Madden Mischief

In the spirit of disambiguation, my thoughtful son Andrew points out that 8’s laying sideways are symbols of infinity.  Should homelessness be infinite? 

Those poor miserable people experiencing homelessness throughout the U.S. reached the highest level ever in 2024, topping 770,000, an increase of more than 18 percent driven mostly by a lack of affordable housing.

You might say as a former newspaper reporter I’m still an insatiable news junkie subscribing to and consuming news from the herd of media I follow as faithfully as I gulp coffee every morning with breakfast. 

While still glued to TV news channels or driving, listening to news on WLRN-FM radio, I’m digitally monitoring an endless chorus of headlines from The New York Times to my local paper, The Palm Beach Post, that carried this moving vigil story.

I’m infinitely addicted to current events on TV networks where I once worked at lofty levels.  When not writing books or my Madden Mischief blog, I’m watching,  listening to or reading news about events such as this vigil for 88 homeless who died in 2024 in Palm Beach County where I live.

While editing or rewriting press releases to make our PR firm’s clients more appreciated, I’m forever reading stories where I started my career as a reporter at a daily newspaper similar to The Palm Beach Post, which in my book gets an “A++” for this touching story.

That city where I started out is the city of brotherly love, Philadelphia, where I was born and eventually educated at two universities, Temple and Penn.

Last year with the presidential campaign, bloody wars, assassination attempts, heinous crimes and unprecedented disasters affecting millions of people, tidal waves of news washed over me, yet this one local news story near the end of 2024 stood out and left a deep impression.

Vigil for 88

Perhaps this surging high tide of homelessness affects me more as I was once a lifeguard.  I’m forever thinking about those most vulnerable among us getting swept out into the sea of sinkholes in our culture. They are the poor wretched homeless, the idiosyncratic failures, the ultimate underachievers, misfortunate victims drowning in drug addictions and depression or serious mental disorders that have put them out on the streets ironically in the world’s wealthiest country. 

I’ll call it the most memorable story of 2024 about the event that occurred in West Palm Beach not far from where many of the richest people in the world live in opulent residences and impressive mansions like President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago.

The story written by Palm Beach Post reporter Valentina Palm reported on the vigil honoring 88 homeless people who died while living on the streets of Palm Beach County in 2024. 

Palm Beach County sheriff’s deputy  James Mackey knew many of the 88 names read aloud that Saturday as he had tried to help them over the years.

They are the people who died this past year while living on the street.  

Now on National Homeless Remembrance Day, which falls each year on the winter solstice — the longest night of the year, even longer for those without a bed to sleep in– about 30 people gathered to honor them at this vigil.

“They were us once,” Mackey told those who assembled outside the Salvation Army headquarters along North Rosemary Avenue. “They also sat on their grandmother’s lap opening their favorite Christmas present at four years old. They are no different from us.”

Similar ceremonies across the U.S.  

Tomara Mays, the CEO of the Homeless Coalition, says the organization reserved the first day of winter of each year for the ceremony to give those who died while homeless a dignified vigil.

She read the 88 names of those who had died homeless as volunteers, social workers and police officers bowed their heads in a moment of silence.

The Rev. Sheila Harvey of Union Congregational United Church of Christ in West Palm Beach, said a prayer and got the small crowd singing “This Little Light of Mine.”  To close the ceremony, Jessica Jane Rucker performed “Amazing Grace.”

Keep in mind this vigil honors the homeless who died in just this county where according to a recent report, cases of homelessness have increased 15% over the past year and more people are without stable housing than in 2023.

Local outreach teams identified 2,126 individuals and families as lacking permanent shelter during a point-in-time count in January, according to a statement released in April by the county’s Community Services Department.

Mays said the ceremony is meant to remind residents that nonprofits and shelters across the country rely on their support in the form of donations or volunteering time to help address the homelessness crisis in the county. 

“This is a reminder that homelessness is a matter of life or death,” Mays said. “This is our way of getting the community to pay their respects,” but I say it must be more than a vigil.

It must be a rallying cry for offering treatment for what’s causing the chronic homelessness BEFORE they die in our parks, on our doorsteps and behind buildings.

Homeless Josh

Some of those who attended the vigil, like Josh are living in a shelter or experiencing homelessness.

He is reportedly living at the Vita Nova youth shelter in West Palm Beach. He said teens and young adults that end up homeless usually suffer from trauma or substance abuse and miss out on crucial life events such as getting a driver’s license, going to college or getting their first job. It makes it harder for them to ever leave the streets. 

“When you’re homeless, it’s survival mode,” he was quoted saying. “You’re not thinking about, how can I improve myself? You don’t care about the path you’re taking. All you care is that you’re surviving.”

And now let me conclude this on an upbeat, late development just reported in, you guessed it, The Palm Beach Post.

And I’d like to close by saying bravo to Palm Beach County for pursuing the purchase of a La Quinta Inn on Okeechobee Boulevard to house low-income senior citizens.

The plan has some neighbors concerned it might become a magnet for the homeless, but that will pass as they see the uplifting effects of such a benevolent act.

Tom Madden, once a lifeguard in Atlantic City, NJ where he grew up, created a figure called Planetary Lifeguard, Blowing the Whistle on Climate Change, which became his sixth book.  When not whistle blowing, you’ll find him writing press releases for clients of his PR firm, TransMedia Group he started when he left NBC.  His daughter Adrienne Mazzone is the firm’s president.