Memorial honors homeless who have died in Ventura County

Claudia Boyd-Barrett
Special to Ventura County Star

They came to mourn friends, family members and strangers.

Rev. Dana Worsnop of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Ventura speaks about the homeless people who died over the past year, accompanied by two other local pastors, John Ayars and Kris Bergstrom.

The list of dead included veterans, engineers, car mechanics, a writer, and a 3-month-old child.

One common element united those honored at a memorial service in downtown Ventura's Plaza Park on Saturday: They all died without a home.

"People are dying on the streets, and too often we don't notice," said Rev. Dana Worsnop of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Ventura, which organized the 12th annual Homeless Persons’ Memorial Service. "We want to stand here and say: Pay attention. Pay attention. These are our neighbors."

This year, organizers counted at least 63 homeless people who died in Ventura County over the past year. That's up from 53 people in 2016 and is higher than any previous year since the services began, Worsnop said. The event usually takes place in December but got delayed this year because of the Thomas Fire. Yet the extra month only partially accounted for the increased death count, Worsnop said.

Pastor Jim Duran and Rev. Dana Worsnop lead a silent procession through downtown Ventura in honor of people who died last year without a home.

Compared to the general population, people who are homeless are more likely to get sick, suffer from chronic illness, poor mental health and substance abuse. They're also at greater risk of becoming victims of violence, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Consequently, homelessness dramatically increases people's mortality rate. The average life expectancy for a homeless person is between 42 and 52 years, compared to 78 in the general population, according to the National Coalition for the Homeless.

Among the homeless who died in Ventura County over the past year, at least four got hit by a car or train, three were murdered and two drowned.

Worsnop said the increase in deaths points to an urgent need to establish a year-round homeless shelter in Ventura County and create more low-cost housing. She and other religious leaders at the event also noted how differently the public reacted to the loss of homes and lives during the Thomas Fire and Montecito mudslides, compared to the longer-running saga of homelessness.

"In December, I was struck by how quickly we respond to those who lose their homes in a natural disaster," Worsnop said. "Fire takes away homes very suddenly and all at once, but they are our neighbors who are losing their homes one and two and three at a time, for weeks and weeks and months, and it's no less a human disaster. It's just that it's a slow one."

About 80 people attended Saturday's service, including Cesar Contreras, of Oxnard, who came to mourn his friend Raymundo Cedillos Jr. A U.S. Army veteran, Cedillos died in September at age 57. Contreras and others at the service said he passed away in Plaza Park.

"It broke my heart, he was a really good guy," Contreras said. "He really cared about others. If you had a problem, you could talk to him. He'd make you feel a lot better, that's just who he was. A very kind person."

Hope Reeves, of Ventura, tearfully read a poem in honor of her younger brother, Joseph Mark Duran, who died in October at age 39. She said her family tried unsuccessfully to help Duran, who was homeless on and off for 10 years. Duran graduated from Santa Paula High School in 1996 and worked as a carpenter. Reeves said her brother likely suffered from mental illness and addiction problems, although he was never diagnosed.

"These are people's loved ones," she said of the homeless. "They mean something to someone."

The memorial service ended with a silent procession through downtown Ventura to raise awareness of homelessness.