At least 898 homeless people died on the streets, in shelters and on highways last year, according to data released Thursday by City Commissioner Kenneth Mejia.
Mejia’s report analyzed preliminary data from the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office, but does not provide a breakdown of drug-related deaths because toxicology reports may be pending in some cases. .
A Times analysis of the data found that about 65%, or 545, of the deaths reported so far last year were related to drugs such as fentanyl and methamphetamine. This shows the high number of deaths caused by the drug crisis on the streets of Los Angeles. will increase as toxicology reports increase.
There are about 46,260 unhoused people living in Los Angeles, an 80% increase since 2015, according to figures released last year by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority.
In recent years, the city has spent billions of dollars addressing homelessness and building housing. The fentanyl and meth crisis prompted city officials to fund treatment beds for homeless people struggling with addiction, but this service is typically paid for by county governments rather than city hall. Ta.
According to Mejia’s report, 75% of the 2,023 homeless deaths reported to date have been accidental, including drug-related deaths.
According to the report, about 18% of deaths were due to natural causes, 4% were homicides, and 2% were suicides. In 1% of deaths, the cause was unknown.
At least 73% of deaths occurred on the street or in locations such as tents, RVs, and parking lots.
According to the report, 31% of homeless people who died in 2023 were black. Black people make up 8% of the city’s population, but 33% of the unhoused population.
The report found that the areas with the highest number of homeless deaths in the city were Council Ward 14, which includes Skid Row, and Council Ward 1, which includes MacArthur Park near downtown. did.
Councilmember Eunice Hernandez, who represents District 1, said opioids accounted for the majority of homeless deaths in the district last year. She said she would like to see more services provided to MacArthur Park, where many of the deaths occurred.
“We cannot turn a blind eye to this crisis. The consequences of simply moving people from one area to the next and prioritizing criminalization over service provision are ineffective at best. , which can be fatal in the worst case scenario,” Hernandez said.
A report released last year by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health found that fentanyl was responsible for nearly 60% of accidental drug or alcohol overdoses across the county’s population in 2022. Fentanyl has surpassed meth as the most common drug contributing to overdose deaths.
Jason WardIn a February interview, an economist at the Santa Monica-based nonprofit research institute Rand Corp. said in a February interview that Los Angeles continues to have a “very high” death rate among unhoused people from fentanyl.
The number of fentanyl-related deaths is so severe that the city’s overall homeless population is likely declining, Ward said.
