The calendar’s shortest day and longest night known as the winter solstice is often cold and wet. But even on days like Sunday, when a high of 55 degrees is expected, being outside when temperatures start dropping to near freezing can be uncomfortable.

That’s the feeling the Longest Night Memorial captures, in remembering those who have died while homeless and the people who loved them.

“This event is about showing dignity for our homeless community, and rebuilding dignity is so much at the core of rebuilding lives. For those that have passed this is the least we can do – to recognize them for one evening,” said Clint Knox, executive director of Ithaka Housing. The nonprofit operates 10 properties that offer transitional, supportive units for 75 men, seniors, immigrants, and families exiting homelessness, incarceration or poverty.

The public ceremony will begin at 5 p.m. Sunday at Evergreen Cemetery at the Memorial Wall just inside the main gate of the property at 1005 Hancock Expressway. Last year’s event drew a crowd of nearly 200 people, Knox said.

“I think people often don’t know what to do or how to get involved in supporting our marginalized and unhoused community, and this event is a great first step to get involved,” Knox said. “From there it could be a springboard to become a donor or volunteer or get into the field of service work.”

The names of 113 people who died on the streets in the past year will be read aloud, while attendees hold lighted candles and recite, “We remember,” after each name.

Of those, 76 came through the El Paso County Coroner’s Office as autopsies; the remaining 37 are contributions from agencies that work with homeless people, said Kristy Milligan, executive director of Westside CARES, a consortium of west-side churches that provides services for homeless and low-income people.

“Each name read represents a real human being. A brother, a sister, a child, a parent, a friend. Not a single person whose name will be read dreamed of being homeless when they grew up,” she said. “It’s important to remember their lives and to honor all that they survived, the likes of which most of us cannot imagine.”

The count is usually around 100 people; this year’s is a little more, Milligan added.

“We know that the average lifespan of someone who has experienced homelessness is around 20 years shorter than their housed counterparts,” she said. “Their deaths reflect not individual failure, but rather our community’s failure to protect its most vulnerable members. We come together to honor the casualties of indifference, mistrust and a loss of humanity.”

Cremains of homeless people who don’t have a final resting place as well as some of their friends and advocates are interred at the site.

One man’s ashes will be buried Sunday night, said Mary Lynn Sheetz, who in the 1970s co-founded a community burial ground for homeless people in Colorado Springs with her late husband, Steve Handen.

The couple formalized the annual memorial service in 1993 and in 2002 moved the original columbarium from one of their transitional housing properties to Evergreen Cemetery. A small unused area on its grounds has been transformed into a scattering garden for cremains. Handen’s ashes are among those in the small and simple yet beautiful plot.

The deceased whose ashes will be laid to rest on Sunday will include, Larry Ramirez, who was a resident of Mesa House at one time, Sheetz said. She runs Mesa House, a nonprofit residential housing program that supports parolees and low-income people who have mental illness.

Ramirez lived a very low-income life and had a generous heart for those who are homeless, she said.

“He did orderly work at Memorial Hospital and was dedicated to helping people on the streets,” Sheetz said. “He helped them get places to stay.”

The community has a shortage of 2,000 supportive housing units, according to a new housing-needs assessment the city of Colorado Springs released earlier this month.

“When we have a housing shortage in our community, we’re going to have unhoused individuals. The math just plays out,” Knox said. “We need development in our community, which means we need to support and work with developers. We need more apartments, which means we need to support and work with landlords. The solutions around homelessness come with the building of homes and the collaboration of every entity that’s involved with that.”

Sunday’s en masse memorial service is a collaboration between several local organizations that assist homeless population, including Ithaka, Homeward Pikes Peak, Westside CARES, Mesa House and contributions from the city’s Evergreen Cemetery.

Ithaka will provide candles for the memorial service and refreshments afterward.

“There are many things that human beings deserve. Love at the beginning and the end of life are an important start,” Milligan said. “If our society has abandoned people in the years in between, the least we can do is stand together and bear witness and offer love at the end.”