Homeless deaths in 2006: 73 through October
Last month I posted an item on the city's Homeless Death Form. The form was created by an ordinance of the board of supervisors back in June, 2005. The Newsom administration has apparently decided to discontinue issuing an annual report on the deaths of homeless people in SF. With the new Homeless Death Form operational for more than a year, I figured maybe we could cobble together our own annual report.
The Department of Public Health has been helpful in their response to my original inquiry. The city's Office of Vital Records and Statistics tells me that, based on the number of Homeless Death Forms that have arrived at their office so far, through October, 2006, 73 homeless people died last year in San Francisco, an average of seven a month, which means probably around 80-90 homelesss people died in SF last year. This is more or less in line with the numbers reported in previous years that showed that more than 100 homeless died on our streets every year. In previous years, drug and alcohol were the leading causes of death among the homeless, and it's safe to assume that's still true. I'm hoping to be able to examine the forms themselves soon to flesh out our report with that kind of detail.
The Department of Public Health has been helpful in their response to my original inquiry. The city's Office of Vital Records and Statistics tells me that, based on the number of Homeless Death Forms that have arrived at their office so far, through October, 2006, 73 homeless people died last year in San Francisco, an average of seven a month, which means probably around 80-90 homelesss people died in SF last year. This is more or less in line with the numbers reported in previous years that showed that more than 100 homeless died on our streets every year. In previous years, drug and alcohol were the leading causes of death among the homeless, and it's safe to assume that's still true. I'm hoping to be able to examine the forms themselves soon to flesh out our report with that kind of detail.
Labels: Homeless Deaths, Homelessness
posted by Rob Anderson @ 11:46 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
The answer - Shipping Containers.
Build a place for them with no booze or weapons allows and a shower out of shipping containers. Put it under the central freeway. Forbid them from sleeping elsewhere, some will go nowhere, some will progress, but even at taxpayer expense the cost to the city would be less than having them staggering all over the place.
Yes, that's the city's supportive housing, Ten Year Plan policy in a nutshell, though hotel rooms and SROs are used to house the homeless, not shipping containers. It's both humane and cost-effective. This is really my only substantive disagreement with the Newsom administration on the homeless issue: they've discontinued the annual count of the number of homeless people who die on our streets. This post is my response: I'll just try to do my own count and post it on D5 Diary.
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