OPINION | Domicile Unknown report shows people on the streets die decades before their time
For nearly a decade now, Street Roots has published the Domicile Unknown report with Multnomah County and the Multnomah County medical examiner. Named after the category on a medical examiner’s report that indicates someone is homeless, this report tracks people who die on the streets each year.
Street Roots is selective about the reports we help produce. The Domicile Unknown report allows us to understand the connection between homelessness and early death. Most recently, Street Roots has also collaborated on reports to explore alternatives to police responses for street crises based on surveys of people on the streets, “Believe our stories and listen,” as well as a survey that asked people on the streets about their preferred responses to COVID-19.
All our reports are available on our website (streetroots.org/advocacy).
As a newspaper and an advocacy organization that works alongside hundreds of people experiencing homelessness every year, Street Roots is committed to communicating information and making meaning from it. I write this column with an eye on our advocacy. In this same issue, Latisha Jensen reports on these deaths.
Informed, we can more effectively act.
So now, with a decade of accumulated knowledge, there are harsh patterns worth noting. Most clear is this: People die decades before their time on the streets. This year, similar to most years, the average age men died was 46, and for women it was 43.
People die ravaged by violence. Notably this year, gun violence harms people who live their lives in public. Every year, people medicate their struggles and die in that way. More and more, it’s the viciousness of methamphetamines that is taking lives.
Just as Black, American Indian and Alaskan Native Portlanders are overrepresented in homelessness, so too did they die at a higher rate than white Portlanders experiencing homelessness in 2020.
It is startling that none of the deaths in 2020 were caused by COVID-19, although it is important to note that hospital deaths aren’t tracked here. Still, it’s worth noting Multnomah County’s efforts to create spaciousness in shelters, to prop up tiny house dwellings so people wouldn’t congregate in tight indoor spaces, and to provide motels for people on the streets exposed to COVID-19. Those were likely all life-saving measures.
This report underscores that providing housing and support services is about saving lives. When a person secures housing, they can stay out of this report’s heartbreaking tally.
Each time someone we know at Street Roots moves into housing, we celebrate. The woman who told me that her best housewarming gift would be a pineapple upside-down cake. The man who wanted a start off my spider plant so he could grow his own houseplant. The rhapsody about regular access to showers. The man who has struggled for years with an addiction to methamphetamines on the streets, and who knew clearly that he couldn’t balance recovery with survival. His recent housing gives him a fighting chance. The people who now have housing to return to after hospital stays.
On and on, each person who moves into housing, and who receives services for their mental health and addiction, is a person for whom we are saying that we care that they live.
We light candles each year to honor all the people who die. Let us pile up the house keys so more people can live.
Street Roots is an award-winning weekly publication focusing on economic, environmental and social justice issues. The newspaper is sold in Portland, Oregon, by people experiencing homelessness and/or extreme poverty as means of earning an income with dignity. Street Roots newspaper operates independently of Street Roots advocacy and is a part of the Street Roots organization. Learn more about Street Roots. Support your community newspaper by making a one-time or recurring gift today.
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