“Longest Night” and “No Room at the Inn”

“Longest Night” and “No Room at the Inn”

NUH
2024-12-21

Preface:

NATIONAL UNION OF THE HOMELESS 2024 WINTER OFFENSIVE STATEMENT

During the Holiday Season The National Union of the Homeless takes action together across 5 regions across the United States, in the South, Appalachia, Midwest, West and the Northeast to declare: Housing and Healthcare NOW. An End to Genocide and the War Economy! No more death on the streets both here and abroad!

The Homeless Union’s Winter Offensives is a series of synchronized actions and protests, from Thanksgiving through Martin Luther King Jr's Birthday which highlights this period of time when the poor and homeless experience the most deadly conditions and the highest rates of suicide and death.

We work together to fulfill our mission statement that declares we commit our lives to ending homelessness and poverty and to work tirelessly for the human right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, for social and economic justice for all.

As our Leader Rev Savina cries “At a time when they sing Peace on Earth our land groans under the weight of injustice!” Again we shout: HOUSING AND HEALTHCARE NOW! NO MORE DEATH ON THE STREETS BOTH HERE AND ABROAD!

As we enter 2025 we are also feeling the deadly effects of the recent Supreme Court decision criminalizing the homeless by making outdoor sleeping a crime. We are seeing an increase in an already deadly practice of sweeps and incarceration of our homeless communities. We know there are 24 empty homes for every single individual in need of one while 1000 souls will freeze to death on the streets this year and homelessness continues to rise at record numbers! We declare NO MORE.

The Poor People’s Campaign has shown that poverty is the 4th leading cause of death in the U.S., and 800 people die every day in the richest country that’s ever existed in the history of the world! Our system is FAILING - and we are DYING as a result of a system that puts PROFIT over our lives.

Join us, the Nation Union of the Homeless and the Nonviolent Medicaid Army, as we organize to unite our class across the country to end this system that profits from poverty, homelessness and death and to create a society organized around our human rights to health, housing and a standard of overall general welfare.

YOU ONLY GET WHAT YOU ARE ORGANIZED TO TAKE!

You Only Get What You're Organized to Take!

Boston Massachusetts NUH Reflects on “Longest Night”- 12/21/24

On December 21, 2024 NUH and other movement allies attended the Longest Night service at the Church on the Hill in Boston directly across from the Boston Common where some of our unsheltered siblings toiled outside in the 23 degree weather.

The ‘Longest Night’, also referred to as Homeless Memorial Day, is always December 21st. This is the longest night of the year as December 21st is the Winter Solstice. On this day it usually gets dark outside about 4:15pm in each timezone. Making it the longest night of darkness for our siblings living outside of the year.

On this day/evening we remember those that died living outside during the previous 12 months. In Boston this year the number was over 40 souls. After the service, an NUH member and allies went to South Station, Boston's national and local rail hub, with hats and hand warmers gathered by the group:

Notably, the land oppression of the ongoing construction of a skyscraper at South Station caused the entire west side of the station to be closed to pedestrian and commuter access. That area is an entry/exit to the very large station which also normally acts as a small enclosed respite area for those un-housed ro take refuge. No longer.

It was also observed that since the station is partially open to the elements rail travelers were huddled and bundled up with ample luggage similar to our siblings un-sheltered that regularly use the station to get out of the cold. The two sets of folks were almost indistinguishable. This was surreal to those of us that have witnessed in Train stations the usual clearly evident difference of travelers and people unsheltered. It brought the two groups into an eerie equivalence for once.

On the way out after distributing the survival gear an unsheltered sibling shared despite the freezing cold sub zero nightly wind-chills, authorities were still closing the station to all non-ticketed persons from 12am-5am - the coldest most dangerous hours for those forcibly displaced by our system.

- NUH Boston 12/21/24

You can connect with NUH Boston and NUH national leadership here
Email us at: 2020nuh@gmail.com

You can see more Blog posts herehttps://nationalunionofthehomeless.org/blog/

You can view the NUH Homepage herehttps://nationalunionofthehomeless.org/

For more information and to get involved contact: 2020nuh@gmail.com