LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Monday is National Homeless Persons Memorial Day, and communities like Louisville are recognizing people in the unhoused community who perished in 2025.
It's an effort to not only remember the people who died through the year but also raise awareness of the hardships faced by the people who live on the street.
FILE -- this undated image shows a tent under an overpass near a snow-covered street in Louisville, Ky. (WDRB/archive)
As it has done for several years, Wayside Christian Mission held a memorial service at noon Monday on the steps of the Jefferson County Courthouse to honor their memory.
According to local homeless advocates, Louisville has about 1,700 unhoused residents, including nearly 600 people living on the streets.
"Unsheltered homelessness is bad for people’s health, and it costs our community a great deal," said Natalie Harris, executive director of the Coalition for the Homeless.
Monday's service featured music by recording artist Rev. George Mayes and a devotional by Rev. Bryan Hagan, who ministers to the homeless on Sundays at Wayside Christian Mission.
The names of the people who died this year were read aloud during Monday remembrance ceremony. Those names are submitted from the shelters who serve the homeless year-round, in the hopes of finding permanent housing for those on the streets.
"These were all real people, people that we knew, and people that we saw every day, and they had all of the fears, all of the anxieties, all of the emotions, that normal people have," Wayside Chief Operating Officer Nina Moseley said.
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