Caroline Bond - Wake County Department of Housing Affordability and Community Revitalization
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There was a bit of symbolic that you hold this event on the day of the winter solstice. Is that correct? Yes. This is a nationwide event. So this is something that's happening all across the country and it is on the winter solstice every year. So it's on December 21st every year and that's the darkest day of the year. It's the day with the leaf sunlight. And me it also represents the day when the next day we'll start getting a lighter, a little bit lighter. And that's the darkest day and we recognize these really sad events that have happened over the past year knowing that the next day it will get a little lighter than the day before and the day after that it will get a little lighter. It also represents the beginning of hope coming, the darkness has been followed by hope. And with each name that was read, you read 46 names and what happened as you read the names? Well, the ceremony is, we gather those names throughout the year from a lot of partner organizations and each of those names represents such a big life. And it represents such a variety of ways people have passed on. You know, all of these individuals are people that were homeless over the past year and a lot of times for a long time before that and we have people that knew these individuals in the audience. So with each name, you know, it just, it represents, you know, whole world that we are getting their name for an instant. But we know that these names are people that have not had memorial. They're people that have not had the funerals and the remembrances that we all deserve. And they're people that we want to make sure we don't forget. And that we don't just pass by and their death is just, you know, a blip on the radar. We want it to be something, something a little bit more than that. Certainly this is a solemn event, but there was a little bit of good news in the fact that you had a similar event last year and in 2023, you had to read more names than you did this year. Yeah, actually in 2022 and 2023, our names have dropped significantly from those years. And you know, we're not sure exactly why they've dropped, but there, there have definitely been a lot of initiatives that have been offered in that in this past year. And some of those, there is a new emergency drop in shelter at Dale Townarali. And that's something that's open regardless of the temperature every single night. And you know, that is pretty significant because not everybody is in one of the main shelters. So the drop in shelter is something where people could stay night by night. There have also been some other initiatives. Cornerstone is something that's reopened and that's a place where they have units for people experiencing chronic homelessness and have mental health and health needs. And then we have actually been able to see some results from the harm reduction and opiate settlement funding. Wake County has been working really hard to put those funds into helping the residents and the people that are struggling the most. So we don't know why exactly those numbers have been reduced, but we're hoping that some of the initiatives have made a difference and you know, it's hard to tell exactly exactly what's going on.
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