Street sleeper death stats

OFFICIAL data on the number of homeless deaths in Halton are not due to be published until the New Year.

Landmark figures at national and regional level were released for the first time ever on December 20 and included shocking findings that the number of homeless fatalities in the Liverpool City Region has more than doubled in five years.

The Office For National Statistics (ONS) covered England and Wales and confirmed deaths and estimated totals.

An ONS mortality team spokesman told the Weekly News that local authority level data are expected to be published in the New Year.

The national and regional data was published following an investigation by the Bureau Of Investigative Journalism.

According to the ONS, the number of identified fatalities in England and Wales has increased dramatically, by 25%, rising from 392 in 2013 to 491 in 2017.

The estimated total has shot up at a similar rate, up 24% from 482 five years ago to 597 last year.

In the Liverpool City Region (LCR), which includes Halton, the figure for identified deaths more than doubled from 17 in 2013 to 41 in 2017, while the estimated true total climbing from 15 to 32.

The predicted number of homeless fatalities per million population in the LCR was up from 9.6 to 20.5 over the same period.

Men made up 84% of homeless deaths in 2017.

More than half were due to drug poisoning, liver disease of suicide.

Accidents were the main underlying cause – 198 out of 490 cases, followed by suicide whether intentional or unknown intent on 66, liver disease (43), ischaemic heart disease (29), cancer (22), flu and pneumonia (14).

There were seven identified deaths due to assault.

Drugs and alcohol were mentioned in about a quarter of the deaths, with heroin and other opiates such as methadone referred to 115 times in connection with those who died, alcohol 57 times, benzodiazepine in 21 cases, cocaine 15 and tramadol in four deaths.

The North West had the highest overall rate of homeless deaths on 16.4 per million population.

The ONS figures have been produced as experimental statistics and could be subject to change.

Ben Humberstone, ONS head of health and life events, said: “Every year hundreds of people die while homeless.

“These are some of the most vulnerable members of our society so it was vital that we produced estimates of sufficient quality to properly shine a light on this critical issue.

“Today we have been able to do just that.

“We estimate that in 2017 there were 597 deaths of homeless people in England and Wales, a rise of 24% since 2013. Our findings show a pattern of deaths among homeless people that is strikingly different from the general population. For example, homeless people tend to die younger and from different causes.

“The average age of death last year was 44 years, with 84% of all deaths being men.

“More than half were related to drug poisoning, suicide, or alcohol, causes that made up only 3% of overall deaths last year.”

According to latest figures, there were four rough sleepers in Halton in 2017-18 – up from none in 2012 – and 37 households classed as homeless.