Aaron Tappley, Antonio Garcia, Brandon Coleman, Carol Horner.

The names of 102 Portlanders who died while homeless in 2025 were read out one at a time from the pulpit in the small sanctuary at St. André Bessette Catholic Church, the one with the red doors on the edge of Old Town.

The names were not from an official government list. Instead, they were crowdsourced by the coalition of homeless services nonprofits that hosted the annual vigil, always held on winter solstice, the longest night of the year.

It took four people to read them all: Dave Paul Collins, Debbie Johnson, Johnny Boyd, Martin Naugle. There were three Brians, two Richards and someone who went by Ocean.

A woman carrying an infant stood up to say she’d lost the baby’s father when she was seven months pregnant. Another woman spoke about her brother, who at 31 fell into a mental health crisis that landed him outside, despite his and his family’s efforts to help him. Molly Hogan, an outspoken housing advocate, gave a tearful testimony to her formerly homeless mother, who died in 2024.

“You can’t always house your own mother,” said Hogan, executive director of Welcome Home, a coalition of homeless service providers, giving voice to the helplessness felt by many relatives of people who fall into homelessness.

Living outside is lethal. One person a day died on Portland’s streets, on average, in 2024. That’s six times the death rate of Portland’s non-homeless population. A slight majority, 58%, died of drug overdoses. Many others died of disease, being struck by vehicles, violence and suicide.

Events like the one in Old Town were held across the country on Dec. 21, designated the Homeless Day of Remembrance, to honor the growing number of people who die without a home in America every day. There were events in Philadelphia, on Cape Cod in Massachusetts and in Wichita, Kansas. There were also events throughout Oregon, including in Oregon City and Salem.

In Multnomah County, the homeless death toll has been climbing fairly steadily since 2011, when the county began keeping records. Deaths in 2024 were down from 2023, the peak of the fentanyl crisis, but still higher than 2022. The number of county residents who died while homeless in 2025, along with the cause of their death, won’t be officially known until late next year. But the annual memorial does have one feature Multnomah County’s official Domicile Unknown report lacks: Names.

Some were pretty unorthodox or submitted by people who didn’t know the person’s legal name. There was Big Don from Bud Clark, Harold the Hot Cocoa Lover, Mario from Alberta Street, Sharyl “Dr. Pepper” Braune and Snick.

Small gasps and murmurs could be heard throughout the church as some learned for the first time of a friend’s passing. Many people who are homeless, especially those who spend years living on the street, take new names or are known by nicknames among the people they consider family. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t remembered, said the new mother.

“Everybody is somebody to someone,” she said through her tears.

About 50 people sitting in the pews nodded their understanding, holding battery operated candles aloft and, in many cases, fighting back tears.

And as with nearly all grief, the sadness on Sunday night was mixed with anger.

“We accept these systems,” said Hogan. “But they are not normal.”

She urged any policymakers in the room – there were at least two – to realize that the existing systems for serving homeless people and preventing homelessness were not inevitable. Those systems are choices, she said, that policymakers can change.

Then she told the story of her mother, Kathleen Colleen Elton, an actress, a model and a wild woman who loved life. Elton was homeless for 10 years, “living hard on the streets,” when Hogan was in her 20s. Finally, Elton was connected with a subsidized apartment, where she lived for a decade before dying in 2024.

“So many of our unhoused neighbors we walk by on the street – we don’t know their lives,” Hogan said. “There’s so much talent, so much beauty.”

The names kept coming. Nicole Todd, Randy Hudson, Ruth McCray, Smokey Larson. There was at least one for nearly every letter of the alphabet.

Laquida Landford, executive director of AfroVillage, a nonprofit focused on uplifting Portland’s Black community, told the story of a woman named Sonya Whitfield, who died in her arms in 2022. Whitfield was Black, Landford said, as are a disproportionate number of people who are homeless.

“There’s so many Black folks,” who die while homeless, Landford said. “We have been displaced in this community.”

According to the latest available demographic data on deaths within Portland’s homeless community, Black and Indigenous people died while homeless at a disproportionately high rate. For example, about 8% of Multnomah County residents are Black, but Black people accounted for 12% of deaths among homeless people in 2024. Indigenous people make up 3% of county residents and account for 5% of deaths among homeless residents.

Portland Mayor Keith Wilson, who did not attend Sunday’s event, has made much of the number of people dying on Portland’s streets each year. To address the problem, he and his team have created more than 1,000 shelter beds, mostly in new, overnight-only shelters in churches and other empty buildings across the city. Some of those beds are mattresses on a twin metal frame, while others are mats on the floor.

Many at Sunday’s memorial did not see the shelters as a solution.

Barbie Weber, co-executive director of Ground Source, a nonprofit that employs homeless and recently homeless people to keep Portland’s city streets clean, said the better society can do taking care of its most vulnerable members, the better it will be as a whole.

In remarks critical of the new shelters, Weber said that to her, caring doesn’t mean providing “a mat on a floor in a room full of people.” It’s not possible to truly rest in an environment like that, she said.

Her hope, she said, was that the group before her would some day gather, not to memorialize those lost, but to celebrate the winter solstice.

Later, Weber said she’d also lost her son, James Robert Tudor, to the streets a few years ago. He was in his 30s and living in Arizona. For months before her boy died, she wasn’t able to reach him and didn’t know if he was alive.

“It’s the not knowing” that’s the worst, she said. But when he died, “I was lucky. They found me quickly on Facebook.”

The complete list read at the memorial service Sunday night follows. It was compiled via a Google survey distributed by Central City Concern, Ground Score Association, Hygiene4All, Multnomah County, PDX Saints Love, Rose Haven, Sisters of the Road, Street Books, Street Roots, The Everly Project, Wapato Island Farm and the Welcome Home Coalition.

If you have any memories or photos of these people you’d like to share with the newspaper, please email lmhughes@oregonian.com.

Aaron Tappley

Adam

Adrian Williams

Aelita Walker

Alex Bowers

Anthony Moss

Antonio Garcia

Arrow Quill

Becky Boyce

Big Don from Bud Clark

Big Ray from Southeast

Billy C

Brandon Coleman

Brent Moore

Brian Burlingame

Brian Keith Mellott Jr.

Brian Kerley

Carol Horner

Carry Smith

Cely

Charles Sorrells

Chip Malachowski

Clarence Smith

Courtney

Curt

Daniel

Dave Paul Collins

Debbie Johnson

Diamond

Don Edney

Duane Larsen

Dusti Gray

Erin

Frosty

Gary

Harold the Hot Cocoa Lover

Holly

Jaycob Lambson

Jeffery Chase Owen

Jeremy Hofman

Jessica Bowers

John Fucciolo

Johnny Boyd

Jordan

Josh Aelita

Joshua Page

Joyce

Karen Colbath

Karen Heid

Kathy

Keely White

Kevin Drew

Lenny

Lisa McCloud

Lopakalee “Diamond”

Luke Kagey

Mama Bambi

Mario from Alberta Street

Martin Naugle

Mary Samson

Megan Kovack

Michael J Johnson

Monyell Hedgmon

Mr. Whiskers

Mykaiel Garner

Nataly Johnson

Nicole Todd

Ocean

Paul

Rachel

Ramsey

Randy Hudson

Randy Mitchell

Reese

Richard Lee Bowers

Richard Rowe

Robert Jiminez

Romon

Ronin

Ruth McCray

Samuel

Sandy

Scott

Sharyl “Dr. Pepper” Braune

Smiley aka Cornell Clemons

Smokey Larsen

Snick

Star H.

September Stormm

Steve Peters

Steven aka Vash

Tammy Sue from Dignity Village

Tennessee aka Jason Garry

Terrence

Tiffany

Tyler Fero

Vickie

Vince

William

Wynell “Lemmie” Warren

Zack Harris