At least 14 unhoused people froze to death in LA last year, records reveal

At least 14 unhoused people froze to death on the streets of Los Angeles in 2021, new county data reveals, marking a sharp increase in reports of hypothermia fatalities and a grim sign of how dire the region’s homelessness catastrophe has become.

Out of 14 deaths where the LA coroner’s office cited “cold exposure” and hypothermia last year, six victims died on sidewalks, according to public records obtained by the Guardian. Four died in hospitals, and the others were found at a bus bench, a parking lot, a dried-up riverbed and an abandoned building. The death toll is significantly higher than previous years, with six reported hypothermia deaths in 2020, nine in 2019, seven in 2018 and three in 2017.

Related: ‘We have failed’: how California’s homelessness catastrophe is worsening

Rising casualties due to cold temperatures offer a stark illustration of the severe public health disaster in a city known internationally for its year-round sunny weather, but where people living outside can struggle to survive winter and rain. Previous reporting has shown that more unhoused people die of hypothermia in LA than in New York City.

“There are times where you’re perpetually cold and whatever you do to try to stay warm just doesn’t work,” said Tanya Myers, 47, who lives at an LA encampment with her husband and 21-year-old son. “California is known across the country as the ‘land of sunshine’ and people still believe it does not rain here. But it can go from extreme hot to extreme cold here. And it stresses our immune systems a lot.”

The coroner listed heart disease as a factor in five of the 14 cold-weather deaths, and also cited alcohol or drug use in eight cases. Local news site LA Taco reported last year that many of the hypothermia deaths occurred in rainy weeks, with some victims found in wet clothes. The majority of 2021 victims were over 60, including two men who were 74 and 78. The youngest victim was 28. Black victims were disproportionately represented, making up 43% of hypothermia cases, compared with 9% of the broader population. The deaths were spread across LA, from beach communities to downtown to desert terrain.

The data is also an undercount; the office only tracks cases considered sudden, violent or unusual and when the individual had not recently seen a doctor. The surge matches a troubling increase in overall unhoused deaths in LA, the most populous county in America, now home to an estimated 69,000 unhoused people, including more than 48,000 living outside, which is also an undercount. The county also recently reported a 17% increase in tents, makeshift shelters and people living in vehicles.

In the first year of the pandemic, an average of more than five unhoused people died every day, marking a 56% increase from the year prior, according to the public health department. Of those nearly 2,000 deaths, leading causes were overdoses, heart disease, Covid, traffic injuries, homicides and suicides.

“We can’t accept these numbers,” said Carla Orendorff, a community organizer who supports encampments in LA’s San Fernando Valley and is part of a group that has researched unhoused deaths. She said the increase in freezing cases could be due in part to more reporting and awareness, but noted more people struggle to survive: “We saw a lot of desperate situations in the winter.” She said encampment residents would take turns trying to warm up in cars and that some checked themselves into emergency rooms when it was too cold.

While the county opens winter shelters during cold spells, they aren’t always accessible, said Ananya Roy, director of the UCLA Luskin Institute on Inequality and Democracy, which tracked unhoused deaths during the pandemic. An institute report from earlier this year found residents from one park encampment moved into one of the winter shelters nearby before the city abruptly shut it, requiring them to go to a different shelter 12 miles away; many ended up back at the park, instead.

“Each time people go through this cycle and are sent back to the streets, they’ve lost social networks and personal belongings, they’ve often had to give up pets or been separated from loved ones, and so they return more vulnerable,” Roy said, noting that the city of LA’s new law restricting camping in certain locations had led people to become scattered and hidden, where they may be less safe.

Related: One year after LA evicted the unhoused from a park, few are in stable housing

Extreme temperatures can significantly exacerbate unhoused people’s stress, mental illness and substance use disorders, said Dr Coley King of the Venice Family Clinic, who does street medicine. His patients also disappear: “We go out on outreach and we can’t find them. We always see disruptions in medical care when there’s a significant weather event.”

King said he hoped the county would ensure that its winter shelters were staffed and prepared this year and loosen rules that can leave people excluded.

A LA homeless services authority spokesperson did not comment on the rising hypothermia reports, but said in an email, “When weather conditions become inclement, our teams flex to provide available resources, including getting people to our winter shelters.” A public health department spokesperson said the agency was still assessing causes of unhoused deaths last year and could not comment on the coroner’s data, but added that “hypothermia deaths are very rare among people experiencing homelessness in LA county due to the local climate”.

Stephen “Cue” Jn-Marie, a pastor and activist at Skid Row, said he had an unhoused friend who suffered a life-threatening seizure in 2018 and survived. But about a week later, he died of hypothermia. “Folks are dying because they don’t have adequate protection from the environment, and we know it’s going to get worse with climate change,” Jn-Marie said. “We’re not doing what’s the simple solution – to house folks.”

Sonja Verdugo, a 53-year-old who has lived in LA encampments, said it was especially challenging when authorities conducted sweeps that remove people’s belongings, and that she once lost her tent in winter: “It was cold and I had no blankets, no nothing. Thank goodness I had people around who cared about me.”