Toronto saw more than five homeless deaths per week in the first half of 2024

A person experiencing homelessness is seen in downtown Toronto, on Wednesday, January 3, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christopher Katsarov

Toronto saw an average of more than five deaths per week among people experiencing homelessness in the first six months of 2024.

Newly released data from Toronto Public Health (TPH) shows the total number of deaths from Jan. 1 to June 30 last year reached 135. That’s five more than the first six months of 2023, but down 20 from the same period in 2022.

TPH says the new data includes numbers from the Office of the Chief Coroner for Ontario (OCC) that was not previously available, resulting in new counts for the first half of 2024 and updated numbers for 2022 and 2023.

The city previously reported counts of 189 deaths in 2022 and 150 in 2023. With the newly available OCC data, the updated numbers show 331 reported deaths in 2022 and 300 in 2023.

People experiencing homelessness are at an increased rate of dying prematurely, according to TPH data, with the median age of death sitting at 50 for the first six months of 2024. Men accounted for 77 per cent of homeless deaths in the same period.

Acute drug toxicity remained the leading cause of death in the first half of last year, accounting for over half – or 54 per cent – of reported deaths in people experiencing homelessness.

Unknown or pending explanations made up the second leading cause of death at 26 per cent, followed by diseases like cancer, chronic alcohol use, pneumonia, and others at seven per cent.

The updated city data also revealed that 30 per cent of homeless deaths from Jan. to June in 2024 happened outdoors, 23 per cent happened in shelters, and 15 per cent happened in hospitals or clinics.