Many homeless in L.A. died from drugs, preliminary data show

Data released Thursday by City Comptroller Kenneth Mejia shows at least 898 homeless people died last year on the streets, in shelters, on highways and elsewhere.

Mejia’s report, which analyzed preliminary data from the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner, did not detail the number of drug-related deaths because toxicology reports may be pending in some cases.

An analysis of Times data found that about 65%, or 545, of deaths reported so far last year were linked to drugs, including fentanyl and methamphetamine — an indication of the crisis’ deadly toll drugs on the streets of Los Angeles. are increasing as new toxicology reports come in.

Los Angeles is home to about 46,260 unhoused people, 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 to combat homelessness and build more housing. The fentanyl and meth crisis has prompted city officials to fund treatment beds for homeless people suffering from addiction — a service typically funded by the county government, not City Hall.

According to Mejia’s report, 75% of homeless deaths reported so far in 2023 were accidental — a category that includes drug-related deaths.

About 18% were due to natural causes, 4% were homicides and 2% were suicides, according to the report. In 1% of deaths, the cause was undetermined.

At least 73% of deaths occurred on the streets or in places 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 parts of the city with the highest number of homeless deaths were Council District 14, which includes Skid Row, and Council District 1, which includes MacArthur Park, near downtown.

Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, who represents District 1, said the majority of homeless deaths in her district last year were due to opioids. She said she wants to bring more services to MacArthur Park, where many of these deaths occurred.

“We cannot take our eyes off this crisis: the consequences of simply moving people from one neighborhood to another and prioritizing criminalization over service provision are ineffective at best and , at worst, fatal,” Hernandez said.

A report released last year by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health indicated that in 2022, fentanyl was responsible for nearly 60% of accidental drug or alcohol overdoses across the state. the population of the county. Fentanyl has surpassed methamphetamine as the drug most commonly responsible for overdose deaths.

Jason Wardan economist at Rand Corp., a nonprofit research institute based in Santa Monica, said in a February interview that he continues to see a “very high mortality rate” among unhoused people in Los Angeles in cause of fentanyl.

Fentanyl-related deaths are so profound that the city’s overall homeless population is likely declining, Ward said.