Impact of Drug Overdose Deaths on People Experiencing Homelessness
In 2021, unintentional and unknown intent drug overdose (called drug overdose in this section) killed 134 people experiencing homelessness in Alameda County. It is the leading cause of death among people experiencing homelessness in Alameda County. Between 2018 and 2023, the number of drug overdose deaths among those known to be homeless at the time of death nearly quadrupled.
Homeless mortality reports: To learn more about drug overdose deaths and the other leading causes of homeless mortality in Alameda County, please go to https://www.achch.org/research-and-publications.html.
What is drug overdose? Drug overdose deaths are most frequently due to opiates (mainly synthetic opiates such as fentanyl and fentanyl compounds), heroin, and increasingly due to psychostimulants such as methamphetamine. Many persons are not aware of the presence of fentanyl-laced compound drugs in their drug supply or the powerful potency of fentanyl. Many people are not aware of the increasing numbers of deaths due to stimulant (speed) overdose.
Impact on people experiencing homelessness: In 2021 in Alameda County as a whole, unintentional and unknown intent drug overdose claimed 358 lives countywide. In that year, people with a known recent experience of homelessness (146) comprised 40.6% of all Alameda County unintentional and unknown intent drug overdose deaths.
Premature loss of life: Each unintentional and unknown intent homeless drug overdose death represents a premature death with an average of 45.0 years of life lost, or a total of 4,680 years of life lost by people experiencing homelessness in 2021 in Alameda County.
Which People Experiencing Homelessness Die of Drug Overdose and Where?
The following table shows homeless status and the number of drug overdoses by year from 2018 to 2021.
Drug Overdose and Homeless Status at Time of Death
| Year | Homeless at Time of Death | Recently Homeless but Housed at Death | Recently Homeless and Unknown Housing Status at Death |
| 2018 | 36 | 5 | 12 |
| 2019 | 61 | 11 | 12 |
| 2020 | 97 | 11 | 10 |
| 2021 | 104 | 20 | 22 |
| 2022 | 110 | 36 | 14 |
| 2023 | 134 | 65 | 22 |
| Total | 542 | 148 | 92 |
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Location of Drug Overdoses, 2018-2021 |
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| Location | Count | Percentage |
| Streets; sidewalk | 69 | 23% |
| Encampment | 46 | 15% |
| Vehicle | 40 | 13% |
| Other's residence | 37 | 12% |
| Outdoors | 35 | 12% |
| Unknown | 27 | 9% |
| Motel | 16 | 5% |
| Shelter | 14 | 5% |
| Hospital | 13 | 4% |
| Total | 297 | 100% |
This table shows where people died, if known, among those known to homeless at the time of death.
This map shows the known locations of drug overdoses for those known to be homeless at the time of death in 2021.