Utica celebrates a solemn winter solstice this year

During winter solstice communities across the country celebrated National Homeless Memorial Day. For the first time Utica followed suit.

Locals gathered – on the longest night of the year– at Cornerstone Community Church to mourn neighbors who passed away without a home this year in the Mohawk Valley. The Medical Examiner’s Office provided data-analysis tools to help reach an accurate count of lives lost.

Build for Good sponsored the event– a premiere nonprofit dedicated to rewriting the narrative around housing insecurity.

Organizer Kelly Conroy-Scott noted the toll that street outreach takes on service providers. The event is not just about tending to the unhoused community but also those on the frontlines who sort through vicarious trauma daily, she said.

“The people we’ve lost this year forged strong social networks,” said Conroy-Scott. “This event focuses on offering loved ones and service providers alike a soft landing... a safe place to grieve.”

The ceremony included interfaith speakers, eulogies, and a reading of the names of the dead. Afterwards free refreshments and to-go meals were distributed.

Speakers proposed solutions to advance equity, such as choosing a Housing First approach and extending New York City’s Right to Shelter into a statewide policy.

Housing first

The federal government reported that homelessness this year surged to the highest level on record. An annual headcount found that the unhoused population increased by more than 70,000, a jump that hasn’t been seen since 2007.

According to Oneida County office 134 new homeless applications were submitted each week; 2,637 total cases per month.

In one of the wealthiest nations many Americans are baffled by the rising homelessness population; Conroy-Scott is not. Systems are most effective when they’re driven by people closest to the issues at hand, she said.

“We live in a nation where policies are shaped by people who have never experienced homelessness a single night in their life,” said Condroy Scott. “Until we have people with lived expertise at decision-making tables our unhoused neighbors will continue to experience harm.”

In recent years Cornerstone Plymouth Bethesda Church has become a safe haven for Utica’s unhoused population.

Pastor Michael Ballman allows the unhoused to stay and sleep outside on the church’s property. Many of the homeless people that attend church are not eligible for public assistance due to substance abuse, extreme cases of trauma, mental illnesses or developmental disabilities, he said.

“I’ve been nice, angry, confrontational, and understanding but none of that seems to help,” said Ballman. “We need to stand as a united front – we can’t go at this alone.”

The city of Utica has taken measures to provide funding for drop-in centers at the Utica Rescue Mission at 1013 West St. and The Salvation Army at 14 Clinton Place. Ballman believes these efforts aren’t enough.

“Dispersing the homeless is not a solution,” Ballman said. “We’re dealing with human beings. We can’t just push what we don’t want to see to the margins.”

Instead, Ballman suggests that the city implement a Housing First strategy – an approach that prioritizes permanent housing before attending to employment or substance abuse issues. In order to raise funds he established the Housed Not Hidden campaign.

With a $100 donation, the campaign challenges donors to spend 24 hours on the streets of Utica with Ballman to experience what it would be like to be homeless for a day.

Teaming up

“Housing is a human right, as declared in article 25 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” said Condroy-Scott. “When our neighbors die from avoidable and tragic deaths we must demand justice.”

Interfaith leaders joined hands to rally around the cause.

Rabbi Peter Schaktman of Temple Emanu-El praised the event.

“It is our civil duty to ensure all our neighbors are housed, clothed and fed. Let us never stop fighting for the essential dignity that every living soul deserves.”

Reverend Karen Brammer from the Unitarian Universalist Church of Utica was also a proponent of the gathering.

“We are situated together in this city so we may connect and increase the wellbeing of all. This year let's celebrate a compassionate Christmas.”

Conroy-Scott pointed out that events like these help educate the community. “Homelessness is not about personal failure,” she said, “it’s about recognizing how our system has failed its people.”

This article originally appeared on Observer-Dispatch: Utica celebrates a solemn winter solstice this year