ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 Among the tall palms of downtown Orlando\u2019s Heritage Square, bedecked with lights, a small artificial Christmas tree near the entrance to the Orange County Regional History Center might be easy to miss. <\/p>\n
On Wednesday morning, dozens gathered to pray and to remember 136 people who also, on any other day, might have gone unnoticed. <\/p>\n
[RELATED: Stories about homelessness in Central Florida<\/a>]<\/p>\n \u201cWe pause, gather and reflect to honor those who have died on the streets or in emergency shelters,\u201d said Kristi Nowrouzi with IDignity, an organization that helps people get paperwork and identification cards.<\/p>\n One by one, advocates picked up a white paper dove and added it to the tree. On 135 doves, the name of someone who was homeless who died this year. <\/p>\n The 136th dove went to \u201cJohn Doe,\u201d a homeless man who died, whose name may never be known.<\/p>\n [WATCH: Homelessness in Metro Orlando holds steady, but is \u2018literally killing\u2019 seniors, advocates say]<\/p>\n IDignity<\/a> has organized the Central Florida Homeless Persons\u2019 Memorial Service for the past 12 years, in concert with the area\u2019s homeless advocacy groups. <\/p>\n \u201cPeople who are not likely to have had a memorial service of their own, folks with limited family and social connections,\u201d said Martha Are, chief executive officer for Homeless Services Network of Central Florida<\/a>. \u201cThe important part is that they have a service to honor them the same way housed people are honored.\u201d<\/p>\n According to the annual census of homeless people, the Point-In-Time Count, there are around 2,781 people in the Orlando area who were considered homeless in 2025<\/a>, with 1,090 of those people sleeping outdoors or in cars. Advocates who try to connect homeless people with services will tell you the number is higher. <\/p>\n Advocacy groups say they have gotten more than 4,000 homeless people into housing programs this year alone.<\/p>\n Many people do seek help. According to the Homeless Services Network, in November alone, 1,014 newly homeless people sought help from agencies in Orange, Osceola, and Seminole counties.<\/p>\n For others who get help, they may have connected with an outreach team. Staff and volunteers go into the woods, under overpasses, to parks, anywhere homeless people can find a place to sleep. <\/p>\n [RELATED: Debunking 8 myths about homelessness in Central Florida<\/a>]<\/p>\n Richard Amabile, who works with United Global Outreach and Samaritan Resource Center, says it can take time and patience to build the trust to get people to accept help. <\/p>\n \u201cTry to meet them where they are at, in the encampments, on the streets, at gas stations, in the medians, wherever they are. Try to introduce myself, get to know them, try to meet them where they are, to build a relationship with them, and try to build some trust with them so I can assess their needs and try to help them,\u201d Amabile said.<\/p>\n These days, it\u2019s tougher to build that trust. <\/p>\n