Deaths of people experiencing homelessness in B.C. skyrocketed by 135% from 2021-22: coroner

The BC Coroners Service says there was a “sharp rise” in deaths among people experiencing homelessness in 2022.

The coroner says the deaths of at least 342 unhoused people were reported to the agency last year, marking a 138-per-cent increase over the past two years.

The service explains the toxic drug supply has “significantly contributed to the increased number of deaths among people who are precariously housed or experiencing homelessness.”

“More than eight out of every 10 deaths in the review period were classified as accidental, and of those accidental deaths, more than nine in 10 were determined to have been caused by unregulated drugs,” the BC Coroners Service explained in a release Thursday.

Speaking at an unrelated news conference Thursday, Premier David Eby said his government is taking different approaches to deal with the toxic drug crisis. However, he also said it “needs to do more.”

The BC Coroners Service says at least 13,000 lives have been lost to toxic, unregulated drugs since the public health crisis was declared in 2016.

Significant increase in annual average over last two years

Data focusing on the unhoused population shows there were 1,464 deaths from 2015 to 2022, which equated to an average of 183 deaths per year. The BC Coroners Service adds there was a significant increase from this average in 2021 and 2022.

The release also notes that the highest numbers of deaths during the 2015-2022 period were in Vancouver (306), Surrey (146), and Victoria (118). Almost 74 per cent of people who died were aged between 30 and 59, and 82 per cent were male.

More deaths also occurred in the fall (27 per cent) and winter (26 per cent).

The service explains “because housing data was unavailable at the time of analysis, rates of death and any possible correlation between deaths and the number of people experiencing homelessness in the province could not be determined.”

Anyone living outdoors, in a makeshift shelter, a parked vehicle, any structure not “intended for habitation,” a person staying at an emergency or temporary shelter, and people staying with friends or family for less than 30 days were classified as unhoused in this report.

Nicole Luongo, systems change coordinator with the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition, told CityNews Thursday that she is not surprised by the increase in numbers.

“We know that rates of homelessness have increased exponentially and so by extension we would expect the rates of homeless deaths to also go up,” she said. “The reason we’re seeing more visible drug use is because there’s more visible poverty and homelessness.”

She adds that the increase in numbers “speaks to both the federal and provincial governments’ unwillingness to meaningfully invest in affordable housing and poverty reduction initiatives.”

She says that displacement, which has a strong link to death from unregulated drug toxicity, has increased since the election of Mayor Ken Sim. And that policing practices such as street sweeps of unhoused people also have pushed people “into isolation.”

Exploring potential solutions to the increase

Luongo emphasized that the most important solution to the crisis is regulating the drug supply.

“The first and most urgent and most direct solution is regulating the drug supply. That would be an initiative that requires federal approval under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act,” she said.

Beyond that, she says it is important to have serious conversations about what it would even mean to bring forward regulations.

Luongo explains that since B.C. introduced the criminalization pilot, they have seen significant “reactionary backlash” on the part of municipalities and from BC United and the opposition party.

She says that “we definitely are not going in the right direction” and the province needs to take better action.

-With files from Charlie Carey and Hana Mae Nassar