2,033 homeless people died in Los Angeles in 2023.
This staggering number represents a 300% increase from 2014.
The figures were revealed in an expose from The Guardian.
“An exclusive review of Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s data, obtained by The Guardian, shows that the department recorded a total of 11,573 deaths of unhoused people over the past decade. The Guardian newspaper reported that deaths are constantly increasing every year.
The 2023 figure averages more than six deaths per day in California.
The Guardian reports:
The data are undercounts because the medical examiner only has jurisdiction over deaths considered violent, sudden or unusual, or when the deceased had not seen a doctor recently, meaning the scale of the crisis is larger than captured in the data.
The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health does its own tracking, and a spokesperson said its researchers estimate there is about a 20% increase in deaths in its database due to its more comprehensive sources and methodologies. The Ministry of Health has not yet released data for 2023.
The newspaper listed a myriad of challenges facing the homeless, including “high rates of fentanyl use, untreated mental and physical illnesses, lack of access to affordable housing, and high rates of violence.” A man was arrested last year for allegedly targeting and killing three homeless men in Los Angeles who were sleeping.
“The alarming death rate comes as Los Angeles residents continue to fall into homelessness faster than people on the streets move into housing,” the report explains.
“The county now has more than 75,500 homeless people, according to the 2023 Timeline Survey, which is a rough estimate. Los Angeles also has one of the nation's highest rates of people living outside, with 73% of its unhoused population classified as “homeless,” meaning living in tents, cars and makeshift buildings. In New York City, by comparison, an estimated 5% of the unhoused population is homeless, most of them in emergency shelters.
