Researchers keeping track of life expectancy among people living rough in Hamilton, Ont., say another 14 individuals experiencing homelessness died between December and May, with the cause of death for about a quarter of them unknown.
The six-month examination by local health analysts and social workers suggests a slight increase from a similar joint study between December 2021 and May 2022 in which 12 deaths were reported.
While eight of the 14, or 57 per cent, were connected with a drug overdose, the cause of death for four was not known.
Dr. Inna Berditchevskaia of the Hamilton Homeless Mortality Data Project admits the 14 reported deaths are just the people the researchers know about and not likely the complete picture.
“We’re seeing overwhelmingly young Hamiltonians dying in this population,” Berditchevskaia said.
“We reported the average age of death as being 43. Across all 70 individuals that we’ve learned about over the last two years, that average is 41 and predominantly people in their 30s and 40s.”
Statistics Canada data suggests the average Hamiltonian’s life expectancy is 81, based on numbers recorded between 2014 and 2016.
Eleven of the dead were men, and the last known living location was not known for four of the 12.
Four died in hospital, two out of doors, and a pair inside one of the city’s shelters.
Six died in January, just one in each of December and February, while two a month passed between March and May.
Three were considered unsheltered at the time of their death.
Mental illness and substance use were prevalent among individuals who lost their lives, with 11 having a connection with substance abuse and four having an accompanying mental disorder.
Since launching the data collection project in 2021, half of the 70 deaths recorded can be attributed to overdoses with 17 attributed to opioid use.
Berditchevskaia said none of the overdose deaths happened at the city’s one safe injection site on James Street South and suggested that is proof more harm reduction mechanisms need to be brought to where “the people are.”
“When you look at … where people are dying, … at least half of them, as far as we know in this past period, are happening outside of any kind of government-sanctioned or regulated settings,” she said.
“So these are people who are dying in the community either at a friend’s home, in unsheltered circumstances or outside.”
The city estimates the total number of people who have connected with the city’s homeless-serving system as of July is around 1,500, slightly down from the same time in 2021 when the number was just below 1,600, according to the city.
In April, city councillors declared a state of emergency in Hamilton as it relates to homelessness, mental health and opioid addiction.
As of June, it’s believed there are some 1,700 individuals considered to be actively homeless in Hamilton.
The measure set a goal of getting provincial attention and potentially funding to help alleviate the issue.
Since the start of May, figures show that Hamilton paramedics have responded to about 250 suspected overdoses, an increase of about 25 per cent compared with the same time frame last year.
For the first six months of 2023, there was a 43 per cent increase to a total of 512 such incidents, up from 358 from January through June 2022.
Facilitators of the mortality project continue to seek partnerships to paint a more accurate picture of deaths tied to homelessness in the city.
Current data is reported on an individual basis via health and social service workers, as well as by hospitals, according to Berditchevskaia.
The hope is to expand reporting by bringing on more workers and organizations participating in outreach, as well as the provincial coroner.
“We are looking towards a partnership, hopefully with the coroner’s office, that we’ve been trying to make happen over the last little while because the coroner’s office would really have all that information,” Berditchevskaia said.
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