Fentanyl fuels record homeless deaths in Seattle area

A report 310 homeless individuals died within the Seattle space final 12 months, highlighting the area’s battle to accommodate the hundreds of individuals dwelling on its streets.

The 310 deaths in King County surpassed the earlier report of 195 homeless deaths set in 2018, the Seattle Instances reported, and marked a 65% bounce over 2021.

“That’s simply appalling,” the paper quoted Chloe Gale, coverage and technique vp for REACH, the most important homelessness outreach supplier in Seattle, as saying.

Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell mentioned it underscore his administration’s pressing must get extra individuals indoors.

Fentanyl-related overdoses accounted for greater than half of the deaths. Many individuals had a mixture of fentanyl and different medicine akin to meth or cocaine of their system, the paper reported, citing information from the King County Medical Examiner’s Workplace.

Eighteen homeless individuals died by murder, a quantity that greater than doubled from 2021.

Thirty-five individuals died from pure causes at a a lot youthful age than is typical. The typical age of loss of life for homeless individuals was 48, the health worker discovered.

Ten individuals died from hypothermia or publicity, and 7 died from suicide.

The county has directed its public well being, human companies and homelessness businesses to survey homeless suppliers to seek out out what is required to assist curb deadly overdoses. The county can also be growing funding for harm-reduction efforts.

Final 12 months, Public Well being – Seattle & King County distributed greater than 10,000 kits of naloxone, a medicine that may reverse opioid overdoses, and about 100,000 fentanyl check strips. The company is main public consciousness campaigns in regards to the artificial opioid and serving to individuals discover therapy.

Fentanyl has been driving overdose fatalities within the county extra broadly, no matter individuals’s housing standing. As of November, it was concerned in 70% of all confirmed overdose deaths within the county in 2022, in line with a latest report by Public Well being – Seattle & King County.

Brad Finegood, who leads the company’s opioid and overdose response, mentioned researchers hold watching the month-to-month overdose numbers, hoping to see charges flatten out.

“Perhaps we’re plateauing at a extremely unhealthy price and possibly it’s going to worsen,” Finegood mentioned. “I don’t know when it’s going to cease.”

The purpose-in-time rely performed within the county final 12 months discovered that 13,368 individuals have been dwelling outdoors.