Fentanyl use linked to more than 50% of Denver homelessness deaths this year
As the city of Denver prepares to issue the first sweep of encampments under Mayor Mike Johnston's leadership this Friday, new data is shedding the spotlight on another problem for those experiencing homelessness.
"We lost a friend just last week from an overdose," said Caitlin Sinclair.
Caitlin has been living on and off the street since she was 13, but it is in the last two years she has noticed how hard the fentanyl epidemic has impacted others who remain unhoused.
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"I've personally had to Narcan people. That's never a fun sight to do," said Caitlin. "Another friend of mine just had to Narcan somebody in their tent last night, but we've definitely lost over 100 people this year alone due to fentanyl deaths."
"It's definitely going to be the highest [deaths] that we've seen in a long time," said Ethan Jamison, a Forensic Epidemiologist with the Denver Medical Examiner's Office.
Jamison tells CBS Colorado in 2022 there were 109 deaths among people experiencing homelessness. So far this year, there have been 168 deaths.
"Roughly, we've seen a 50% increase in deaths among people that our investigations uncovered that they were experiencing homelessness at the time of death," said Jamison.
These deaths, he said, are largely attributed to drug overdoses.
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"About 70% of those in our homeless population were due to drugs, and then drilling down to about 53% were noted specifically as fentanyl being one of those drugs contributing to the death," said Jamison.
This past June, there were 31 deaths among those experiencing homelessness in Denver. While the Medical Examiner's Office says a lot of the deaths since May are still pending, Jamison believes the results will likely follow a similar trend to the deaths related to fentanyl use from earlier this year.
"We can't let people die on the streets, it's just unfathomable," said Cathy Alderman, Chief Communications and Public Policy Officer for the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless.
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Alderman says the rising number of deaths correlates with the rising number of people experiencing homelessness. However, the numbers do create a sense of urgency to help the unhoused population get off the streets sooner and into housing.
"If people had a safe place to be, it's much less likely that they'd be using substances on the streets or they'd have better use to substance use treatment and counseling," said Alderman.
In the short term, there needs to be more immediate responses to keeping fentanyl off the streets.
"Stronger medical outreach teams that can actually work with people to identify why they're misusing substances, where they're getting their substances from, making sure they have testing strips so that they can determine whether the substance they're using has fentanyl in it and would therefore be very dangerous for them," said Alderman.
Caitlin says it will also take building trust among those who are vulnerable.
"I think everybody is just afraid to go get help, because they think that they're going to get charged," she said.
