People experiencing homelessness are likely to have a significantly reduced life expectancy and are more likely to be the victim of a violent assault or homicide, according to a report prepared for the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) by the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) School of Public Health. The “Illinois Homelessness Morbidity and Mortality Report 2017-2022” is only the second report on the mortality of people experiencing homelessness undertaken by a state government, after the 2023 Minnesota Homeless Mortality Report. The report, which draws on statewide hospital records and death certificates, was developed as part of an ongoing multi-agency effort by Illinois state government to promote housing access and stability across the state. This effort is led by the Office to Prevent and End Homelessness (OPEH), which works with IDPH and other state agencies through the Illinois Interagency Task Force on Homelessness to deepen strategies to prevent and end homelessness. The report highlights the scope of health issues disproportionately faced by people experiencing homelessness and the need to increase health-promoting interventions. Findings in the report include:
• For the time period covered in the report, the average age at time of death was nearly 20 years younger for people experiencing homelessness (PEH) than for the population at large, 56.3 versus 74.2 years old.
• There has been an overall increase of 36.6 percent in deaths of people experiencing homelessness since the start of the COVID pandemic, while there has been only a 6.1 percent increase in deaths in the general population over the same time period, after accounting for the three COVID waves in both groups.
• The increase in deaths since the start of the COVID pandemic appears to be driven in part by an increase in fatal drug-related overdoses (proportion of deaths pre- vs post-COVID; 27.1 percent vs 33.2 percent).
• PEH were at heightened risk of being assaulted and were nearly three times as likely to die from homicide as the overall population, 2.9 percent compared to 1 percent.
