Revealed: more than 2,000 unhoused people died in LA in 2023 amid housing and fentanyl crises

Data from the LA county medical examiner, which logged 11,573 deaths in the last decade, is an undercount due to the office’s limited jurisdiction

More than 2,000 unhoused people died in Los Angeles in 2023, meaning an average of nearly six deaths a day of people living on the street or in shelters in the nation’s most populous county.

The numbers reveal an escalating humanitarian emergency as the housing crisis and drug addiction epidemic collide, with victims found in tents, encampments, vehicles, parks, alleys, vacant lots, underpasses, bus stops and train stations.