City officials shared about 900 unsheltered people died on the streets of Los Angeles in 2023. Macy Jenkins reports for the NBC4 News on March 28, 2024.
The City Controller's Office released a map of unhoused deaths in 2023 using data obtained from the County Medical-Examiner Coroner.
The map shows details such as age, gender, cause and mode, as well as the Council District and location where each death occurred.
While last year there was a reduction in homeless deaths, the controller's office said “any number of unhoused deaths is unacceptable.”
In response to the controller's report, Mayor Karen Bass issued a statement Thursday saying, “Every death that occurs is a tragedy and we express our condolences to those friends, family and community members who have lost a loved one due to this crisis.”
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She added, “The focus of our work has been to take urgent action to save lives and while the controller's data released today indicates a decrease in deaths, we know that there is still much more work to be done.”
Highlights of the controller's analysis showed that the most common mode of death was categorized as an “accident” (about 678 deaths or 75%.)
About 40, or 4%, homeless people were murdered in 2023, accounting for 12% of all homicides in the city. Unhoused people represent about 1% of the population.
Of the 900 deaths in 2023, 160 (or 18%) of deaths were natural, 16 (or 2%) were suicide and 6 (or 1%) were undetermined. The City Controller's Office noted they classified these as “mode of death” because the mode can take a while to investigate and conclusions are preliminary.
Additionally, at least 338 (or 73%) of deaths were in streets or areas without proper utilities, such as tents, parking lots, parks, RVs and vacant buildings, according to the analysis.
Most common places of death took place on the streets, freeways, tunnels and sidewalks.
About 135 unhoused people died in a healthcare facility, 70 unhoused people died in vehicles, 48 unhoused people died in some type of residence and 38 unhoused people died in a tent.
Black people, who are homeless, represent 31% of these deaths, while Black people represent 8% of the city's general population and 33% of the city's unhoused population.
About 274 (or 30%) of white unhoused people died in 2023, and 289 (or 32%) of Hispanic/Latino unhoused people died last year as well.
The City Controller's Office noted that January, February and March were the most deadly months for unhoused people in 2023.
Council District 1 and 14 -- the downtown, north, northeast areas – had the highest numbers of deaths, as well as having some of the highest unhoused populations.
CD 14 had 269 deaths, accounting for 29.9% of unhoused deaths in 2023, followed by 105 deaths or 11.7% in CD 1, and 77 or 8.6% of deaths in CD 13 (Hollywood area).
According to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, the highest unhoused populations in 2022 were in CD 14, 9 and 1, followed closely by 6 and 13.
