Local religious leaders invited people to a candlelight vigil to honor homeless Nevadans who died in Washoe County last year. Some people who attended say it was a powerful service and a very eye-opening experience for them.

"It's my first time coming down here and I don't know why I hadn't come before, said attendee Georgia Dalto. "I started crying kind of immediately, it was a very moving topic."

Many attended to pay their respects and light candles at the vigil organized by a multi-faith group. It was a solemn service of remembrance where each name of a homeless person that has passed away last year was read aloud and each person was honored as a member of this community.

"So many times the homeless go unrecognized," said attendee Betty Bishop. "They become invisible to us, or we shun them, so having a vigil that commemorates their death, to give them honor, it's the least we can do to show dignity to our fellow human beings."

Several different religious leaders offered prayers in their respective traditions and languages. Some speakers also have shared their personal struggles of being homeless or other people's journeys as a homeless person.

Even though homeless deaths dropped from 136 in 2023 to 77 in 2024, our community's first decrease since 2016, religious leaders say this is still a stark reminder that too many lives were lost.

"Most of these deaths are preventable," said Rajan Sed, President of Universal Society of Hinduism. "I hope that we as agencies wake up and we should not have this happening in our community."

One of the organizers, Father Chuck Durante, a pastor rector of Saint Thomas Aquinas Catholic Cathedral, says everyone in our community needs to continue putting in effort looking after each other and finding ways to help those in need.

"One of the refrains we hear a lot is housing is the answer so that's definitely part of it. Mental health support and helping with mental illness and addiction is another piece of this. The biggest one is making sure we can provide for people who live among us," he explains.

Both Durante and Zed say this vigil will continue every year until hopefully the day the number of deaths drops to zero.