2 weeks Ago By Joe Hong
The number of drug-related deaths among New Yorkers living in shelters dropped by 17% last year, according to new city data released Wednesday. The decline mirrors national trends and comes at a point when the population of people in the city’s shelter system grew dramatically as a result of the influx of migrants since 2022. An annual report published two months behind schedule by the city’s Department of Health, the Department of Social Services and the Department of Homeless Services found that drug-related incidents continue to be the most common cause of death among the city’s homeless population.
In the 2024 fiscal year, 159 people in shelters died of an accidental drug overdose, a decline of 32 from the previous year. The average daily number of people residing in shelters increased by 31% during the time period from about 66,000 to 86,000. Chinese Dobson, a harm reduction specialist for the Department of Social Services, said the decline was due to a number of measures the agency has taken in recent years.
In 2023, with the help of federal funding, the city launched a harm reduction program that would help drug users manage substance use with counseling, medication and referrals to safe-use locations. The city is also continuing its decadelong effort to equip all shelters with fentanyl testing strips, naloxone kits and staff who know how to deploy the life-saving treatment. Shelter staff also began training shelter residents on how to use naloxone, according to Department of Social Services officials.
“Everything is centered around the person,” Dobson said. “We’re letting them make all the decisions, which in turn gives us a better outcome because the clients are feeling more empowered.” Dennis Culhane, a professor of social policy at the University of Pennsylvania who has studied deaths among New York City’s homeless population, said the city’s right to shelter law – which requires city officials to provide a shelter bed to anyone in need – is also saving thousands of lives a year.
In 2023, Los Angeles had more than three times the number of deaths among homeless people. “The homeless population in Los Angeles and New York is roughly the same,” Culhane said. “The difference is that 75% of people who are homeless in Los Angeles are unsheltered.
” The decrease in deaths among the sheltered population, however, was offset by a 20% increase in deaths among the city’s unsheltered residents to 389. That population grew by about 2% between 2023 and 2024 to about 4,100, according to city data . But Neha Sharma, a spokesperson for the Department of Social Services, attributed the increase to the broadening of the definition of “non-sheltered,” which aligns with the one used by the Office of Chief Medical Examiner.
Starting in 2024, the city began to categorize residents living in “makeshift or inadequate dwellings” – such as vacant apartments – as unsheltered. Previously, only individuals living outside or without a fixed address were considered “non-sheltered.” The change led the city to report an 89% increase in deaths among unsheltered people between the 2022 and 2023 fiscal years.
Sharma said the agency wasn’t initially notified of the change and needed more time to investigate the increase, which is why this year’s report was published in April rather than in February as it has been in past years. “I think the increase is artificially high,” said Fabienne Laraque, the medical director for the Department of Social Services. “That being said, the numbers are real, and we just need to do some more exploration.
” The decline in overdose deaths highlights a divide between homeless advocates and the Trump administration. While public health research shows that a “Housing First” approach to homelessness, which prioritizes shelter, most effectively prevents long-term homelessness, President Donald Trump and his Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner vocally supported a “treatment first” approach that requires people experiencing homelessness to address mental health and substance abuse to qualify for housing support. In March, Trump issued an executive order that would reduce staffing in the U.
S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, which manages federal funding for Housing First programs . Giselle Routhier, a research assistant professor at NYU’s School of Medicine, said shifting away from a Housing First approach will lead to more disproportionately high death rates for unsheltered residents.
“The approach is backed by science, it’s backed by research,” Routhier said. “Opposing it means opposing an intervention that we know works.” Laraque said the city will continue to provide treatment along with shelter.
She said the city’s programs for preventing deaths among homeless residents haven’t yet come under threat from the federal government. “We are going to fight this as much as possible,” Laraque said. “We plan to continue the work based on our own philosophy of prevention.
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