Over 2,000 Homeless People Died in Los Angeles Last Year

 

A shocking 2,033 homeless people died in Los Angeles in 2023.

The staggering figure represents a 300% increase from 2014.

The numbers were revealed in an expose from The Guardian.

“An exclusive review of LA county medical examiner data obtained by the Guardian shows the department logged a total of 11,573 deaths of unhoused people over the last decade. Deaths have consistently increased every year,” the Guardian reports.

The 2023 figure averages out to over six deaths per day in the California county. 

The Guardian reports:

The data is an undercount as the medical examiner only has jurisdiction over deaths considered violent, sudden or unusual, or where the deceased has not recently seen a doctor, meaning the scale of the crisis is greater than what’s captured in the data.

The LA county public health department does its own tracking, and a spokesperson said its researchers estimate there are roughly 20% more deaths in its database due to its more comprehensive sources and methodologies. The health department has not yet released 2023 data.

The newspaper listed a myriad of challenges facing the homeless population including, “the rise in fentanyl, untreated mental and physical illness, a lack of access to affordable housing and high rates of violence. A man was arrested last year for allegedly targeting and killing three unhoused men in LA who were sleeping.”

“The alarming death rate comes as LA residents continue to fall into homelessness faster than people on the streets are moved into housing,” the report explains.

“The county now has more than 75,500 unhoused people, according to the 2023 point-in-time survey, a rough estimate. LA also has one of the highest rates in the nation of people living outside, with 73% of its unhoused population classified as ‘unsheltered’, meaning living in tents, cars and makeshift structures. In New York City, by comparison, an estimated 5% of the unhoused population is unsheltered, with most in emergency shelters.”