New homelessness monument to reflect the community’s care and compassion

The city’s social services department has been working with a local artist on creating a public art lighthouse that would provide a unique and sentimental piece for the public to visit and enjoy when remembering vulnerable lives that have been lost in the community.

The monument, to be known as Lives Lost of People Experiencing Homelessness will be crafted of steel and glass construction, mounted on a concrete base and will be just over 10 feet tall and five feet wide.

According to Danielle Neilson, Housing Stability Services Manager, the monument design will include a feature which allows visitors to leave notes and messages to lost loved ones.

She noted in a previous report to city council, “a lighthouse which represents hope and guidance, and historical railway culture which represents nostalgia, heritage and growth, and include a feature which allows visitors to leave notes and messages to lost loved ones.

“This unique feature was requested and strongly endorsed by people with lived and living experience as a meaningful and ongoing way to express grief and remembrance.”

The project is an undertaking of the St. Thomas-Elgin Housing Stability Alliance (HSA), a group of local stakeholders and community members that helps to advise and inform the St. Thomas-Elgin response to homelessness.

The proposed home for the monument will be 230 Talbot Street, home of St. Thomas-Elgin Social Services explained Neilson, “which will symbolically connect the monument to the care and compassion that exists throughout our community.”

Subject to council approval, completion and unveiling of the art piece is planned to coincide with World Homelessness Day this year, October 10, “offering a powerful opportunity for community reflection, remembrance and awareness,” suggested Neilson.

Written by Ian McCallum