288 Homeless Deaths In Metro Denver in 2018: Report

DENVER, CO – Two-hundred and eighty-eight people experiencing homelessness died in 2018 in metro Denver, according to a report released by the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless. Of those, 110 died in Denver and 123 died in the neighboring suburbs and counties, the organization said.

"These lives ended on the streets, under bridges, in cars, hospital beds, emergency rooms, and shelters, and sometimes in nursing homes or transitional housing," the 2018 Homeless Death Review report said.

The national one-day Metro Denver Homeless Initiative Point-In-Time Survey of homeless people in Colorado last January counted 5,317 men, women, and children experiencing homelessness in the seven-county metro Denver region, up 201 people from 2017, the study said.

Of those who died last year in Denver, 73 percent were men and 20 percent were women. The genders of seven percent were unknown, the Denver Medical Examiner's office said.

Drug overdose was the primary cause of 82 percent of the confirmed causes of death by the Denver medical examiner.

"Opioids were either a primary or contributing factor in many of these deaths," the report said. The January, 2018 closing of the Arapahoe House social services network, which served the 5,000 of the poorest clientele with substance abuse problems at 13 locations, removed a safety net for many of the people with drug problems in metro Denver, the report said.

Homelessness is also dangerous.

"Blunt and sharp force trauma accounted for the second largest share of deaths reported by the Denver Medical Examiner, claiming the lives of 23 people," the report said.

One-third of the deaths in Denver were people 50-59 years old. The youngest person who died was 18 years, while the oldest individual was 73 years, the report said.

The report was produced to "help our community better understand the challenges our facing people experiencing homelessness, honor those we have lost and work to prevent untimely deaths among our unhoused neighbors in the future," the report said.

The Colorado Coalition for the Homeless hosted a memorial service Dec. 21 for the 288 people identified by their report. After each name was read, the participants chanted, "We will remember."

Here is the list of all the people who died last year:

Read the Colorado Coalition's report here:

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Image via Colorado Coalition for the Homeless