SANTA CRUZ — The past year proved to be the deadliest year on record for people living without housing in Santa Cruz County, officials shared Thursday.
The 122 known homeless deaths in 2023 marked a 33% increase over 2022’s tally, according to Santa Cruz County Homeless Persons Health Project analyst David Davis. Davis and others spoke Thursday morning to a crowd gathered for the 25th annual Santa Cruz County Homeless Memorial.
Homeless people in Santa Cruz County died at more than nine times the rate of those who were housed, and, on average, 27 years earlier – by age 49, according to Davis. The memorial also recognized that another 43 people who were formerly homeless had died this year, with their average age at death jumping to 58, he said.
“So, housing contributes years to our lifespans,” Davis said. “Experiencing homelessness at some point literally takes off years.”
This year’s homeless memorial, held nationwide each year on the winter solstice — the shortest and darkest day of the year — took place for the first time at the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium. After years situated in the cafeteria at the Housing Matters campus and last year’s relocation to a crammed-full Santa Cruz Veterans Memorial Building, the Civic Auditorium venue represented a significantly enlarged venue. The expanded space allowed organizers, including the Homeless Persons Health Project, Housing Matters, Hospice of Santa Cruz County, Wings and others, to leave five rows of seating vacant at the front of the venue, each chair holding a battery candle and labeled with the name of someone who died this year.
“These aren’t just people who are experiencing homelessness,” said event presenter Joey Crottogini, health center manager for the Homeless Persons Health Project. “These are human beings. These are our family members. These are our professionals. These are some of our coworkers, our colleagues. It’s people that are beloved in our community. I feel blessed to have gotten to know quite a few of them.”
Standing before more than 120 attendees, Rowan Sage Baitsholts commemorated good friend Michael Miller, who “used to help me out a whole heck of a lot when I was out there on the street.”
“Michael Miller, he had his times, I’ll give him that,” Baitsholts said with a chuckle. “But I remember a lot of protectiveness and he would always encourage me … and he was a very loving and compassionate person to those who knew him.”
Homeless Persons Health Project Public Health Nurse Suzanne Samson said that one more name already needed to be added to this year’s list.
“Every year when we read the names, there’s a week or two after before the year ends and there’s always a few more people who pass away in that time. I just want to acknowledge them and also Machelle Bryant, who passed away this morning on Coral Street,” Samson said, sounding near to tears. “Some of us here were there, trying to help her. I think that’s the first code blue on Coral Street where we lost someone.”
Not reflected in the annual fatality statistics are the number of overdoses that were regularly reversed around the county. Homeless Persons Health Project staff were called outside their clinic to Coral Street, a gathering for many living without shelter, for 34 “code blue” cardiological or pulmonary emergency responses this year, officials said. All the responses this year, according to Davis, were for fentanyl overdoses, including a dog that had ingested the opioid residue.
Fentanyl overdose was listed as the primary contributor for half of this year’s deaths, coming at a rate of more than once a week, according to Davis’ data. At the time of last year’s memorial, accidental overdoses as a whole accounted for nearly 29% of the deaths.