Fewer than a dozen Merced County residents gathered Sunday in McNamara Park to honor more than 50 people who died this year while unhoused, and many in attendance were homeless advocates or service providers.
The small but dedicated group noted the absence of elected officials at this year’s annual memorial. In years past, the tribute has attracted larger attendance.
Every Dec. 21, the group Journey For Justice, a grassroots collective including formerly unhoused residents and advocates, plan Merced’s annual homeless memorial service.
“It has to be the 21st because it marks the winter solstice and is usually the coldest and longest night of the year,” said Gena Mercer, Journey For Justice member and one of the vigil’s organizers this year.
Mercer experienced homelessness for 10 years, four of those in Merced with her husband, Thomas Burkett, who died in 2018 while living on the streets. He was memorialized during that year’s unhoused memorial.
Event planners and volunteers set up the 2025 Winter Solstice Houseless Memorial at McNamara Park in southwest Merced at 1040 Canal St. on Sunday morning.
Observed nationally, Merced’s annual memorial honors all who have died as a result of experiencing homelessness, whether they spent their final moments in a public street, temporary shelter or permanent housing.
According to the event’s organizers, among the roughly 50 deaths of unhoused people reported in Merced County this year, the majority were older than 60. The youngest person on this year’s list was 26-year-old Zackary Foster, and the oldest were Ernest Delagranda and Donna Looney, both 83.
Bernice Gonzalez was among those who attended Sunday’s memorial service. Her husband, Joseph ‘Jojo’ Edwards, died in 2021, she told The Merced FOCUS, and he was memorialized by Journey For Justice members last year with a plaque at McNamara Park.
“He watches over me,” Gonzalez said, referring to her late husband.
Gonzalez is one of the county’s roughly 717 unsheltered persons. That number, recorded earlier this year during the annual point-in-time count, decreased 14.3% from the 837 homeless people reported last year.
At 63 years old, Gonzalez recently began receiving income through retirement benefits and is now searching for housing.
“I want somebody to help me do all of that,” she said, adding she is waiting to hear back from the Merced County Navigation Center for additional assistance.
Mutual aid takes center stage
More homeless people are dying in California in recent years, according to a 2024 research study published by the University of Pennsylvania.
The same study found that nearly one-third of homeless people nationwide died of an overdose in 2020, representing a 488% increase from 2011, CalMatters reported. The authors used data from federally-mandated point-in-time count reports in their research.
Jennifer Loa with The Sidewalk Project distributed free boxes of naloxone nasal spray at the memorial. The Los Angeles-based nonprofit prioritizes sex workers, people with substance use disorders and the unhoused.
“Just like people in houses are using drugs, unhoused people are using drugs,” said Loa, homeless outreach coordinator for the Los Banos Housing Division. “But the people that are living on the streets, that are most vulnerable and don’t have any money – people that are living in poverty – don’t have access to the medication that can save their life very quickly. And that’s what naloxone is.”
Naloxone is used to reverse opioid overdose, and was in recent years approved for over-the-counter purchase at local pharmacies.
This year’s event focused on providing services to the unhoused people still living in Merced.
“We’re out here doing mutual aid and helping each other, loving each other and making sure that we have what we need,” LaTanya Ri’Chard told attendants during the memorial.
Ri’Chard, director of Health Equity, Black Woman Sanctuary, took a bag of clothes for the event’s community closet, hosted by local grassroots collective, Young Revolutionary Front.
Multiple stations, hosted by various local nonprofit and grassroots organizations, attracted the park’s regular visitors who took advantage of resources, such as food, clothes and medication, all provided free of charge.
Among some of the resource groups tabling were the Robert Rojas Foundation, Golden Valley Health Centers, and Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability.
“We figured we needed to bring them and include them as well because these are the services that are being provided to those that are on the streets,” said Bobby Cornelio, Director of Hope Respite Care at Merced Rescue Mission.
Honoring a vulnerable population by every number
Since 2015, Warren and Bobby Cornelio have helped collect the names of unhoused community members who die every year.
Warren Cornelio said he collaborates with the Merced Cemetery District and the Merced County Sheriff’s Coroner’s Office to verify the names of all who died annually as a result of experiencing homelessness.
The number of people who died this year in Merced County include unsheltered residents living on the street and those who finally secured housing before death, Bobby Cornelio said.
“There were additional names, but I could not verify homelessness for them, so they weren’t read. But that’s why we added the, ‘In memory of all those that we can’t say’,” Bobby Cornelio said, explaining why there is an asterisk next to the number of 50 deaths.
Warren Cornelio, Bobby’s husband, found stability at the Merced County Rescue Mission after years of experiencing homelessness–beginning in high school as a teenager after he moved from Hawaii–and battling a substance use disorder.
“Part of my change was just to serve, and because I was homeless myself, that’s where my heart wanted to be a part…,” he said, adding, “I feel that I was getting a second chance at life.”
Now, Cornelio said he believes providing services to the unhoused is his mission.
“I do a few different organizations, but one that really touches my heart is just remembering those who didn’t make it,” Warren Cornelio said about planning Merced’s annual homeless memorial with Journey For Justice since 2015. “I (feel) really blessed to have a second chance at life…”
