Los Angeles Homeless Deaths Jump by 55 Percent, Fentanyl as Leading Cause

A homeless man uses a blowtorch to heat up drugs in Garden Grove, Calif., on April 3, 2023. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

Los Angeles County homeless deaths have increased by 55 percent, mainly because of a rise in drug overdoses, a new report this month by the Los Angeles County’s Department of Health has revealed.

Drug overdoses were the biggest cause, reaching 1,488 in 2021, according to the report (pdf).

The county also found that all deaths in the homeless population rose by 19 percent in 2021, up from 2,671 in 2020 and 2,056 in 2019.

More than a third—or 37 percent—of all deaths among unsheltered men and women between 2020 and 2021 were caused mainly by fentanyl overdoses, making it the leading cause of death among all age groups younger than 60, the county reported in its yearly “Mortality Rates and Cause of Death Among People Experiencing Homelessness in Los Angeles County.”

“This report underscores the enormous destruction fentanyl is causing in our communities,” Los Angeles County Supervisor Lindsey P. Horvath said in a statement on May 12.

The rate of fentanyl deaths among the homeless almost tripled to 58 percent in 2021 from 20 percent in 2019, and most also involved the use of methamphetamine or other drugs, the county reported.

A drug user displays fentanyl in San Francisco on Feb. 23, 2023. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

Nationally, 70,601 drug overdose deaths in 2021 resulted primarily from fentanyl, according to the National Institutes of Health.

Drug overdoses were higher among the homeless community’s white population and among males, the report revealed.

Those with the highest overdose rates in 2020 and 2021 were in their 50s or 60s. The highest rate increase was among homeless aged 70 or older, perhaps because of their increased frailty and existing health conditions, according to the report.

The second leading cause of death in the county’s homeless population was coronary heart disease, which decreased between April 1, 2020, and March 31, 2021.

Traffic injuries—which increased by 47 percent in 2021—were the third-highest cause.

According to the report, homicides rose by 49 percent among the homeless in 2021 compared to the year before and were the fourth-leading cause of death. About two homeless people were killed each week on average, the county reported.

Nearly 800 COVID-19 outbreaks at county homeless shelters also impacted the population.

Homeless people were 80 percent more likely to die from COVID-19 than those in the general population, the county found.

A homeless encampment in downtown Los Angeles on Nov. 8, 2021. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

Although the virus was the leading cause of death for all Los Angeles County residents in 2021 and the second-leading cause in 2020, it was only the fifth-leading cause of death in the county’s homeless population, according to the report.

“The COVID-19 pandemic and the parallel rise in fentanyl trafficking brought widespread disruption and death to [homeless people] in LA County and widened the gap in mortality between [homeless] and the general population,” the county reported.

County Supervisor Janice Hahn said the realities in the data were sobering.

“This is a tragedy upon a tragedy,” she said in the same statement. “People are dying on our streets and this report only underscores how important it is that we continue to treat the homelessness crisis with a sense of urgency and move as many people as possible inside so we can begin to save their lives.”