City Controller says number of homeless deaths might be higher than 900
Official notes tally counted closed coroner's cases, not pending medical examinations
One day after reporting a year-over-year drop in the number of deaths of unhoused people in Los Angeles, City Controller Kenneth Mejia's office announced today that may not be the case at all because the number failed to factor in deaths that were still being investigated by the medical examiner.
On Thursday, Mejia's office said an annual analysis determined there were 900 deaths of unhoused people in the city in 2023, a 22% drop from the previous year.
On Friday, the office issued a “correction,” saying in a statement, “We believed that the data that we received from the coroner and relied on included all unhoused deaths in 2023. Today, we learned the data used included only closed cases, not total cases.
“We will be updating our 2023 unhoused deaths analysis page accordingly, and we will be conducting a new analysis when we have complete data,” the statement continued.
It was unclear how many open cases involving 2023 deaths of homeless people in the city were still pending.
While the full picture of unhoused deaths in 2023 remains to be seen, the 900 deaths Mejia's office highlighted Thursday brought into focus the negative impact of homelessness and ongoing challenges with addressing substance abuse issues.
On Thursday, Mejia's office said it hopes the data tool on the deaths of unhoused people “helps inform public policy that drives money to people who need it.”
“Regardless of whether the number of deaths of unhoused Angelenos goes down or up, the city needs more services,” the statement continued. “In the city of Los Angeles, there are unhoused Angelenos dying for various reasons, and this is exacerbated by the city's failure to meet the unhoused crisis.”
The controller's map shows details of unhoused deaths, closed cases, such as age, gender, cause and mode, as well as the council district and location where each death occurred. The controller's analysis showed that the most common mode of death was categorized as an “accident” (about 678 deaths or 75%) — these represent closed cases.
In response to the report, Mayor Karen Bass issued a statement saying, “Every death that occurs is a tragedy and we express our condolences to those friends, family and community members who have lost a loved one due to this crisis.”
She added, “The focus of our work has been to take urgent action to save lives, and while the controller's data released today indicates a decrease in deaths, we know that there is still much more work to be done.”
Council districts 1 and 14 — the downtown, north, northeast areas —had the highest numbers of deaths according to Thursday's incomplete numbers, as well as having some of the highest unhoused populations.
The 14th District had 269 deaths, accounting for 29.9% of unhoused deaths (closed cases) in 2023, followed by 105 deaths (closed cases) or 11.7% in the 1st District, and 77 or 8.6% of deaths (closed cases) in the 13th District.
“Regardless of whether the number of deaths of unhoused Angelenos goes down or up, the city needs more services.” — Kenneth Mejia, Los Angeles City Controller