Dr. Eileen de Villa says preliminary numbers collected by Toronto Public Health (TPH) shows that at least 70 homeless people have died since January of this year.
The data, presented at the Toronto Board of Health meeting on Monday, revealed the deaths of 57 men and 13 women, with the bulk of deaths, 27, happening in the first quarter of 2017.
“So for the first three quarters of this year, we received reports on the deaths of 70 homeless individuals,” de Villa told the board during the meeting at city hall. “This works out to about 1.8 deaths per week.”
The median age of the deceased homeless people was 48, with about half of those deaths below that age.
TPH says present numbers show that a typical male Torontonian can expect to live until 79, while the average is 83 years for a female.
“Based on these numbers and what we know from the system in general is… that being homeless is a significant risk factor in early death,” said de Villa.
Most of the deaths, 46, are said to have happened indoors at an inner-city hospital or shelter with only four deaths known to have happened outside. The location for the rest was unknown. Close to half of the cases are still being investigated by the regional coroner.
When asked by Trinity-Spadina Coun. Joe Cressy on what was the cause was for most of the deaths, de Villa said reports show most are associated with overdoses.
LISTEN: Joe Cressy joins the Morning Show on AM640
De Villa said her reported numbers are likely to fluctuate before the end of the year since much of that data they are receiving is exploratory due to the new collection process instituted in January of this year.
“We now know more than we did prior to January of this year in respect to deaths that happen among this population, but there are and continue to be limitations in respect to this data.”
WATCH: Data collected will track deaths both inside and outside city-funded shelters. Marianne Dimain explains.
The new 2017 initiative involves about 200 health and social service agencies brought on to collect data from not only shelters but also on the street and other locations, such as a friend or family member’s home.
The idea was to provide a better snapshot of who is dying and how.
The change involves agencies filling out a special form including the person’s age, gender, cause of death and history, which would then be submitted to Toronto Public Health.
“We don’t yet have hospitals included in the reporting system. This is something we are actually actively working on with our hospital partners, but we do have to recognize that one of the challenges is we are working with personal health information.”
De Villa also said deaths among Indigenous people are largely not reported.
— With files from Marianne Dimain
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