VIGIL LOCATION CHANGE: Tonight’s Annual Homeless Persons’ Vigil has been moved to First Parish Portland Unitarian Universalist at 425 Congress Street, Portland.

A candlelight procession will start at the MaineHealth-Preble Street Learning Collaborative, located at 20 Portland Street, at 4:30 pm and proceed to First Parish. Attendees are also welcome to gather inside First Parish beginning at 4:30 pm.

Anyone needing a stair-free entrance can use the entrance on Freshman Alley, a small lane next to First Parish, which leads to an accessible door and elevator.

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Tonight, Friday, December 19, at 4:30pm, a vigil will be held to remember the friends from the Greater Portland homeless community who have died this year. People will gather in front of the MaineHealth-Preble Street Learning Collaborative at 20 Portland Street and proceed to First Parish Unitarian Universalist for a commemoration and candle-lighting ceremony.

Every year on or around the Winter Solstice — the longest night of homelessness — the Portland community hosts a candlelight procession and ceremony dedicated to the youth and adults in the unhoused community who died. This decades-long tradition is a time for Portlanders to mourn the many lives that were cut short and to commit to changing the broken systems that allow so many of our neighbors to fall through the cracks.

This year, 51 members of the Greater Portland homeless community died. The average age was only 57 years old. Causes of death include chronic medical conditions, overdose, old age, suicide, and vehicle accidents. The life expectancy of people who have experienced chronic homelessness is roughly 50 years of age, a startling 28 years shorter than that of people who are housed.

“The Homeless Persons’ Memorial Vigil is a time for us to honor and share our love for the people we lost this year,” shares Daniella Cameron, Preble Street Deputy Director. “It’s also a time for us to join together and focus on the solutions that help many Mainers meet their most basic human needs — food assistance to help people afford enough to eat, shelter beds to bring people who are unsheltered inside, permanent supportive housing to give people their own bed and roof and the supports they need to reach their goals, and more affordable housing to ensure that individuals and families can secure and maintain housing.”

Mary Beth Sullivan, a social worker and community activist, will share remarks, as will a person with lived experience of homelessness. Remarks will be followed by the lighting of candles to honor each person from the homeless community who died this year. To close the program, local performers, Sea Change Chorale and The Vigilantes will lead the crowd in singing a few songs. LumenARRT (Projection Art Projects) will be doing a large-scale projection in Monument Square to memorialize the 51 people who died this year.

All are welcome.

The annual event is sponsored by the City of Portland, Greater Portland Health, MaineHealth, Northern Light Mercy Hospital, and Preble Street.