Homeless Persons Memorial Day

Key West Mayor Craig Cates and City Commissioners Jimmy Weekley and Sam Kaufman proclaimed Dec. 16th National Homeless Persons Memorial Day during last night’s meeting at Old City Hall.

For the past 17 years, the community has gathered to remember those men, women and children who have died homeless in Monroe County with this proclamation designating the longest night of the year in their honor. More than 76 homeless people have died in our community over the past year, and that number will likely rise before year’s end.

At 3 p.m. on December 16th, the Florida Keys Outreach Coalition and Monroe County social services will coordinate a prayer service at the Key West Cemetery and inter the remains of those who died homeless in Monroe County over the past year.

Stephanie Kaple, chief operating officer of the Florida Keys Outreach Coalition, accepted the proclamation.

“We are losing one person a week, at least, in homelessness and poverty in our county,” she said. “I can’t help but think that if I stood up here and told you we lost 76 people this year to something like the flu or a disease or car accidents, that we would be up in arms. We would be demanding change.”

She urged the commissioners and the community to take a stand, to say “we will not keep burying our poor and our homeless.”

“By remembering those who have died on the streets,” reads the proclamation, “the cause of ending homelessness is kept urgent, as is the community’s collective commitment to preventing such deaths in the future.”

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