, which is coordinated by the Association of Faith Communities. The goal of this program is to place trailers on church grounds throughout the community to temporarily shelter homeless people who need it most.

Steve Plesch, a member of the Association of Faith Communities has high hopes that the RV Guest Program will create "safe spaces for un-housed peoples."

He added: "Our goal is to have 50 new RV's on church properties around the county by July of 2012, and 100 more by July of 2013."

According to an annual report on homeless deaths, 18 males and 6 females, ranging from the ages of 24 to 66 died this year.

Mayor Don Lane vowed to make homelessness an issue the city deals with.

"There is going to be a new effort that is coming together this coming year that is going to try and identify the very most vulnerable, chronically homeless people and get them on the fast track to being indoors" said Lane. "Some people just really need to be indoors; that is what is going to save their lives, and we are working to make that a priority."

Many who spoke at the memorial addressed the dangers of homelessness, which account for why the average life expectancy of a homeless person in Santa Cruz County in 2011 is 49, nearly 30 years younger than members of the average population.

The HPHP has set up an exhibit of flags at the county building on Ocean Street, each adorned with the name of a person who died while homeless in Santa Cruz County, along with their age at the time of their death in the hopes that the relatively young average life expectency of homeless poeple will become apparant and lead the community to become more aware and proactive towards issues of homelessness.

For more information on how you can become involved, visit the Homeless Services Center’s website,  www.scshelter.org.