(Name)less

Nameless. Faceless. Invisible. It’s estimated that during the life of a homeless individual in the United States, many go up three months without being called by their name. The physical and social barriers between the housed and the unhouse are immense. For the homeless, it can seem to be an endless maze of closed doors. Like the old rat experiment from my Introduction to Psychology course- teach the rat what to do and what not to do by shocking it with a quick zap at deter unwanted behavior. For the homeless, they stand too long in the doorway of a business- zap! They go to a doctor’s office without insurance – zap! They ride the bus for too long- zap! Nowhere to go, nowhere to be and no where to feel safe.
But what happens when these souls pass on from this world? Most of the bodies of our friends who have lived their lives on the streets will remain in the county morgue waiting for someone to claim them. Usually no one comes. Unclaimed and unnoticed even after death. Most are cremated and buried in an unmarked grave, unceremoniously passing from the land of the living to the land of the dead. No memorial service, no sign in book, no slideshow of memories to cherish. Even the cause of death seem somewhat generic. The majority of the time the homeless who die on the street have died of “natural causes”. There’s no family to request an autopsy or discussion as to why or how someone died. They just simply die. The injustice against these souls does not end at the moment in which they take their last breath. Over the last 11 years, I’ve had the privilege of knowing many of our rough sleepers in the Lehigh Valley. Some have resided outside for more than a decade, others have floated between the streets, shelters and single room occupancies that scatter our cities. My experience has taught me their lives are anything but forgettable. Their survival to the moment in which they left this world is nothing short of remarkable. Many of our street friends have endured things that no human should ever experience. Abandonment, untreated mental illness, an astounding amount of physical and psychological trauma. And while each of us, homeless or housed, have undeniable autonomy over our choices, we cannot ignore how previous experiences affected growth, development and decision-making capacity of those who are unsheltered. They have taught me and those who have shared their lives with them the remarkable resilience of a person and how a community of strangers can grow to love one another when they share each other’s burdens. They are some of the funniest, kindest and truest souls I have even known who had a way of sharing their reality with me so I understood their wisdom.
As we ring in the beginning of winter this week, many cities across the United States remember those men and women who have died on our streets with a memorial service. So that their lives, even after death, can attempt to have some humanism attached to it. This year, a memorial wall has been erected in downtown Allentown. Located at 707 Hamilton St so that all who pass by will remember that the Lehigh Valley is not insulated from the harsh realities of homelessness and the fact that some of our own citizens die while struggling with homelessness. It is an attempt to remind us that we are all connected. The seen and unseen. The named and the nameless. So while we gather with those who we hold so dear during this holiday season let us remember those who passed in silence and offer them some compassion, some memory, and some honor.