How Long Do People Experiencing Homelessness (PEH) Live?
Homelessness is a death sentence. It sounds like clickbait hyperbole, but a recent study by the Illinois Department of Public Health found that the average age of death for (PEH) was 55.5, 20 years less than their housed peers. For comparison, the average age of an executed inmate is 52-54per the Death Penalty Information Center. PEH have not committed a crime, but the gradual attrition of living in vehicles, alleys, abandoned buildings, viaducts, parking garages, and other dark corners of suburban sprawl is the same as wasting away on death row.
What Causes Premature Mortality Among PEH?
The study points out that many deceased people experiencing homelessness “have more than one contributing cause of death.” We’ve talked a lot about chronic medical conditions among PEH,1 but researchers observed that a lower proportion die from these illnesses simply because they don’t live long enough to reach terminal stages. Instead, their most common causes of death compared to the general population include drug-related overdoses (39.3% v 4.9%), traumatic injuries (11.3% v 5.6%),2 and cold exposure(3.7% v 0.1%). PEH were also three times more likely to be murdered. In many cases, they pass away in places not meant for human habitation like abandoned buildings or public transportation.
How Does BEDS Help PEH Live Longer?
Housing is a social determinant of health—and, by extension, life. Our shelter, housing, and supportive services connect households to mental/behavioral health services, including substance use treatment. We prevent and treat traumatic injuries through our Summit Service Center and Cicero Avenue Transitional Shelter healthcare clinics and partnerships with Pillars Community Health, and others. And our shelter and housing programs keep people out of cold weather, especially when temperatures plummet to dangerous lows.
Every December, we hold a memorial for clients who we’ve lost. Last year, we marked the passage of six people experiencing homelessness in our communities:
- Loammie Andino
- Carl Balweirz
- Joann K
- Paul Munoz
- Jerome O’Mara
- Sandra Pfingston
We hope we were able to give them some safety, comfort, and compassion in their last days. They died for different reasons in different circumstances, but they had several things in common. They were all experiencing homelessness, and they were all too young.
1 Many of these—like diseases of the circulatory, respiratory, and nervous systems; or cancer—are associated with aging. But line with people experiencing homelessness’ shorter life spans, they often have earlier onsets.
2 “Traumatic injuries” span a wide range of categories, so the study further divides them into subcategories; homicides, transportation incidents, suicides, falls, and drowning are the most prevalent.