Joseph LaPan is homeless.  

Lately, that’s meant being wet, cold and weary of being trespassed. 

“I don’t know,” he said when asked how he was doing Sunday night. “My feet hurt.” 

LaPan was one of about 50 who attended the National Homeless Person’s Day of Remembrance at Father Bill’s Kitchen at St. Vincent de Paul North Idaho. 

It was described as an opportunity for reflection and to honor the community’s most vulnerable individuals. At least six homeless people died in this area in the past year, said Chris Green with Heritage Health’s Street Medicine and Community Outreach. 

“I enter this night with a heavy heart,” said Green who has spent time on the streets.

Green said it was not a coincidence the gathering was held on the darkest day of the year, Dec. 21, known as winter solstice 

“When we lose people, we don’t always know about it,” he said. “These people we’re remembering tonight are a part of this community."

According to the 2025 Point in Time Homeless Count in January, Idaho has 2,697 homeless people, down slightly from the previous year. Most were adult males between the ages of 18 and 54. 

In Idaho's Region One, which includes Kootenai, Bonner, Boundary, Shoshone and Benewah counties, there were 246 homeless in the PIT 2025 count. 

The area’s only warming shelter is operated by St. Vincent’s in Post Falls. 

During the 45-minute event, people shared names and stories of those who spent time homeless and had died. 

One man recounted how several friends had died of fentanyl overdoses. Another said a person on the street had no family and died alone. 

Green issued a call for action. 

“Reach out,” he said. "Reach out and connect.” 

Scott Ferguson, St. Vincent de Paul North Idaho executive director, said it was important to see people for who they are rather than their social status, job or how much or how little money they had. 

Every community member has value, he said, and should be appreciated for who they were. 

“Every person matters,” Ferguson said. 

He said everyone can show what true love looks like. Connections give people a sense of humanity. 

“There’s always an opportunity for us to grow,” Ferguson said, adding that each person has a responsibility “to be sure to never leave any individual in our community unseen.” 

John Baxter, who has been homeless, is getting back on his own with help from St. Vincent’s. He is moving into his own apartment and plans to attend North Idaho College to study psychology. For that, he is glad. 

“It feels really good, like I’m doing something positive,” Baxter said. “I was always in the negative until I went to church and turned my life around.” 

He said most have no understanding what being homeless is like and said being homeless is a “totally different world.” 

“You’ve got to adapt to that world,” Baxter said. “If you don’t have the mindset to survive out there, you ain’t going to make it.” 

His father taught him how to survive on his own, Baxter said. 

“I took some of that and put it into living on the streets,” he said. 

His goal is to help others on the street and “show them the light.” 

“Some of them never experienced what real love is,” he said. 

LaPan, who has called North Idaho home for more than 50 years, has endured tough times.  

He said he has found himself on snowy nights with no place to go and tried to warm on train tracks and was burned when he tried to sleep too close to a transformer. 

Following Sunday’s remembrance ceremony, LaPan was waiting for the shuttle to take him to St. Vincent’s warming shelter, where he was looking forward to a good night’s sleep in a warm bed. 

“It's nice to get out of the rain and the gutter,” he said. 

    Chris Green rings a bell as the names of the homeless who passed away are read during the National Homeless Person's Day of Remembrance at Father Bill's Kitchen at St. Vincent de Paul North Idaho on Sunday.