Dozens gathered at the Covent Garden Market for soup, bread and a moment of silence to honour the 57 people who died as a result of homelessness since October 2021.
The deaths are tracked by the London Homeless Coalition (LHC), who held the ninth edition of the memorial event on Friday. Along with offering those directly impacted by the deaths a chance to grieve, the annual event also looks to raise awareness for the issues affecting the city’s homeless population.
Co-chair Jaclyn Seeler says it’s important to remember the 57 lives lost were preventable deaths.
“Those individuals were either experiencing homelessness at the time of their death or they were housed and they had experiences of homelessness in their life,” Seeler said.
“These are human beings and their lives matter, and that’s why it’s important that we gather today to remember each and every one of them.”
Jason Galindo is the chair of the LHC’s death notification protocol, which partners with several local agencies to track deaths in the homeless community. The agencies involved are also tasked with informing the community about the cause of death, if it’s known, along with any memorials being planned for the person who died.
The protocol also serves a flagging system for people who haven’t been seen in the community for some time.
While 57 deaths have been reported by the protocol since last October, Galindo says that’s not an absolute number, as not all deaths are captured by the LHC.
“It might be that some (agencies) might not know the (protocol) exists; it might be that, for example, the notification protocol is sent to somebody on the membership who isn’t flowing that information down,” Galindo said.
“The infrastructure — which is strictly volunteer, by the way — just needs to be strengthened in order for us to be more knowing about the community members who are passing in the community.”
Along with providing information that would be otherwise unavailable, Galindo says the death notification protocol works to reduce stigma surrounding those impacted by homelessness and how their deaths may occur.
“I find it really important that this protocol actually expand and the infrastructure strengthen, so that way we’re actually accurately telling the stories of individuals that we’ve supported in the community, otherwise it’s up to bias and assumptions as to why these individuals passed,” Galindo said.
“How can you advocate or how can you ask for more things or how can you educate if it’s kind of curved kind of in someone’s response for whatever point they’re trying to make?”
Issues impacting those in London’s homeless community made headlines over the summer when advocacy group The Forgotten 519 launched a hunger strike, which was carried out by organizing member Dan Oudshoorn.
Oudshoorn’s hunger strike ended days later with The Forgotten 519 announcing it had reached an agreement with the City of London.
Seeler, the LHC co-chair, says she’s seen a lot of fruitful collaboration between local agencies in the time since, but adds that municipal effort can only go so far.
“We need to bring that attention to the provincial and federal government because this is a national crisis and there’s only so much we can do locally. We really need to make sure that we’re putting our efforts into housing as a human right and making sure that’s deeply embedded into our legislation and practices,” Seeler said.
In the meantime, a community task force formed in the wake of Oudshoorn’s hunger strike has been working on solutions for some of the issues facing the city’s homelessness community. It consists of a number of front-line agencies, as well as city staff.
The task force is expected to hold its final meeting later this month.