We have only scratched the surface in counting the number of deaths among people experiencing homelessness that occur each year in the United States. So far, we have official counts for 11 cities and counties and unofficial counts for 54 cities and counties in 2018.
You can help us increase the coverage of US cities and counties by finding news reports of homeless deaths online and submitting the information to us via email, by contacting local homeless advocacy organizations and service providers for data, or by requesting data through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to local governments. At a minimum, any submitted information should include: 1) the state, county, city, or community in which homeless deaths are being reported, 2) the total number of deaths among people experiencing homelessness, 3) the year in which the deaths occurred, and 4) a link or other reference to the information source, including contact information if available. At this time we are not accepting information on individual deaths among people experiencing homelessness. Counts must be aggregated over an entire fiscal or calendar year. Please submit any information to homelessdeathscount(at)gmail(dot)com.
Before conducting any research, contacting organizations, or submitting a FOIA request, please check our 2018 and 2019 counts to see if we already have retrieved data for that city or county or are working on it.
Internet-Based Research
Much of our data are retrieved through simple online searches using terms such as “[COUNTY/CITY] homeless death [YEAR]” e.g. “Seattle homeless death 2019.” In most cases we’ve already searched the three largest cities and counties in each state, but many smaller cities and counties have not been examined. We recommend starting with the above search term or something similar. We also replace “death” with “memorial” as many communities host memorials on December 21, which is National Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day.
You may find reports from official sources such as Medical Examiner’s Offices, Coroners, or Sheriff’s Offices. Alternatively, your searches may result in an online article from a local news outlet or service organization. Both of these sources are acceptable. A full list of all the cities and counties that we’ve searched will be available soon. We recommend starting your search for counties and cities that haven’t already been searched. However, our searches are not perfect.
Community Reporting
In some cases, online searches may reveal that a memorial took place but not provide the total number of homeless deaths. Most often, this information is listed by local shelters, homeless advocacy organizations, and service providers for people experiencing homelessness. We recommend finding the story or event listing, searching for the organizing group’s website for contact information, and emailing or calling them. Again, please ensure you check that these organizations have not already been contacted by us so as to not overburden organizations with requests. We welcome you to email us if you are unsure or would like support.
If you successfully obtain information from a community-based organization which has not been publicized by local media and the reporting organization agrees, we can help write news reports to publicize the data.
FOIA Requests
If you decide to FOIA your city or county, we recommend reaching out to us. We have experience successfully requesting data from governments and can share our knowledge, including an email template. We may also have already submitted a FOIA request to that government so contacting us beforehand can avoid duplicating efforts.