SANTA CRUZ — By his own reckoning, Jeremiah Brender has been homeless for a “long time.”
A sometime resident of the River Street Shelter in Santa Cruz, Brender was there on Tuesday for the annual Homeless Memorial.
The ceremony, now in its 19th year, honors people who have died during the year while homeless. It is in many cases the only service they will receive.
Brender, 36, said he was there to pay tribute to his fiancée, who died in 2015.
“Nobody knew her story,” he said. “Who she was, what she was like.”
The ceremony brings together homeless people, in addition to organizations that serve that population.
“One death from someone who is homeless is too many,” said Pajaro Valley Shelter Services Executive Director Kimberly Ferm.
Public health nurse Matt Nathanson, who organizes the memorial, said that the event is also a way to highlight the difficulties of life on the streets.
According to Nathanson, homeless people on average die at 54, compared to 79 for the housed population.
“Being homeless is a huge risk to people’s lives,” he said.
About 50 people died in 2017, which Nathanson said is an increase from previous years, which have averaged around 35.
Phil Kramer, who directs the center, said that Santa Cruz is one of 150 communities across the U.S. that holds a similar ceremony.
“I wish we didn’t have to do this,” he said. “Having people die on the streets of our community is nothing less than a failure measured in human tragedy.”
Several people spoke at the event, standing in front of a wall covered with the names and ages of the people who died this year.
Santa Cruz Police Sgt. Bill Azuar spoke about Judy Malone, 49, who he said he encountered at the shelter several times.
“This lady had fire,” he said. “She kept me on my toes every time I came here. But there was nothing but love.”
Another of the people remembered was Jennie Gervasio, who was killed in September when a vehicle struck her as she crossed Main Street in Watsonville on her bicycle.
“One thing about my mom is that she had a big heart,” Gervasio’s daughter Geneve Valle said. “She was loving and giving. She was an awesome mom and grandma, and we love and miss her very much.”
Annette March said she has made it a tradition to deliver blankets and warm clothes to homeless people on Christmas Eve.
March remembered the day she saw Michael Mears pouring hot coffee onto his bare, frostbitten feet one cold winter day. Two weeks later he was dead, March said.
“Taking gifts to people on Christmas Eve, as everyone in this room knows, is nothing,” she said. “But to me it is a reminder that the pain of everyone who died is my pain, and it’s your pain.”
