New Hampshire News
| Solstice vigil calls attention to the homeless |
| Posted by Jaime Contois (jcontois) on Jan 15 2010 at 8:16 PM |
Residents gather in the bitter cold in Keene to advocate for those without shelter
On the first day of winter and longest night of the year, residents gathered to remember those who are homeless in the area and those who’ve passed away during the year after being homeless.
The candlelight vigil held Monday night at Keene’s Central Square was one of eight throughout New Hampshire and one of 100 held across the United States to commemorate National Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day. The Keene service was co-sponsored by Working Families Win, The Community Kitchen, Southwestern Community Services Homeless Services Program, the Monadnock Center for Violence Prevention and Monadnock Family Services.
The countrywide event began in 1990. This year, the vigil coincided with heightened awareness of homelessness in Keene, including a continuing story about whether a group of people who have built a shack on land behind a city shopping center can continue to live in a place that has no building permit and likely will not pass a building code inspection.
Patricia A. Byrnes of Keene had never attended the vigil service before, but braved the 25-degree weather to attend this year’s event.
“I just kept thinking of those poor people behind Hannaford’s,” Byrnes said with tears in her eyes.
Jaime J. Contois, a member of Working Families Win, led the vigil, which consisted of a prayer of remembrance, remarks from individuals, and the reading of the names of the 10 men and women in New Hampshire who had passed away this year due to homelessness and hardship.
According to Contois, there are currently 5,000 homeless people in the state’s homeless shelter systems. However, this figure does not include the homeless who have found alternate means of shelter.
Additionally, the homeless shelters in the region are already at capacity and cannot accommodate the growing number of men and women seeking shelter during the winter months.
This means that many homeless are left without any place to go, which can create a “life or death situation,” Contois said, when temperatures often drop to below- freezing levels during the winter months.
To help address this problem, Don Primrose of Sullivan, who has also been helping the group behind the shopping center, said that additional overflow shelters were needed. Primrose is in the process of developing his own emergency shelter called One Hundred Nights, a beds-only facility which is slated to open in the next two weeks in Keene. Primrose is looking for volunteers and funding.
Even though homelessness is on the rise and shelter is limited, Contois believes that homelessness can be eliminated.
“There is no reason that every single person in the United States can’t have a roof over their heads and a dry and safe place to sleep,” Contois said.
Jeffrey Scott of Chesterfield also shares these sentiments and believes the community needs to do more to help neighbors in need.
“There is more than enough resources in this region to accommodate everyone. We need to be our brother’s keeper and our sister’s keeper,” Scott said.
Primrose ended the vigil by reminding the group of the hardships of the homeless.
“When you put your head on your pillow tonight, think of those who are homeless who have no bed and pillow, who have nowhere to sleep” Primrose said.