Deaths of unhoused people in B.C. skyrocket by 23% in 2023

The BC Coroners Service says at least 458 people experiencing homelessness died in the province in 2023.

According to a new report, those deaths reflect an increase of 23 per cent from the previous year and nearly triple the number in 2020.

The newly appointed chief coroner, Dr. Jatinder Baidwan, says the data speaks to the tragic reality many British Columbians face.

Nick Wells with the Union Gospel Mission in Vancouver says the deaths were both tragic and preventable.

“As an organization that works with people experiencing homelessness every day, it’s so heartbreaking and sad to see that more and more people from our communities are dying each year and dying at a higher rate in the past few years,” said Wells.

“This should be a wake-up call to us in B.C., the reality that our community is going through dangerous and risky situations to survive, and it’s costing lives.”

The report says 91 per cent of deaths of people experiencing homelessness that year were classified as accidental (419), and 86 per cent were due to accidental unregulated drug toxicity (394).

In 2023, toxic, unregulated drugs claimed the lives of at least 2,511 people in B.C., meaning nearly 16 per cent were experiencing homelessness.

Wells says homelessness takes a toll on the immune system “as a result of the extreme and often concurrent crises” people may be living through.

“So, what appears when a person is experiencing homelessness, they’re also often experiencing intersecting stressors, trauma, extreme stress, mental-health struggles … drug use, violence, hunger, exhaustion. And so the ability to stay well and healthy while experiencing some of these shocks to the system so regularly isn’t possible,” he said.

Last week, the Vancouver city council approved a plan motioned by Mayor Ken Sim to put a hold on any new supportive housing in the city.

The original motion was founded on Sim’s claim that the current state of the Downtown Eastside has led to a “cycle of instability and decline,” weighing unfairly on Vancouver.

A statement from the city says Vancouver currently houses 77 per cent of the region’s supportive housing, despite comprising only 25 per cent of the region’s population.

Wells says the mayor has missed the mark and the vast majority of unhoused people in Vancouver lived in the city before becoming homeless.

“So, this is not an issue of people coming to Vancouver seeking opportunities. This is an issue of Vancouver residents becoming homeless and needing supportive housing, and needing support for what they’re finding themselves going through, and this [new legislation] means that people could die homeless while on the waiting list for supportive housing.”

The coroners service says people experiencing homelessness were most likely to die in winter and spring; more than half were people between the ages of 30 through 49, and nearly half were males who were unsheltered when they died.

Seventy-seven died in the Vancouver area, 55 died in central Vancouver Island, and 50 in Fraser East, which includes Abbotsford and Hope.

Wells says researchers will begin a ‘homeless count’ Tuesday, surveying demographics of people currently experiencing homelessness for the first time in two years. He says UGM and others expect the count to show another increase.

—With files from Ben Bouguerra.