Local nonprofits held a memorial Wednesday at Heritage Square Park in downtown Orlando for unhoused people who died in Central Florida this year.
Typically, some of those people are only listed as John or Jane Doe because they can’t be identified. This year, there were 129 names on the list, and all were identified.
An organization called IDignity, which is dedicated to helping vulnerable or underprivileged people attain and recover important, personal identification documents, did a lot of the work to ensure the actual names of people who died unhoused were known.
“Not a single Jane or John Doe. And that's amazing. That feels really good to say,” said IDignity Program Manager Micaela Cox.
Each name was read aloud, to the sound of a bell and paper doves bearing each person's moniker were placed on a Christmas tree.
According to Dr. Via Valvassori, lead clinician at Health Care Center for the Homeless in Orlando, people experiencing homelessness face higher mortality rates than housed populations. She said advocates are working on a national data tool kit to track the main causes of death in hopes to promote awareness, solutions, and a better understanding.
“We are in very preliminary stages, inputting some of this information together. There are so many best practices throughout the country whereby cities have partnered with other agencies, medical examiner's offices, and compiling this data, and have really been able to have some impact in terms of forming policies that will better be able to provide the resources to direct some of these initiatives to the populations that most need,” she said.
Another important aspect to track from a public health perspective is demographic trends in unhoused communities. Valvassori said the highest increase in Florida homelessness this year were people, particularly women, who are 55 or older — these are seniors and elderly people.
“We've seen an increase in the number of homeless seniors who are experiencing homelessness as a result of escalating rents. We've seen a higher number of them living on the streets, many of whom have early onset disability, and many of whom have chronic diseases that have been unaddressed,” the doctor said.
Valvassori said some of the leading causes of death among unhoused people include overdose, untreated cancer, chronic health conditions and other comorbidities, especially when exacerbated by exposure to extreme heat and cold, and heart disease.
Tim McKinney, CEO of United Global Outreach, has been working in East Orange County, an area that he said has been heavily underserved for people experiencing poverty and homelessness. Despite their best efforts this year, McKinney said the organization suffered losses. The situation is an emergency.
“The quick way into housing is through addiction or mental health avenues, since we don't have enough permanent supportive housing in our region. Now that we've started doing street outreach, dozens and dozens of people, for the first time ever, are getting into treatment they need to transition into housing. But unfortunately, seven folks passed away this year that we couldn't get into treatment in time,” he said.
The Homeless Services Network of Central Florida was an active supporter of the memorial event. CEO Martha Are said they’re working to identify more resources to help, as the organization staff is expecting homelessness numbers to hold steady or increase again next year, amid rising, extreme temperatures in the summer and other intense weather events.
“We anticipate seeing more extreme heat days, and we see people who have no place to be indoors as being particularly vulnerable. We know that the longer someone is experiencing unsheltered homelessness, not able to get into shelter or their own home, the more vulnerable they become to all kinds of medical issues and crises ranging into even things that we may not think of as being particularly traumatic, like lack of sleep or not being able to get enough water contribute to the individuals’ physical health and mental health declines,” she said.
Are said the enactment of Florida’s new ban on cities and counties to allow sleeping or camping in public spaces is of great concern, as the law picks up next month, permitting residents and business owners to sue jurisdictions if the law is not observed.
The CEO said criminalization can have severe impacts on individuals, such as the accrual of expensive fines and fees and the record of criminal or undesirable activity, which can cause someone to default or have difficulties finding or maintaining employment. She also said people shouldn’t have to be put in jail to obtain access to shelter, food, and physical or mental health resources.
“The jail system is one of the largest behavioral health providers in the region, and I think we can do better at making sure that there are a wide variety of mental health and behavioral health services available for people who need that help without them having to become homeless or go to jail in order to access those services,” Are said.
With a diverse community like the homeless population, Are said there need to be more diverse approaches and alternatives.
“While we must recognize that there are certainly members of that population who would benefit from those (jail) services, there are still a lot of other people experiencing unsheltered homelessness who do not need those services. We have children, we have families, we have very young teenagers being discharged out of foster care systems, and we have our seniors. For them, homelessness is caused not because of mental or behavioral disabilities but only because they cannot pay the rent,” she said.
Other homeless services agency leaders said they’re planning to ramp up their outreach next year, to help mitigate the impacts and potential consequences of the new law.
Lillian Hernández Caraballo is a Report for America corps member.
