A tribute to homeless lost in '06

This Christmas, Luci Lee will not drive the streets of Salt Lake City, as she has in years past. There is no need, this year, to pack hot meals in her car and search among the faces of the homeless for her brothers.

After several years on the streets, Joey and Pat Lee passed away within two months of each other, two of the 42 homeless Utahns known to have died this year. A spiritual woman, Luci Lee believes her brothers died from "a loss of hope" — sadness over broken marriages, difficulties adjusting to life off the Navajo reservation, the inability to overcome powerful addictions.

"I think the Lord knew. I believe there is a god, and I believe in the power of prayer," Luci Lee said. "I think he knew our sufferings, too, because I was beginning to worry and I felt maybe he thought it was time to take them home."

The Salt Lake County Homeless Coordinating Council will honor all 42 of the deceased homeless tonight, the longest night of the year, with a candlelight vigil at the Bishop Weigand Resource Center. Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon will speak, and there will be a Native American prayer song to honor those who have died.

At 66, Joey Lee was the oldest homeless Utahn to die in 2006, according to a list compiled by the Fourth Street Clinic, using information from various Salt Lake County homeless agencies. The youngest was 32-year-old Holly R. Bridwell. Most of the homeless people who passed away this year suffered an illness or died from natural causes, though some died from overdoses or suicides, according to the clinic. None died from exposure, a common fear for many service providers.

Community advocate Pamela Atkinson, who will also speak tonight, said the service is an important and necessary tribute.

"Just as we remember our friends and family members and colleagues who have died, it's very important to remember homeless people who have died," Atkinson said. "Number one, they were human beings who had dreams and aspirations, but number two, some of the deaths probably could have been prevented.

Community members, she said, "need to know they didn't die because they were homeless, and they didn't die just because they drank and perhaps took drugs. They died because something had gone wrong in their lives."

For Joey and Pat Lee, the problems began many years ago when their marriages fell apart, their sister said. They lost touch with their children, they lost jobs and they ran out of money. They began drinking and eventually ended up on the streets, according to Luci Lee. Joey, the elder brother, was homeless off and on for the past four years and Pat for about two years.