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(ADAM PROSKIW / iNFOnews.ca)

The numbers of homeless people dying each year in the Okanagan, Thompson and Shuswap region are on the rise.

New data from the BC Coroners Service says at least 458 people experiencing homelessness in the province died in 2023, with the toll almost tripling in just three years. The service says in a news release issued today, March 7 there's been a 23 per cent increase from the 373 recorded deaths of unhoused people the year before. It says 91 per cent of the 2023 deaths were classified as accidental, including 86 per cent due to drug toxicity.

In 2023, there were 86 deaths in the Interior Health region.

Of those, 42 deaths were recorded in the Okanagan and 33 in the Thompson Cariboo Shuswap health service delivery areas.

The coroners service found that 86 per cent of reported deaths among the homeless population were due to accidental unregulated drug toxicity.

"The data speaks to the tragic reality of the struggles many face in our communities throughout B.C.," chief coroner Dr. Jatinder Baidwan said in the release. "During the period studied, between 2016 and 2023, the deaths of 1,940 people were reported to the BC Coroners Service, identified as experiencing homelessness."

More than half of the deaths in B.C. were people between the ages of 30 and 49, and 79 per cent were men.

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The percentage of deaths caused by drugs is also up significantly from 52 per cent in 2016.

The winter months are unsurprisingly the most lethal for those experiencing homelessness with 28 per cent of deaths occurring between December and February, but spring isn’t far behind with 27 per cent of deaths happening between March and May.

The number of deaths has spiked after the pandemic in B.C. There were 184 deaths in 2016, 155 deaths in 2020, 297 in 2021, and then 458 in 2023.

The trend is the same when the scope is narrowed. In the Okanagan nine homeless people died in 2020, 32 died in 2021, and now 42 people died in 2023. In Thompson Cariboo Shuswap region 13 people died in 2020 and 33 died in 2023.

— With files from The Canadian Press

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