A TOTAL OF 124 homeless peope died in Ireland in 2022, according to new figures. 

THE median age of those who died while homeless in 2022 was just under 50 for males, and for females it was just over 40.

Over half of the deaths recorded (50.8%) were among people who were in temporary or crisis accommodation, the new National Drug-Related Deaths Index from the Health Research Board said.

More than one in four (25.8%) people were in highly insecure, substandard or unstable accommodation.

The HRB broke down the recorded deaths: most deaths occurred among males at 80.6%, the median age of males who died was 47 and for females it was 40.5.

Close to 60% – 57.3% – of those who died in 2022 were based in Dublin.

Substance abuse was represented in the deceased’s histories. Most of those who died, at 83.9%, had a history of substance abuse, with cocaine the most common drug used (72.4%) followed by heroin (53.9%).

Some 61.5% of people who had substance use were known to also have either an alcohol dependence or a problem use of alcohol.

The actual causes of death for these 124 people is broken into poisoning and non-poisoning deaths, the former being the result of fatal consumption of substances. A total of 36.3% of deaths were classed as poisoning,

Six in ten (60.8%) non-poisoning deaths were classified as medical, with four in ten (39.2%) classified as traumatic.

The most common medical cause of death was cardiovascular conditions, while the most common traumatic cause of death was falls.

From 2019 to 2022, 479 deaths among people who were homeless at the time of death were recorded.  The number of deaths increased by 30.5% from 95 in 2019 to 124 in 2022.

The HRB noted that the largest increase in the number of deaths – 33.7% – occurred between 2019 and 2020. It caveated that these figures occurred in the context of the Covid pandemic and related public health measures that began in March 2020.

“Interpretation of the annual figures and changes between years must be considered in this context,” the HRB said.

Deaths are increasing during the winter months, but decreasing during the summer months, a trend that has been in place for the past four years.