Vigil will note this year’s 51 homeless dead

Most of them died alone, behind trash bins, in empty lots or ditches, out in the desert.

Some were stabbed or beaten to death. Others accidentally overdosed on drugs or succumbed to extreme heat or cold. Two committed suicide.

The youngest was 21; the oldest, 71. Several were veterans. Some remain unidentified.

It's a grim annual death list, compiled by the Clark County coroner's office for outreach workers in advance of a yearly vigil for homeless people who have died during the year.

This year's list includes 51 names so far. They will be read aloud at a 3:45 p.m. vigil Thursday at the Center for Independent Living, a downtown shelter for homeless youths.

The event is meant to memorialize those who are often overlooked and draw attention to the local homeless problem, said Linda Lera-Randle El, director of the Straight from the Streets outreach program and organizer of the annual vigil.

"People don't realize that there are homeless people dying right where they see them," she said. "You might see someone on the sidewalk one day, walk past him, and he could be dead the next."

She hopes to inspire people to think more about those they see every day living on the streets.

"Maybe they'll think, 'Is that the person I just shunned on the street, didn't give a second look to? Maybe the person who asked for something more than I was willing to give?'"

Four of the 51 deaths this year were homicides. Seven of the dead were military veterans. Most of the 25 deaths ruled accidental were caused at least in part by alcoholism, drug overdoses or exposure to the elements, according to data provided by the coroner's office. Only 17 of the deaths were ruled natural.

The identities of two of those who died are still unknown.

Identifying homeless people can be particularly challenging, said Clark County Coroner Michael Murphy.

"Some of these folks don't want to be found, and intentionally don't carry identification with them," he said.

If a body cannot be identified or goes unclaimed, the county takes responsibility and either cremates or buries it.

"That doesn't mean we stop" trying to identify them, Murphy said.

"We revisit the case every six to 12 months, and it goes onto local and national Web sites as an unidentified person. Our goal is always to reunite them with their family."

Lera-Randle El grasped at a thread of hope in this year's list of homeless dead: it's shorter than it has been in several years.

Last year, 78 homeless people died. In 2005, there were 75 homeless deaths.

Lera-Randle El credited the decrease to local nonprofit organizations joining ranks to get chronic homeless people off the streets for good.

A coalition of nonprofits was formed in 2005 after the Southern Nevada Regional Planning Coalition's Committee on Homelessness agreed to give them about $4 million in state funds toward fighting homelessness.

Joining forces allowed the organizations to share information and service providers.

The coalition includes Straight from the Streets, HELP of Southern Nevada, the Center for Independent Living and other organizations that help the homeless.

"You have to think if there's that big of a difference we must be doing something right," Lera-Randle El said. "We make more extended outreach efforts, more concentrated efforts to pass out life-sustaining supplies. We do more intensive case management."

But, she said, there are still not enough local resources to help the valley's estimated 11,500 homeless people.

"There's not enough of us."

Contact reporter Lynnette Curtis at lcurtis@reviewjournal.com or (702) 383-0285.