On Dec. 21, we mark the longest day of winter and memorialize those we have lost while unhoused at our local Homeless Persons Memorial Day gathering. Events such as this happen nationwide in many cities, towns and hamlets, honoring those who have walked on to the next life.
Thinking about those we lost this year has brought up a memory of 2019 and the ensuing years that will remain with me for the rest of my life. In 2019, a mother called my employer, Basic Rights Oregon (BRO). She asked for support in finding her missing daughter, who also happened to be transgender. Nikki was a 17-year-old when she went missing in June of 2019, and her mother, Lisa, was frantically trying to find her baby. Lisa also contacted a community organizer named Devon, who supported Lisa and her family as their spokesperson. I became one of two staff members from BRO who supported Devon and Lisa in the many moving pieces.
As all of this was happening, Lisa was living in alternative housing and fighting her own battles. However, being the mother bear, she pushed on in the search for her baby girl. Unfortunately, Nikki’s body was discovered by a hiker in December 2019 on Larch Mountain. We were all devastated. Nothing compared with Lisa’s grief. In the following years, our small group of trans community organizers rallied around Lisa to support her in every way possible. We all wanted to ensure Nikki received justice and Lisa felt peace. Nikki’s murderer was found guilty and received more than 19 years in prison.
Bringing Lisa’s story to light reminds us of the community we have built as people with lived experiences that cross many intersections. Lisa’s life and the community support she received from her peers in the unhoused community and her recovery community, and from community providers and the DA’s office, is what we at Council for the Homeless envision all unhoused people can encounter in their journey back to being housed. As a person who was a part of our unhoused and recovery communities for many years, Lisa was and remains a beacon of light. The community gathered around her to provide individual healing and community healing, which allowed her to grow in her self-love and make it to the finish line of justice. I learned so much about love, grace and compassion in the years we were together as a small ragtag group of organizers shuffling between the county prosecutor’s office to meetings with representatives from Washington state Rep. Sharon Wylie’s office to have House Bill 1687 passed, also known as the Nikki Kuhnhausen Act, which removes the legal strategy known as the LGBTQ+ panic defense. Lisa blossomed into not only Nikki’s superhero but also into her heroine.
Building a caring community is a vision to meet with grace and compassion. I look forward to sharing that vision with you this Dec. 21 and in 2025.
To learn more about the National Homeless Person Memorial Day event, go to: https://nationalhomeless.org/homeless-persons-memorial-day.
To learn more about Nikki and Lisa’s story, visit https://www.imdb.com/title/tt16740660 and https://www.americantheatre.org/2022/05/18/nikki-kuhnhausen-the-death-of-an-american-girl.
Sincerely, Iden Campbell McCollum, CFTH Continuum of Care Manager
