Fentanyl drives record Portland homeless deaths

PORTLAND, Ore. — Fentanyl and methamphetamine drove a record number of homeless deaths last year in Oregon’s Multnomah County, home to Portland, according to an annual report released by regional officials Wednesday.

At least 315 homeless people died in 2022 in the Portland area, the report found. More than half of the fatalities, 123, were from drug overdoses. Methamphetamine contributed to 85 percent of overdose deaths, and fentanyl contributed to 74 percent.

Kaia Sand, executive director of Street Roots, a newspaper that covers issues related to homelessness, has worked on the annual report for years. In the report, she wrote that this year’s edition “demonstrates the devastating impact of fentanyl.”

“The first year I worked on this report — 2016 — fentanyl was not associated with any deaths,” she wrote. “In 2020, four deaths were tracked to fentanyl, and by 2021, that number rose to 36 deaths. This year, the number skyrocketed to 91 deaths.”

The figures underlie the increased risk of death facing people who live outside, and it comes as homelessness in the U.S. this year jumped a dramatic 12 percent to its highest reported level.

The mortality risk for people experiencing homelessness compared with the general county population was nearly six times higher for all causes of death, the report found. For drug overdoses and homicide, it was 37 times higher and 32 times higher, respectively.

Homeless people, many of whom live near roadways, were also nearly 45 times more likely to die from a transportation-related injury than the general county population, according to the report. Fourteen people died of such a cause last year.

Violence also contributed to homeless deaths — about a quarter of all people who died by homicide in Portland in 2022 were homeless, the report said. Twenty-five homeless people died by homicide in 2022, and the number of suicides — 17 — more than doubled from 2021.