Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day 2025
Community members are invited to help create a powerful art installation for Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day honoring the 313 individuals experiencing homelessness during Chester County’s 2025 Point-in-Time Count. Our goal is to collect 313 decorated homes.
Sunday, December 21, 2025
National Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day occurs each year on the longest night of the year, the winter solstice. This particular date reminds us that no one should be experiencing homelessness - not ever, and especially not during these cold and unforgiving winter months.
This page will be updated regularly. Check back here and our social media to follow the progression of the Community Art Project!
Community Art Project
Community members were invited to help create a powerful art installation honoring those who have passed away while experiencing homelessness and the 313 individuals experiencing homelessness during Chester County’s 2025 Point-in-Time Count. Our goal was to collect 313 decorated homes and imagine a Chester County where everyone has a home.
The decorated home are being featured with others on a large banner (pictured) displayed at the Government Services Center from December 16-21, 2025 and shared on our social media. Together, they create a unified message that everyone has a role in building a strong, safe community where every neighbor has a home.
We hope that this year’s community art project can serve as a heartfelt reminder of our unhoused neighbors while also bringing awareness to the ongoing work to address homelessness in Chester County and beyond.
In Remembrance
On Wednesday, December 17, the Partnership also accepted a proclamation from the Chester County Commissioners recognizing Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day. Rob Henry, Partnership Administrator, and Kasey Schlack, Partnership Coordinator, were joined by Dolores Colligan, Director of the Department of Community Development, along with team and board members of Friends Association who were recognized for their significant partnership in ending family homelessness.
This year, we honor the eleven individuals in Chester County who lost their lives while experiencing homelessness in 2025.
Helene D. | 86
Helen D. | 50
Mervin G. | 57
Kevin G. | 54
Adrienne K. | 65
Antoinette L. | 59
Domingo M. | 57
Lois R. | 82
Henry T. | 67
Robert Z. | 60
Jimmy C. | 67
How You Can Help
Since 1990, this day has served as a poignant reminder of the individuals we have lost while experiencing homelessness. This year, we unite to make an impactful statement: we cannot let this be the start of another year of growing homelessness in Chester County.
We know there are many causes of homelessness. You can help support everyone in Chester County with safe, affordable housing.
Learn more about how you can also volunteer or donate to the cause of ending homelessness in our community.
Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day 2024
National Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day occurs each year on the longest night of the year, the winter solstice. This particular date reminds us that no one should be experiencing homelessness - not ever, and especially not during these cold and unforgiving winter months.
Community Art Project
Local shelters, housing organizations, schools, churches, and community members have personalized wooden house decorations centered around this year’s theme, “Home is…”. Submissions explore what having a place to call “home” means to each contributor, highlighting the importance of ensuring everyone in our community has a safe, stable place to call home.
We hope that this year’s virtual art gallery can serve as a heartfelt reminder of our unhoused neighbors while also bringing awareness to the ongoing work to address homelessness in Chester County and beyond.
“Home Is…” submissions:
Click on the images below to read more about
the inspiration behind each piece of artwork.
In Remembrance
This year, we honor the five individuals in Chester County who lost their lives while experiencing homelessness in 2024.
Benjamin W. | 56 years old
Denise D. | 31 years old
J. H. | 58 years old
Louis G. | 67 years old
Arthur S. | 80 years old
How You Can Help
Since 1990, this day has served as a poignant reminder of the individuals we have lost while experiencing homelessness. This year, we unite to make an impactful statement: we cannot let this be the start of another year of growing homelessness in Chester County.
We know there are many causes of homelessness. You can help support everyone in Chester County with safe, affordable housing.
Learn more about how you can also volunteer or donate to the cause of ending homelessness in our community.
Homeless Persons' Memorial Day 2023
National Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day occurs each year on the longest night of the year, the winter solstice. Join Chester County Partnership to End Homelessness on Thursday, Dec. 21, as we commemorate National Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day through a powerful art installation.
Homeless Person’s Memorial Day
Thursday, Dec. 21
National Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day occurs each year on the longest night of the year, the winter solstice. Join Chester County Partnership to End Homelessness on Thursday, Dec. 21, as we commemorate National Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day through a powerful art installation.
Art Installation
Historic Chester County Court House
Thursday, December 21, 2023
4:00 PM 4:30 PM
Tori Fisher – a Lived Experience Advisory Board Member – and a team of volunteers from community organizations, local non-profits, and County government have created 436 origami cranes to display at the Historic Chester County Courthouse, to honor each of the 436 individuals that were identified in our point-in-time count at the beginning of this year.
The installation also has interactive boards displayed where attendees can view the list of individuals who we’ve lost this year due to homelessness, who are represented by 10 black paper cranes in the installation.
436 CRANES
“My name is Tori Fisher. I am a participant of the Lived Experience Advisory Board of the Chester County Partnership to End Homelessness. I am also a member of Stages Arts Initiative of Chester County.
Each year the Chester County Partnership to End Homelessness has a “point in time count”. The “point in time count” hopes to accurately record the number of people who are experiencing homelessness in Chester County on any given night. That number is 436.
The 436 white paper cranes symbolize the number of people who are experiencing homelessness on any given night in Chester County. There are black paper cranes scattered throughout the art piece. The black cranes memorialize the individuals who have died while they were experiencing homelessness in Chester County during this past year.
The presentation of this art project coincides with a national event organized by the National Coalition for the Homeless. The event is formally called the Homeless Persons Memorial.
My vision for this art piece is to dramatically display the number of people who are homeless in our county and to bring attention to the severity of the situation by creating a memorial for those who have died this year while experiencing homelessness.
My hope is to impact the community with this piece. The piece itself is a group project. It is a community project. Several people in our community have joined together to build this piece and to have conversations about the situation of homelessness. We have sipped on coffee together. We have cried together. We have folded paper together. And we have allowed compassion to guide our responses to this issue. I hope the fragility of this piece stuns you. I hope seeing the numbers displayed in the form of a crane compels you to action or to volunteerism. And I also hope that if you are one of the people whom the crane represents that you know you are part of our community. You are not a display piece. You are not defined by your circumstance. Please press forward. Do not allow rain or snow or wind to crush you. Reach out to someone you trust. Be well. Be safe. We are in this together.”
Individuals of Honor
This year, we honor the 10 individuals in Chester County who we’ve lost to homelessness in 2023.
Richard M.
V. S.
Michael S.
Sharon M.
Heather S.
G. A.
Arnold M.
S. T.
Jennifer W.
Timothy A.
Thank You to Our Community Contributors
How You Can Help
Since 1990, this day has served as a poignant reminder of the individuals we have lost while experiencing homelessness. This year, we unite to make an impactful statement: we cannot let this be the start of another year of growing homelessness in Chester County. We know there are many causes of homelessness. You can help support people with safe, affordable housing.
Learn more about how you can volunteer or donate to the cause of ending homelessness in our community.
16 homeless Chester County residents who died honored
Sixteen homeless Chester County residents who died in the past year were remembered during a memorial service recently at the historic Chester County Courthouse. A candle was lit for each person who passed, while their names and ages were solemnly read, during National Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day 2022.
Sixteen homeless Chester County residents who died in the past year were remembered during a memorial service recently at the historic Chester County Courthouse.
A candle was lit for each person who passed, while their names and ages were solemnly read, during National Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day 2022.
Similar events were held nationwide to mark Dec. 21, the first day of winter and the longest night of the year.
The goal of the memorial service that attracted almost three dozen attendees was to commemorate the men, women and children who died on the streets and in emergency shelters this year, to recommit to ending homelessness in Chester County and to prevent such deaths in the future.