Drug overdoses led to sharp increase in US homeless deaths, not COVID



















Homeless deaths in the U.S. spiked during the first two years of the pandemic. But in some areas, not a single death was attributed to the virus itself.

LOS ANGELES – It happened nine different times. 

Sometimes it would be after spotting someone shooting up heroin and suddenly losing consciousness. In others, it would be after shouts in the dead of night that someone was dying of an overdose.

Each time, Fredrick Mitchel, 58, pulled out Narcan, the medicine that can undo an opioid overdose, and tried to save a life.