As the names of 30 homeless men and women who died in recent years in Charleston rang through the state Capitol Rotunda, the bigger picture was clear.
The Homeless Persons Memorial was held Monday by the Kanawha Valley Collective, a network of area agencies dedicated to ending and preventing homelessness. Organizers hope to make it an annual event.
The event recognized dozens of people who have died in Charleston while homeless, and whose deaths are often overlooked.
Delegate Mike Pushkin, D-Kanawha, spoke at the event and talked about his experiences as a taxi driver in the city.
"Sometimes on the police scanner, you hear about a body being found, and then you hear a voice go over the scanner and say, 'It's just one of our people.' What that means is it's a street person," Pushkin said. "Nobody in America should be dying because they don't have a place to live."
Traci Strickland, executive director of the Kanawha County Collective, stressed the importance of not only bringing to light those who have died while homeless, but also working to eliminate it over time.
"Getting our number to zero is one thing, but keeping homelessness short term and episodic will take a system to advocate for those who are in and out of the housing crisis," Strickland said. Homelessness that lasts months or years can no longer be acceptable, she said.
Strickland is also director of the Prestera Center's homeless program, and said the two biggest myths she's heard are that homeless people don't want housing, and that those who are homeless deserve it. The best way to change those perceptions, she said, is to disprove them.
"The idea that people don't want housing is just not true," she said.
While long-term, highly structured housing programs work for some, Strickland believes the lack of autonomy those residents have can be a deterrent for others.
"They want housing where you abide by a lease or a mortgage, you have to be a good neighbor and you don't have all these other structured rules around the housing."
The city's homeless population tends to waver anywhere between 390 and 410 people, she said. In 2015, Kanawha Valley Collective has helped 83 homeless veterans in Charleston find housing.
Partnering with about 20 agencies including Covenant House and Manna Meal, the collective provides a continuum of care that points those in need toward the right resources. It is funded largely by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's homeless assistance programs.
Through a proclamation by Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin, the Mountain State has joined the National Coalition for the Homeless in declaring Dec. 21 Homeless Persons' Memorial Day.
Reach Elaina Sauber at elaina.sauber@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-3051 or follow @ElainaSauber on Twitter.