Originally published at Orange County Catholic
THIRTY-ONE MINUTES and nine seconds. That’s how long it took to read each of the 389 names of the unhoused lives lost on the streets of Orange County this year.
The ninth annual Homeless Persons’ Inter-Religious Memorial Service took place at Lutheran Church of the Cross in Laguna Woods on Dec. 21 — the longest night of the year. For each name read, a candle was lit and carried across the church sanctuary.
“We state clearly together, with others in scores of communities across the nation, that their life is of value,” said Paul Kratzer, vice president and council member of the Lutheran Church of the Cross.
Orange County started the service in 2016, when 193 lives were lost. For the last several years, the leading cause of death has been drug and alcohol overdoses, said Gina Marie Seriel, founder and CEO of Our Father’s Table, a nonprofit dedicated to ending the cycle of chronic homelessness.
“This does not take away or minimize the undeniable fact that living on the streets takes a significant deadly toll on the body,” Seriel added. “The mortality rate among folks experiencing homelessness is 3.5 times the mortality rate of housed individuals.”
The interfaith memorial
