Community mourns unsheltered resident deaths. The number has increased year on year

As the winter solstice brought the longest and darkest night of the year Thursday, so did it bring out the Columbia community to mourn its unsheltered residents.

The city lost 23 residents through the year, a 44% increase from last year when The Salvation Army counted 16 lives lost. The service this year as part of National Homeless Persons' Memorial Day was once gain held at the Salvation Army Harbor House. It was held there in 2021, while the 2022 service was held outside of Columbia City Hall.

The trend line of unsheltered deaths continues to go up. There were 10 deaths in 2021.

This increase again brought some anger out of John Trapp, who regularly works and interacts with the city's unsheltered, encouraging city and county leaders present to change zoning regulations to be able to bring in more housing.

"If any other population were dying at this rate it would be a public emergency. ... We're not throwing resources at ending homelessness. The problem is we don't have enough housing," he said. "The people who are causing homelessness are doing it in the name of neighborhood or historic preservation. They are in their houses and they don't want apartment buildings in their neighborhoods.

"So, people are dying in the street, so those people can live in a museum. It's unacceptable."

Even if things are turned around, Trapp estimates it will take 10 to 15 years.

Those lost in 2023 were Sarah Danner, known as Red; Terrell Page, known as Chief; George Nichols; Paul Powell; William Franklin, known as Shorty; Roy Kohrs; Mary Jo Reynolds; Brandon Lee; David Sharrock; Tina Johns-Duke; Ann Quarles; Tony Washington; Anthony Bell; Joseph Mercier; Rosalee Gross; Lisa Smith Lowe; Jermain Burnett; Ron Shivers; Darita Williams; Ralph Anthony; Ryan Wilkerson; Wilford Cross and Gary Faust.

Faust's death hit close to home for the Salvation Army Harbor House said Capt. Amy Cedervall. He came to the shelter on Dec. 23, 2022 and died by a quiet suicide at the facility. He had no names of other people he relied on.

"I wish I had the information on someone, anyone to contact them to tell them Gary had passed," Cedervall said. "And I wish Gary had someone that he felt he could talk to, and that he could have hope things would get better, but he felt that he had no other way out. We live in a broken world and some of our people are broken, and they need help.

"We take the time to remember the people who have passed. ... We need everyone to feel like they matter, they are cared for, they have value and their dreams are valid and even attainable. We need to do everything we can to make sure they don't die alone or are forgotten."

More resources are being put toward unsheltered support programs, said Mayor Barbara Buffaloe in remarks she gave prior to reading a proclamation that marked Thursday as National Homeless Persons' Memorial Day in Columbia.

This includes planned upgrades at the Ashley Street Center where Room at the Inn now can operate year round, rather than just over the winter months. American Rescue Plan Act funds also are dedicated to go toward the adjacent Opportunity Campus from Voluntary Action Center. Other ARPA funds are marked for Love Columbia transitional housing, True North's housing assistance program, and the CoMo Mobile Aid Collective, which provides direct and immediate assistance to the city's unhoused.

Strong words were continued by a poem reading by Kimberly Estrada.

"If I were to die, would you even care," she said reading. "... As long as you can paint an image, you're able to continue the damage. ... My image is painted by my housing status."

Stories of those lost this year were shared by Alfred Patenaude, who spoke about the personalities of several individuals on this year's list and Catherine Armbrust, CoMo Mobile Aid Collective director, who spoke about Powell.

In the middle of rainstorm, Powell was found at his camp needing immediate care. He was taken to University of Missouri Hospital, but left within hours against medical advice. He was again lost, but because Armbrust had put her card in his pocket an intensive-care unit nurse at Boone Hospital was able to call Armbrust and tell her where Powell was.

"He had been found non-responsive at a gas station. Our team finally found his sister in Colorado who had come to visit for a few days," she said. "Fast forward a couple weeks, the ICU nurse called me and told me it was time. He had never really woken up and there was no chance for survival."

Making a playlist of songs she and Powell's sister thought he would like, they were played and Armbrust held his hand until he died, calling his sister afterward to let her know.

"I sang to him, told him I loved him, that it was OK to go and that we would take care of his cat."

From 2022: 15 unsheltered Columbia residents died this year. Community gathers to mourn their loss

Charles Dunlap covers local government, community stories and other general subjects for the Tribune. You can reach him at cdunlap@columbiatribune.com or @CD_CDT on Twitter. Subscribe to support vital local journalism.

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Salvation Army hosts Homeless person memorial service in Columbia