Study: Unhoused People at Much Higher Risk of Death

A study of mortality rates among unhoused people reveals that the death rate tripled between 2011 and 2020 — even before the pandemic struck. Mariska Kendall explains the study’s results in Governing, writing: “Overdoses played a major role in the deaths studied. But people also are dying at increased rates of things that might be avoided if they had a home or regular access to preventative medical care, such as heat and cold exposure, traffic injuries, cardiovascular disease and diabetes.” Deaths from cardiovascular disease rose by 172 percent.

The researchers attribute the 283 percent increase in part to the opioid crisis, law enforcement crackdowns on encampments that force people to move to more isolated and unsafe locations, and the increase in the average age of unhoused people. “The number of Californians 55 and older who sought homelessness services soared 84 percent between 2017 and 2021, according to the state’s Homeless Data Integration System.” 

Margot Kushel, director of the UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative, says becoming homeless is “incredibly bad for your health.” According to Kushel, “There is increasing evidence that you can prevent a lot of these deaths just by getting people housed.”