In just over 2 years, 91 people died while unhoused in Hamilton, researchers find

At least 21 people died while experiencing homelessness in Hamilton between June and November 2023, newly released data from the Hamilton Homeless Mortality Data Project shows. 

And since the group started collecting data in 2021, at least 91 people in the city have died while unhoused, it said. Those deaths occurred between June 2021 and November 2023.

The average age those people died at was 42 — roughly half the average life expectancy in the city, which is 82, according to Statistics Canada. 

"How many times is this going to continue without change?" researcher Gessie Stearns, who is part of the project, asked in a phone interview. 

"Ninety-one deaths are too many and we think it's time for our health systems, our social service systems, our municipal leaders and the broader Hamilton community to hold ourselves accountable."

The group's latest figures were released on April 30.

Stearns, a former social service worker, said a troubling trend persists: About one unhoused person dies every 10 days on average. She noted these are only the deaths she and her team know about, and there could well be more. 

The way data is presented 'can erase people,' researcher says

Researchers use an anonymous survey tool to collect information, and analyze biannual reports from St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton and Hamilton Health Sciences.

Stearns said they also hope to use data from the coroner's office in the future. 

She said recording unhoused people's deaths is something she'd like to see more communities take on. Toronto Public Health currently reports deaths. The City of Hamilton's homelessness data dashboard does not include that information.

The way data is presented "can erase people" by portraying them as widgets in a machine, Stearns said. She said communities often focus on metrics called inflow and outflow which are divorced from individuals' wellbeing, she said.

Inflow tracks people coming into contact with housing and homelessness supports and outflow tracks people going out of contact with the system. Generally, Stearns said, having more outflow than inflow is considered positive, but that's not the whole story. 

For example, she said, a person may be categorized as "outflow" if they end up couchsurfing, even though that doesn't mean they have a home. She also said someone could lose touch with social service providers and die, but still be categorized as "outflow."

For Stearns and her colleagues, it's important to highlight that the numbers in question represent people.

She said she knows people who she worked with as a service provider who are dead now, and her team members have had similar experiences.

Researchers want service providers to hold themselves accountable

That's also why they want action, Stearns said.

Researchers with the Hamilton Homeless Mortality Data Project are calling for more accountability from service providers like shelters, since the group's data shows a significant portion of people were restricted from a shelter, released from jail, discharged from hospital or seen in an emergency room within 30 days of their death.

"If people are accessing those health and social services and then they leave and die, what does that say about care?"

The latest dataset comes as the inquest continues into the death of Attila Csanyi, the 28-year-old who was found dead on the rooftop of Jackson Square in May 2020, two months after he was evicted. 

"The [data] project is very interested in accountability," Stearns said in an email. But, "any accountabilities and/or system-level responses via the inquest are yet to be seen." 

The inquest seeks to prevent similar deaths and is now in its second week. It features a five-member jury who is hearing from Csanyi's family, experts and witnesses including from the city, police and health-care providers. The jury may make recommendations in the end.

At the inquest last week, Dr. Naheed Dosani said homelessness has a "devastating" effect on people.

The Toronto-based doctor leads Palliative Education And Care for the Homeless, a mobile palliative care program for people who experience homelessness. He said unhoused people have about half the life expectancy of people who have housing.

"Without a residence, homeless people tend not to have easy access to basic needs that many take for granted, including safety, food, shelter and hygiene," a 2022 Statistics Canada study noted.

"How long a person remains homeless has been associated with reduced life expectancy and increased morbidity, though it is not altogether clear if reduced physical or mental health leads to homelessness or vice versa. Regardless, having spent less time homeless is preferable."

Stearns hopes publishing death data helps change public conversations around homelessness. "This can't all be for nothing," she said. 

Too often, she said, Hamiltonians are pitted against one another and don't see unhoused people as being like them. But really, she said, homelessness is a risk many of us face. 

"That divisiveness needs to stop. We need to support one another."