A memorial Saturday morning at Riverfront Park remembered Nashville's homeless population who have died this year.
About 116 men and women have died due to natural causes, frostbite, being hit by vehicles, or stabbings.
Non-profit Open Table Nashville has kept track of deaths and has recorded at least 20 more deaths in 2017 than 2016 -- the largest number the non-profit has recorded.
"There were several months in there it seems like we were just losing folks left and right," Lauren Plummer said.
Plummer, who works with Open Table Nashville as the Housing and Outreach Coordinator, said several of the deaths could be avoided if the men and women had a place to live.
"Research shows that people experience chronic homelessness that their lifespan gets shortened by 25 years," she said.
Homeless advocate Howard Allen was born and raised in Nashville and has been homeless for 17 years.
"Each year this is personal to me. This is an event that I take very personal because one year it might be me. It's going to be a day of celebration and to let people know that they're your brothers and sisters, also," Allen said.
Allen said more needs to be done by local city leaders when it comes to taking care of the homeless.
"To become a great city, it's going to take people to make a change, and it's time for the politicians to make a bold move. We have a bold move for transit, transit, transit. We need a bold move for housing, housing, housing," Allen said.
Names were read during the memorial and issues that are killing people living on the streets were discussed.
The memorial was held at Riverfront Park with breakfast served at 8:30 a.m. followed by the memorial at 9 a.m.
