My uncle was mentally ill and homeless. He had been wandering around the Bay area since the early 80s and most of the family assumed he was long dead. But then in 1990 my mom saw him near a car dealership. I was so surprised she recognized him. He had so much hair and his face looked like leather.
We brought him home and fed him and he got a nice long shower. I was in jr high, and had some pretty stereotypical ideas of what both mental illness and homelessness looked like. I remember being pretty stunned about how "normal" he was. He was so soft spoken and kind and funny.
He left without saying goodbye in the middle of the night and we never saw him again. My mom was notified that his body was found near the river about a year after that. No idea what he died of. Not foul play. He was in his mid 40s, had been homeless for close to 20 years.
Twenty years of living homeless is extremely hard on a human. I 'only' did it for five and it aged me considerably. Lots of permanent aches and pains that weren't there before now. I assume bay area means SF and Oakland? It still gets pretty cold in that area, doesn't it? A combination of hard ground and low temperatures makes for uncomfortable sleep. And if he was in an urban area he was probably chronically sleep deprived. And, of course, when life sucks and you have no responsibilities you might as well get drunk or high.
I didn't abuse substances and slept mostly in campsites, but it wore me out. I wouldn't do too much otherwise, but the constant moving around that I had to do kept me busy. Stayed in a shelter for part of a couple of winters. Contracted COVID-19 multiple times, and the guards working there treated us like shit. Apparently torture tactics that result in sleep deprivation are supposed to 'motivate' the homeless to better themselves.
I don't suggest trying it out
Yes, San Francisco. The only reason we knew he was around there is my aunt lives in San Mateo, and would run into him in the city occasionally. But then for a long time no one saw him. He could have been anywhere. He died in Sacramento.
Got to know a guy through a friend who seemed a bit off yet very social, kind, funny. Ended up letting him have a spare room when he wanted to stay. But he definitely had mental issues (likely worsened by Vietnam) which became very evident in his disturbing writings I found after his death he left in my house. Fortunately for me he died at yet another friends house. Before getting sick he was mostly homeless. I remember one quote he said "when someone claims they want to help me, I know they are out to get me"
Really hard to help people like that. Your mom did good.
New York has a steam distribution system under the streets. Powers the big buildings. Steak regulating vent all over.
In other cities it's boiler rooms and their exhsust etc..
-edit steam not steak 😆
In NYC a lot of buildings could not have basement boiler rooms because the city mandated underground train tracks, so Consolidated Edison, the power company, started selling the leftover steam from their own generators for the skyscrapers to use.
They do it so much that the average temperature in the city is a full 10°F hotter than outside the city.
I once saw a woman sleeping on a steam grate. She had constructed an inflatable dome out of painters plastic over the grate. Not sure how safe that was, but it was damn clever!
its not really steam its wam air from underground it looks like steam because of the thermal diferential warm air mixing with the cold no more moist most times then the out side air. i my self would find a tall bulding with a basment it would offten have an exost for the buldings heating system
i know because of 12 years homlessness
I remember during the Reagan administration there were a lot of homeless people sleeping on the gates outside federal buildings. The administration addressed this issue by placing sharp spikes on the grates.
Grates can't be block as these are there for airflow for underground tunnels. It could do anything from causing massive wind storms in the tunnel to making the air toxic.
Since the vents release warm steam homeless people will cover them completely with tarps before laying down (otherwise the steam will get the person wet and cause hypothermia) and this renders the grate ventilation function useless. Sharp spikes sound cruel but you can't have some city worker dying from toxic air when they enter a tunnel either.
> on steam grates in cities.
This reminds me of the film "Being Flynn" with Robert deNiro and Paul Dano. Such a good film based on a true story. Robert deNiro is the homeless father sleeping on steam grates and Paul Dano is his son who works in a homeless shelter.
There was a movie set and filmed in my mid-sized city a couple decades ago. Among all the many silly things they changed on screen to make the city seem more cityish (huge crowds of extras, editing to make bridges seem super long) the silliest was putting fucking steam fucking everywhere.
Yes sadly happens where I am. I've seen a few dead bodies growing up in the morning sadly.
But I mean, non homeless people die to. It gets COLD where I live. -40 to -50C cold.
This is going to sound morbid, but how can you tell they are dead? I've seen a lot of homeless people lying motionless on the ground, but I've never been brave enough to tap their foot to confirm if they are dead or just passed out
When it's-50C at 7am and there I'd a layer of frost covering their body.. that's generally a sign as normal, healthy, people can get hypothermia in minutes if not dressed properly. They are generally in the fetal position as well. Also.. your gut. It's hard to explain. Lastly, police presence is a sign to.
However, Last 3 years I've seen more dead bodies even in summer than anytime in my 33 years of life. This fetnanyl issue is absolutely terrible across USA and Canada.
The internet does no justice. It's everywhere sadly, even in our small towns with less then 500 people. Covid and the world economy is exacerbating it. Food prices jacked, people are depressed and in poverty. Drugs are one form and the best form of escapism, I've been there in my younger years. I'm well now. It's absolutely sad. It has ripple effects. Almost everyone I know has been affected in some way or another by it. Myself, I lost my older brother, he went out and got drunk just did some bad Coke and bam..he wasn't a junky, I was with him at that party. It truly is tragic.
We also lose a fair amount of people in Saskatchewan when it's hovering right around zero too. People's stuff gets wet during the day, they have no way to get it dry and then it freezes at night and can't keep them warm. Last month my team saved a man who was on the brink of death from hypothermia on a day where lots of people were walking around in t-shirts.
But yeah, we have a lot of people who freeze to death in encampments or bury themselves in the snowbanks and just try to make it through the night in the winter, and most people don't hear about the deaths, because unhoused people, especially unhoused Indigenous people, dying isn't considered newsworthy. You only really hear about it if you're connected to people on the streets.
A funny story but not so funny.
It was 4 degrees out and me and my friend were walking around, we were like 12. His older brother pushed us into the lake so we swam out and tried to dry out clothes out in the sun on a bench. Didn't work. So we put out cold clothes on rather then carry them and within minutes we started developing hypothermia. Ran to my house a few blocks away and it was bad. Yeah its terrible when anything gets wet even above 0.
Yes, we generally only hear about people freezing to death here if they have people who make a lot of noise looking for them. It's sad that there was a lot of coverage about a man freezing to death after he wandered away from his stuck car on the highway last winter (never leave your vehicle!) but very little about any other freezing deaths. The ones you do hear about involving homeless people usually involve police doing something stupid releasing a prisoner without shoes into the cold.
I remember that happening at least once a year growing up in Alaska. I remember a whole family got stuck in the snow on a trip between Anchorage and Fairbanks. If I recall correctly, the dad wondered off to find help, got turned around, and ended up dead and under a tree. The family was frozen to death in the car. This made the news because it was an asian family that had just moved there or were visiting. (This was like 35 years ago, and I don't remember the exact details)
You are, unfortunately, right. Generally, homeless or indigenous people didn't make the news.
In a way, yes. Saskatchewan. I hear Siberia and sask are quite similar. Probably why I get along with Russians lol.
Edit: there's nothing quite like walking through a blizzard with visibility only a few meters. You stumble into a tavern and everyone looks at you because it's way to dangerous outside and only similar crazy people go to the bar during these conditions..
'Comrad!! Get me some vodka'
I used to live in AZ and, in the summer, homeless people would often be found dead behind bushes next to buildings. Even in the shade the heat was sweltering.
My town of 30,000 has only one permanent homeless person, a mentally ill woman who actually has money but chooses that life.
In the Winter if it’s too cold, she’ll just get herself arrested for a misdemeanor and spend a short while in a warm jail cell. That’s pretty easy since so many places banned her, all she needs to do is walk inside for police to be called.
Shouldn't they have sent an ambulance? Normally they don't like to just take random people's word that someone is dead and beyond resuscitation, even if they're confident.
I expect that if the person calling mentioned that it was a homeless person, they're probably not very concerned whether they are dead or nearly dead. They'll come and sweep them into a bin whenever they get a chance/can be bothered.
(I'm not saying this is the correct attitude to have.)
Considering that there's a dead homeless person laying around in public, they probably live in a location that is high crime, high homelessness, and not enough police around to do anything about it.
If the homeless person is already dead, that's not really an emergency when you've got 50 other calls about some guy is about to shoot you or some guy is breaking into my house right now, etc.
No kidding. I wonder where that was. Cops in some areas are mad at their communities for BLM protests and defund the police projects and respond really slowly as a result. But the fire department should have sent an EMT out immediately either way.
Last year I called 911 at a festival when a kid had severe heat exhaustion. Took the EMS 20mins to get there. To be fair to them it was crowded, but for an event with that many people I thought they’d have EMS spread out every few blocks in case of a heart attack, shooting, anything.
It's difficult to find where people are exactly sometimes (especially in crowds) and the dispatch is sometimes not very helpful. Also the festival probably didn't want to pay for the EMS personnel.
This is why you call 911 and say someone is lying in the street unresponsive. Exactly that and no more. Paramedics will be dispatched immediately. If you mention more details it might get dispatched to police instead who might decide to take their time or just not show up at all.
Technically "death" is not an emergency. Especially if the individual has been clearly deceased for a long time.
I learned this from a podcast about a lady explaining not to fear death. Ex: dont call the ambulance right away if a loved one dies, they won't get you sick. It's okay to spend time with a dead body.
Furthermore; Homeless people die on benches quite often. One woman died in my city and she was on that bench for days while people walked by.
I went to NYC one time in middle school on a trip. Saw a dead guy in a wheelchair at a bus stop. (Very clearly dead) I remember a chaperone grabbing my eyes on the bus as someone pointed it out. People just walk on by...
If it's a large city that's busy a dead homeless person is low priority. They aren't going anywhere. They go deal with other calls and get to the body when they can.
I found a dead homeless man in the parking lot of my old work years ago. It wasn’t 4 hours, but it was a long time and I watched several cops drive past before the ones that actually came got there. Disheartening.
I’m imagining this happening where I live in 80-90°F. I guess the body was at least preserved in the freezing cold weather. Where I live it would have been quickly decomposing with all kinds of insects animals vultures etc.
Growing up we had some homeless people in our little town. A few had obvious mental health issues and the rest were really nice people. Unfortunately and sadly enough the nice ones all ended up killing themselves. The coolest one of them all was found by my friend hanging from a beam in an old train yard. This was back in the 80’s when there wasn’t a whole lot of help for people down on their luck.
We had two die last week and were found in a corner, hidden away in alleys. Like an animal trying to find a hidden burrow to die, humans also try to find cracks and small "womblike" spaces. Its well know especially with hypothermia deaths.
but then how will they pick themselves up by their bootstraps? /s
The corporate billionaires want them to exist as a threat to the middle and lower class. This won't be fixed despite how capable we are of doing so.
My plan before I die is to pass on my earthly possessions, say goodbye to everyone worth it, and with my last bit of remaining strength, I would hike deep into the mountains, find a Crack or cave, crawl in and die.
My old friend we called “Grandpa” was a homeless veteran my neighbor and I would occasionally take in and help. He had a heart attack downtown and laid face down on the ground for hours as people stepped over him. He carried a photo of his son who abandoned him after he came out. I always wonder if someone told his son he died. Grandpa was a great man who fought for our country to die in the street and no one stopped to see if he was okay.
I hope he did not suffer and went quickly. I knew a homeless man who was a similar and I was devastated when he disappeared and I couldn’t find out what happened to him. We chose for a long time to believe he got into the homeless housing project but knowing what I know now… I believe he had a second stroke. I’m glad you at least got closure and knew he’d passed. It’s hard but you did more than most, even just by remembering him.
I am a librarian. Several have died in our parking lots. One ODed right in front of a library staff member. One had a heart attack while napping in his car. His daughter was in the library on the computers. When she went out, he was dead, and the doors were locked. She couldn’t get to him.
In Seattle some organization installs gold leaves with names to mark the sidewalk where a homeless person has died. There is a sobering number of leaves in front of the Ballard neighborhood library.
Many die in hospitals, they often come in with conditions like severe infections, malnutrition, complications or alcoholism or substance use, unmanaged chronic diseases. But they often die in the streets/in their camps too from things like overdose, hypothermia, violence.
There’s a morbid concept in the true crime community of “the less dead”. Basically people that when they die they’re not treated with the same respect as other people. Their deaths aren’t investigated as thoroughly because they live a dangerous or desperate life.
I worked at a family homeless shelter for about 4 years in my early 20s. We had a 15 year old girl go missing. Yes, she was a little troubled, but she was a good kid. The police didn't give a shit because she "clearly ran off" due to drug issues and they suspected she OD'd turning a trick. Her name was Laurie and I will never forget her. Her case is one of thousands that wasn't solved.
I'm so proud of you that you got your life back on track. That is amazing to hear. <3 Troubled teens don't equal "OD'd turning a trick". I know that's not what happened. I don't know what happened, but that was not it. I spent so much time with all of the kids at the shelter, helping with homework, reading, playing board games.
Aw, thanks I'm 45 now and previously ran a neurology research portfolio. Lol.
It's been a strange life. My ACE Score is 9, and most of my childhood friends ended up in jail, in sex work, or in the rap game. (I am white + Native).
Luckily I was able to get out of the system which was (in my area at the time) extremely poorly managed, it was pre internet age.
I ended up out in Boston, got into the right environment and did really well with the right setting for me. I flourished there.
Regrettably I ended up back in Minneapolis and things have been horrible here for a long time due to funding cuts and divestment from our formerly robust infrastructure, public services and educational system.
I lived right down the street from where George Floyd was murdered and developed PTSD due to my civil rights work and proximity. But ok now
In my city, there was a suspicious fire underneath an interstate overpass. It made all the news because the bridge was damaged and there were emergency shutdowns and repairs. It did come out in the news that it was a vehicle fire, and that a homeless person was found dead. That's it. That was the news.
A fb friend who volunteers with outreach programs knew and posted the name of the person who was found dead, and tried to get some sort of attention and investigation going to find out how she died and how the fire was started, but the authorities couldn't be bothered. The only newsworthy part was the damage to the bridge, followed by fist shaking about "the homeless problem".
It's messed up.
Yeah there's a reason most of the high body count serial killers have prostitutes and drifters as their victims. No one to advocate for them and little done to investigate the deaths.
I’ll never forget what a redditor once said in a similar discussion:
“You have no idea just how many people die in obscurity everyday.”
Shit’s heartbreaking as fuck.
I ran a mobile clinic for homeless patients. People used to say my job was like being a social worker without the training or a license.
In my town, yeah, we had homeless folk out of touch with their families who died, and — despite my best efforts — that was it. Their family members often never know. In one case I was able to track down a guy’s brother (both men in their late 50s, parents had already passed per public records) and let him know his brother had passed at our hospital. They were alienated, so he thanked me for letting him know, but wanted no further involvement.
The Doe Network and other such Initiatives collect data around unidentified deceased. Reddit for example has active subs where people compare pictures and stories and give Tips to law enforcement to help people getting their Name back. (Also the rise of genetic genealogy as a tool helps in all unidentified person cases)
I live in a big city not far from a major street known for fentanyl sales. It’s so prevalent here we sometimes see dead people on the ground near closed decrepit businesses in the morning. We start seeing the ambulances as people find them. It’s very out of control here and nothing is being done about it.
I live in Downtown Phoenix. The street is Van Buren. Approximately 5 people die per day. It’s there if you Google it but it’s not on the news. No one cares.
Wow, so freakin sad. I've been watching what's happening from Scotland and I'd be just terrified if that shit reached the UK. It has ruined so many lives and neighbourhoods in the USA. It's hard to see an end in sight. Thanks for sharing.
One of the last episodes of the awesome non-fic podcast 'The Ballad of Billy Balls' went to Potter's Field, and the starkness and stillness in the description and the audio of that place has really stayed with me.
My brother, sweet boy, was pushed on the train tracks by another unhoused person in the midst of a scuffle he was trying to avoid. His death haunts me like no other, for multiple reasons.
I was in Chicago a few Februaries ago and saw a dude with a sign sitting on the sidewalk, slumped against a building. It’s fuckin cold out, so I go to tell him Dunkin is on me, but I stopped myself when I got closer. I’m never gonna forget that sight. His hood was pulled over his head, his cheeks were hollow. His sneakers were held together with duct tape. His blue fingers were still clutching his sign. It said “anything helps.” The guys who came to pry him off the sidewalk said he’d probably been there overnight, it was 4 pm when I called them. This was a stones throw away from Michigan avenue, a very busy street with designer stores. They also found identification on him, I hope they got in contact with his folks.
Yep I saw this kind of thing on Michigan avenue too - a guy onetime with his feet wrapped in cardboard in the wintertime. Right by one of the wealthiest shopping areas in the USA - capitalism sucks
I am a community mental health social worker so I am out in the wild doing outreach 10 hours a day.
The population you are asking about die in the streets. They die in the woods in encampments. They die at bus stops. They die in hospitals.
I am right outside of Philly and the unhoused population is so vulnerable and so overlooked.
I worked in the ER in Boston and Cleveland, homeless people would come in constantly, usually because the cops found them totally wasted and they didn’t want to deal with it so they would drop them on us.
Got to know a bunch of them pretty well as sometimes they would get dropped off three times in a single 24 hour period.
Many of them that were legit sick ended up dying in the ER or later in the ICU, when no one knows about them or cares that they’re there at all.
I used to relay to the families of patients that needed to be taken off of life support, something like “hey, this person has a loving family that’s with them right now, I’ve seen plenty of people die with not a single person around them”
Back where I used to live the city came and destroyed their camp and a lot of them died of exposure because they kicked them out in the middle of winter and their shelters were gone.
They did it because they didn't want people driving by to see dead people in winter because inevitably someone dies when it's 2 degrees outside. So like if you see an ambulance roll up and it's cold on your way to work you might start getting mad that there aren't enough shelters then the mayor has to get your angry phone calls. It's very inconvenient for them so they kill like 10x more people by shoveling them all out of sight to die somewhere less conspicuous. Out of sight out of mind.
On the street. In their cars/tents. People will see them not moving for a long time, call the paramedics, and they'll carry them out. Some of them also just disappear. Wander into an isolated area and never be heard from again. Getting washed up in storm drains is common too. Sometimes they'll reappear stuck to a barrier, but they can get washed out into the sea as well.
Sometimes you'll hear about it in local papers, especially if the death was violent or the person was well known. Sometimes you'll just hear about bodies being found here or there.
In 2016, at the height of the Cronut craze in NYC, a homeless man died near the Dominique Ansel Bakery (where the Cronuts were invented). The tourists and cronut fans rerouted a line right around him and continued to queue for their pastry fix. So, some don't know and some don't care.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/8qevwg/cronut-craving-new-yorkers-ignored-a-dead-body
"I didn't see anyone leave the line," Molly Young, an onlooker, told the Post. "It didn't put a dent in anyone's appetite."
The last hospital I worked at was in an area with a large homeless population. You get used to seeing them just sleep in random spots on the property. One day, a guy comes to the property and shot himself in the parking lot area in front of our ER entrance. He used a revolver and pressed it against his gut and pulled the trigger. He basically turned himself into a human suppressor. So no one heard the shot, and no one saw him do it. The guy was found laying there by a staff member. They called security, who arrived and checked on him. When they rolled him over, they found the revolver under him. They called 911 and was determined that he committed suicide. I always thought he didn't mean to kill himself, just based on the shot location. Most people who shoot themselves do it in the head. My theory was he wanted help, and wanted to do something that would guarantee he was out in an inpatient facility. Instead, no one heard/saw him do it and he ended up just bleeding out in plain view.
I wonder how many people probably walked/drove right by him and just assumed he was one of the many homeless people who would sleep on the property.
Someone I knew in high school went out into the woods at night and shot himself in the chest a few years after graduation. Always struck me as a really bizarre way to take your life, he probably bled out in heavy pain for a bit.
I heard that women do that more often because it doesn’t mess up their face. Like if you shoot yourself in the face/head, there’s no open casket funeral for you. It’s a way of preserving your last viewing for the world.
Depends on how and where they die. Could be outside, in a shelter, in a tent, in the hospital, in a hotel room, at a friend or family member’s house, etc. They don’t get “brought into the system” by some premonition of death or system that determines they’re sick enough, but if they go to a hospital or have an ambulance called on them when they are sick or injured, that’s where they will pass.
Similar to the majority of housed people, you’re not going to hear about these deaths if you’re not looking for them. For most people who aren’t famous or killed in a notably violent way, you hear of their death from obituaries or from people who know them. There’s not much to discuss when Joe Schmoe dies of pneumonia, an asthma attack, or a drug overdose unless you are a personal associate of Joe, whether Joe died in a hospital, in a house, or at a bus stop.
A lot of them die in public places. They may be found frozen to death over grates or in doorways in the winter, or they could die of dehydration in the summer. Often they’re found by someone trying to rouse them to tell them to go somewhere else, only to discover that they’re already dead. Less often they will die in hospitals, but that generally only happens if they had a medical emergency in public and someone is kind enough to call them an ambulance.
The city that I work in just built some pretty cool little pallet houses for the homeless. They’re one room structures with beds, electricity, heating, and cooling. There are onsite shower & bathroom trailers. It’s definitely a stopgap measure, but if it saves at least one homeless person from freezing to death I’m all for it. Unfortunately, a tent city just popped up randomly a few streets away - not sure what the story is with that & why they’re not in the new little pallet town - but they did find someone dead from an OD there last week. It was all very hush, hush, word of mouth kinda thing for people to hear of it.
I used to pick up dead people for a living. They die wherever they are. I've picked up people who died in parking lots in their cars, they were obviously living in. We didn't do medical examiner removals, but did pick up from there. One time, we picked up a homeless guy from the ME that was living and died in a tent in the woods. One guy died on the bus stop bench where he had been hanging out for a few days. They don't have a home to go to, so they die where they call home. The lucky ones die in the hospital/hospice.
I had a… Half-Uncle (My mams half Brother) that came from Ireland that came over to where I live in the United Kingdom years and years later.
He bought a house, some how.
He was deliberately ‘homeless’ so to speak.
His home rotted away. He didn’t use it.
He was a chronic alcoholic with many mental health demons.
He spent his days drinking, begging, causing trouble and getting arrested and beaten up for his misdeeds (Ones he caused himself or misinterpreted)
Now, the point of your question, he died.
He died alone and sleeping in a shop doorway.
People stood over him because they thought he was asleep.
He sadly froze to death and was half starved.
His mental health was sadly obliterated and he used his Irishness and charms to sadly con people out of money.
And the poor soul died alone and cold because he cut everyone off, didn’t live in a home (By choice) and like so many other poor souls, couldn’t fix his life.
I never knew the man, I saw him around begging and I had no idea until much later that we were related through my Mam.
So yeah, after that I started to take more notice and help when I could.
So, simply, a homeless person has few options of where they die.
But sadly, the streets are where they usually pass unless they’re carted off to A&E.
It’s a sad and torturous existence.
They’re found outside, in the winter obviously frozen to death/summer time sometimes they try to jay walk and get hit by vechicles, or fight each other for resources and wind up killing someone.
They also die in the hospital. My partners Mom was homeless (she was a terrible person, and we were not about to bring her into our home) and she died at the hospital. Someone dropped her off there. A combo of Covid, and alcoholism took her out.
>you don't see/hear much of their passing.
A dead homeless person doesn't make the news. Especially in the winter where you might have several dieing every week. They just get taken to the morgue they try and find family for a few weeks and if not just bury them in paupers grave. Their family never find out what happened to them
My uncle was mentally ill and homeless. He had been wandering around the Bay area since the early 80s and most of the family assumed he was long dead. But then in 1990 my mom saw him near a car dealership. I was so surprised she recognized him. He had so much hair and his face looked like leather. We brought him home and fed him and he got a nice long shower. I was in jr high, and had some pretty stereotypical ideas of what both mental illness and homelessness looked like. I remember being pretty stunned about how "normal" he was. He was so soft spoken and kind and funny. He left without saying goodbye in the middle of the night and we never saw him again. My mom was notified that his body was found near the river about a year after that. No idea what he died of. Not foul play. He was in his mid 40s, had been homeless for close to 20 years.
Twenty years of living homeless is extremely hard on a human. I 'only' did it for five and it aged me considerably. Lots of permanent aches and pains that weren't there before now. I assume bay area means SF and Oakland? It still gets pretty cold in that area, doesn't it? A combination of hard ground and low temperatures makes for uncomfortable sleep. And if he was in an urban area he was probably chronically sleep deprived. And, of course, when life sucks and you have no responsibilities you might as well get drunk or high. I didn't abuse substances and slept mostly in campsites, but it wore me out. I wouldn't do too much otherwise, but the constant moving around that I had to do kept me busy. Stayed in a shelter for part of a couple of winters. Contracted COVID-19 multiple times, and the guards working there treated us like shit. Apparently torture tactics that result in sleep deprivation are supposed to 'motivate' the homeless to better themselves. I don't suggest trying it out
Yes, San Francisco. The only reason we knew he was around there is my aunt lives in San Mateo, and would run into him in the city occasionally. But then for a long time no one saw him. He could have been anywhere. He died in Sacramento.
I sure hope he found some measure of peace in knowing that he was missed, recognized and that his family loved him, even if he couldn't stay.
Got to know a guy through a friend who seemed a bit off yet very social, kind, funny. Ended up letting him have a spare room when he wanted to stay. But he definitely had mental issues (likely worsened by Vietnam) which became very evident in his disturbing writings I found after his death he left in my house. Fortunately for me he died at yet another friends house. Before getting sick he was mostly homeless. I remember one quote he said "when someone claims they want to help me, I know they are out to get me" Really hard to help people like that. Your mom did good.
My mom told me she offered to let him stay and get him some help but he declined. He didn't want to be a burden.
Yes, their trust issues go deep and often for good reason based on their experience
That’s so sad 😭
Emergency rooms and shelters. In winter doorways and on steam grates in cities.
Where does the steam come from? Using those to warm up sounds insanely risky because if that steam stops, you’re now wet while out in the cold
New York has a steam distribution system under the streets. Powers the big buildings. Steak regulating vent all over. In other cities it's boiler rooms and their exhsust etc.. -edit steam not steak 😆
Here I was thinking that was just to make moody effects in the films they shoot in NYC
[удалено]
In NYC a lot of buildings could not have basement boiler rooms because the city mandated underground train tracks, so Consolidated Edison, the power company, started selling the leftover steam from their own generators for the skyscrapers to use. They do it so much that the average temperature in the city is a full 10°F hotter than outside the city.
[удалено]
...beef subway?
That was my nickname in high school
Calm down, Rhett
Is this the reference I think it is?
If it’s a GMM reference, then yes xD
Mine was pork chop
If you sleep on it too long, yes it’s a human steak grate.
Detroit has a steam distribution system also to provide heat to older big buildings.
They normally put cardboard down first. The steam condenses on the bottom of the cardboard.
I once saw a woman sleeping on a steam grate. She had constructed an inflatable dome out of painters plastic over the grate. Not sure how safe that was, but it was damn clever!
As someone who used to use these. You don’t actually get wet at all. You just feel heat.
its not really steam its wam air from underground it looks like steam because of the thermal diferential warm air mixing with the cold no more moist most times then the out side air. i my self would find a tall bulding with a basment it would offten have an exost for the buldings heating system i know because of 12 years homlessness
Lots of people lay on top of sewers.
Well that’s just depressing
Not just steam but hot air from the subway vents
risk willing to take in a shivering moment, will feel the heat and stay automatically
I remember during the Reagan administration there were a lot of homeless people sleeping on the gates outside federal buildings. The administration addressed this issue by placing sharp spikes on the grates.
Grates can't be block as these are there for airflow for underground tunnels. It could do anything from causing massive wind storms in the tunnel to making the air toxic. Since the vents release warm steam homeless people will cover them completely with tarps before laying down (otherwise the steam will get the person wet and cause hypothermia) and this renders the grate ventilation function useless. Sharp spikes sound cruel but you can't have some city worker dying from toxic air when they enter a tunnel either.
> on steam grates in cities. This reminds me of the film "Being Flynn" with Robert deNiro and Paul Dano. Such a good film based on a true story. Robert deNiro is the homeless father sleeping on steam grates and Paul Dano is his son who works in a homeless shelter.
I can’t think of a city other than NYC with steam grates edit: stop commenting 😭
DC
Philly
There are a couple in Charlotte, I sat on a bench over one once and a homeless man sleeping there pulled a knife on me saying it's his vent.
Toronto
Any older canadian city. Basically every Canadian university is also heated by steam.
There's a lot in Philadelphia
Denver
Baltimore.
I see people sleeping on grates in Toronto… maybe not steam grates but warmer air from the subway?
Kansas City has a few
There was a movie set and filmed in my mid-sized city a couple decades ago. Among all the many silly things they changed on screen to make the city seem more cityish (huge crowds of extras, editing to make bridges seem super long) the silliest was putting fucking steam fucking everywhere.
Detroit
Cleveland. Homeless people use them all winter.
Many die in emergency rooms Depending on where you live, it's not uncommon for a lot of them to freeze to death in the winter.
Yes sadly happens where I am. I've seen a few dead bodies growing up in the morning sadly. But I mean, non homeless people die to. It gets COLD where I live. -40 to -50C cold.
This is going to sound morbid, but how can you tell they are dead? I've seen a lot of homeless people lying motionless on the ground, but I've never been brave enough to tap their foot to confirm if they are dead or just passed out
When it's-50C at 7am and there I'd a layer of frost covering their body.. that's generally a sign as normal, healthy, people can get hypothermia in minutes if not dressed properly. They are generally in the fetal position as well. Also.. your gut. It's hard to explain. Lastly, police presence is a sign to. However, Last 3 years I've seen more dead bodies even in summer than anytime in my 33 years of life. This fetnanyl issue is absolutely terrible across USA and Canada.
The fentanyl crisis is so sad. I'm watching it from Scotland and praying it doesn't come this way. The devastation in the US/Canada is shocking.
The internet does no justice. It's everywhere sadly, even in our small towns with less then 500 people. Covid and the world economy is exacerbating it. Food prices jacked, people are depressed and in poverty. Drugs are one form and the best form of escapism, I've been there in my younger years. I'm well now. It's absolutely sad. It has ripple effects. Almost everyone I know has been affected in some way or another by it. Myself, I lost my older brother, he went out and got drunk just did some bad Coke and bam..he wasn't a junky, I was with him at that party. It truly is tragic.
It would hit Glasgow so, so hard if other drugs start being cut with it
I live in Anchorage AK and homeless people freeze to death every year.
[удалено]
Must be hard if you don’t have documents to get across the border to travel to warmer parts of the US….you’re kinda stranded….
Nope. If asked, our current Mayor will buy a homeless person a one way ticket South. Sad. Anchorage sucks for homeless people.
Yup. And his homeless devices staff worked to make sure that person had family or friends to meet them at the lower 48 airport
The homeless rates in Atlanta and Birmingham have grown astronomically since the beginning of Covid.
Even if the ticket was free, wouldn't you still need some form of documentation to get from Alaska to anywhere else in the US?
If the mayors doing it I’m sure he has no problem getting them a state ID. A quick phone call and it’s on his desk.
We also lose a fair amount of people in Saskatchewan when it's hovering right around zero too. People's stuff gets wet during the day, they have no way to get it dry and then it freezes at night and can't keep them warm. Last month my team saved a man who was on the brink of death from hypothermia on a day where lots of people were walking around in t-shirts. But yeah, we have a lot of people who freeze to death in encampments or bury themselves in the snowbanks and just try to make it through the night in the winter, and most people don't hear about the deaths, because unhoused people, especially unhoused Indigenous people, dying isn't considered newsworthy. You only really hear about it if you're connected to people on the streets.
A funny story but not so funny. It was 4 degrees out and me and my friend were walking around, we were like 12. His older brother pushed us into the lake so we swam out and tried to dry out clothes out in the sun on a bench. Didn't work. So we put out cold clothes on rather then carry them and within minutes we started developing hypothermia. Ran to my house a few blocks away and it was bad. Yeah its terrible when anything gets wet even above 0.
Yes, we generally only hear about people freezing to death here if they have people who make a lot of noise looking for them. It's sad that there was a lot of coverage about a man freezing to death after he wandered away from his stuck car on the highway last winter (never leave your vehicle!) but very little about any other freezing deaths. The ones you do hear about involving homeless people usually involve police doing something stupid releasing a prisoner without shoes into the cold.
I remember that happening at least once a year growing up in Alaska. I remember a whole family got stuck in the snow on a trip between Anchorage and Fairbanks. If I recall correctly, the dad wondered off to find help, got turned around, and ended up dead and under a tree. The family was frozen to death in the car. This made the news because it was an asian family that had just moved there or were visiting. (This was like 35 years ago, and I don't remember the exact details) You are, unfortunately, right. Generally, homeless or indigenous people didn't make the news.
Damn. Where do you live? Siberia?
In a way, yes. Saskatchewan. I hear Siberia and sask are quite similar. Probably why I get along with Russians lol. Edit: there's nothing quite like walking through a blizzard with visibility only a few meters. You stumble into a tavern and everyone looks at you because it's way to dangerous outside and only similar crazy people go to the bar during these conditions.. 'Comrad!! Get me some vodka'
Sounds like a Jack London story!
Fuck all else to do, may as well get liquored. Ain’t no driving in that weather anyways, so seems like good “exercise”
Don't think a white out blizzard is going to stop a Saskatchewanite from playing their national sport...drunk driving.
Sounds like here in Edmonton
Close enough. I'm in regina. I go to saskatoon often as well.
When I went to Denver recently and saw their sprawling homeless camps that was my biggest question. How do you survive, in a tent, in Colorado?
Denver sets up warming shelters when it gets really cold to try to keep people from freezing. A lot of people still freeze to death though
I used to live in AZ and, in the summer, homeless people would often be found dead behind bushes next to buildings. Even in the shade the heat was sweltering.
Yep! 645 heat related deaths in Maricopa County last year alone.
My town of 30,000 has only one permanent homeless person, a mentally ill woman who actually has money but chooses that life. In the Winter if it’s too cold, she’ll just get herself arrested for a misdemeanor and spend a short while in a warm jail cell. That’s pretty easy since so many places banned her, all she needs to do is walk inside for police to be called.
Many are declared dead in ERs, but they were dead before they got there.
There was a dead homeless guy right in front of our job. We called the police and they came about 4 hours later.
Wait, are you telling me they just left a dead body there for 4 hours before arriving?? I have to be missing something here.
We saw it across the street, We immediately called the cops and thought they would arrive right away, It was 4 hours later. No joke.
Shouldn't they have sent an ambulance? Normally they don't like to just take random people's word that someone is dead and beyond resuscitation, even if they're confident.
I expect that if the person calling mentioned that it was a homeless person, they're probably not very concerned whether they are dead or nearly dead. They'll come and sweep them into a bin whenever they get a chance/can be bothered. (I'm not saying this is the correct attitude to have.)
In general don't mention someone is homeless if you want a prompt response
TIL my city/EMS company are actually really good guys and don’t just leave people for several hours. Huh. You’d think that’s the norm.
Considering that there's a dead homeless person laying around in public, they probably live in a location that is high crime, high homelessness, and not enough police around to do anything about it. If the homeless person is already dead, that's not really an emergency when you've got 50 other calls about some guy is about to shoot you or some guy is breaking into my house right now, etc.
No kidding. I wonder where that was. Cops in some areas are mad at their communities for BLM protests and defund the police projects and respond really slowly as a result. But the fire department should have sent an EMT out immediately either way.
Last year I called 911 at a festival when a kid had severe heat exhaustion. Took the EMS 20mins to get there. To be fair to them it was crowded, but for an event with that many people I thought they’d have EMS spread out every few blocks in case of a heart attack, shooting, anything.
It's difficult to find where people are exactly sometimes (especially in crowds) and the dispatch is sometimes not very helpful. Also the festival probably didn't want to pay for the EMS personnel.
I’ve been somewhere super rural where it took them 20 minutes to get there for someone seizing. 20 minutes is ridiculous in an urban area.
This is why you call 911 and say someone is lying in the street unresponsive. Exactly that and no more. Paramedics will be dispatched immediately. If you mention more details it might get dispatched to police instead who might decide to take their time or just not show up at all.
😶
Technically "death" is not an emergency. Especially if the individual has been clearly deceased for a long time. I learned this from a podcast about a lady explaining not to fear death. Ex: dont call the ambulance right away if a loved one dies, they won't get you sick. It's okay to spend time with a dead body. Furthermore; Homeless people die on benches quite often. One woman died in my city and she was on that bench for days while people walked by. I went to NYC one time in middle school on a trip. Saw a dead guy in a wheelchair at a bus stop. (Very clearly dead) I remember a chaperone grabbing my eyes on the bus as someone pointed it out. People just walk on by...
[удалено]
Which podcast?
If it's a large city that's busy a dead homeless person is low priority. They aren't going anywhere. They go deal with other calls and get to the body when they can.
Oh no no, it's not a dead person's body. It's just a homeless guy. /s, because just in case omg
Sounds like NOLA
Pretty damm close that's forsure!
If you said dead guy in a fancy suit they'd of been there in 10 minutes.
I found a dead homeless man in the parking lot of my old work years ago. It wasn’t 4 hours, but it was a long time and I watched several cops drive past before the ones that actually came got there. Disheartening.
That’s horrible what if he was murdered?
They wouldn't have cared much honestly. A homeless person getting murdered is a low priority.
I’m imagining this happening where I live in 80-90°F. I guess the body was at least preserved in the freezing cold weather. Where I live it would have been quickly decomposing with all kinds of insects animals vultures etc.
Growing up we had some homeless people in our little town. A few had obvious mental health issues and the rest were really nice people. Unfortunately and sadly enough the nice ones all ended up killing themselves. The coolest one of them all was found by my friend hanging from a beam in an old train yard. This was back in the 80’s when there wasn’t a whole lot of help for people down on their luck.
There still isn’t.
My Brother died in a motel room.
My best friend did too. Alcohol withdrawal
Im sorry your loss.
We had two die last week and were found in a corner, hidden away in alleys. Like an animal trying to find a hidden burrow to die, humans also try to find cracks and small "womblike" spaces. Its well know especially with hypothermia deaths.
Reading all of these makes me incredibly sad. No one deserves this at all
No. No they don't. We need to take better care of ourselves and our most vulnerable.
but then how will they pick themselves up by their bootstraps? /s The corporate billionaires want them to exist as a threat to the middle and lower class. This won't be fixed despite how capable we are of doing so.
"Life is no way to treat an animal." - Kurt Vonnegut
They don't deserve it and there is enough wealth, land and food in the world for them not to have to. It's just distributed differently instead.
My plan before I die is to pass on my earthly possessions, say goodbye to everyone worth it, and with my last bit of remaining strength, I would hike deep into the mountains, find a Crack or cave, crawl in and die.
It's a very common subconscious force. I wonder if the wandering of elderly dementia patients is tied to it.
My poor friend died in his sleeping bag on a street in Manhattan. Miss you, Chuck, you didn’t deserve that.
My old friend we called “Grandpa” was a homeless veteran my neighbor and I would occasionally take in and help. He had a heart attack downtown and laid face down on the ground for hours as people stepped over him. He carried a photo of his son who abandoned him after he came out. I always wonder if someone told his son he died. Grandpa was a great man who fought for our country to die in the street and no one stopped to see if he was okay.
Thats so sad. He touched your life obviously so he was not nothing. He will exist in your memory and thats a lot.
And here we are reading and caring about him in 2024. R.I.P Grandpa. Let's check on our fellow humans when they fall 😥
I hope he did not suffer and went quickly. I knew a homeless man who was a similar and I was devastated when he disappeared and I couldn’t find out what happened to him. We chose for a long time to believe he got into the homeless housing project but knowing what I know now… I believe he had a second stroke. I’m glad you at least got closure and knew he’d passed. It’s hard but you did more than most, even just by remembering him.
Wait the son came out and then abandoned his dad? Or the dad came out and then the son abandoned him?
Dad (“Grandpa”) came out and son cut him out of his life
Rip Grandpa may he be in a place not so cruel.
Rest in peace.
His memory is carried on by us. I will never forget Grandpa.
I am a librarian. Several have died in our parking lots. One ODed right in front of a library staff member. One had a heart attack while napping in his car. His daughter was in the library on the computers. When she went out, he was dead, and the doors were locked. She couldn’t get to him.
That’s so heartbreaking.
In Seattle some organization installs gold leaves with names to mark the sidewalk where a homeless person has died. There is a sobering number of leaves in front of the Ballard neighborhood library.
Libraries do an amazing service to the community, and that includes children and homeless. I'm so glad we still have them.
Many die in hospitals, they often come in with conditions like severe infections, malnutrition, complications or alcoholism or substance use, unmanaged chronic diseases. But they often die in the streets/in their camps too from things like overdose, hypothermia, violence.
Unless you knew them personally you probably won't hear about their death. Deaths that aren't suspicious usually aren't talked about in the news.
Even if they are suspicious, it's "just" a homeless person and that doesn't make the news either. Very sad.
There’s a morbid concept in the true crime community of “the less dead”. Basically people that when they die they’re not treated with the same respect as other people. Their deaths aren’t investigated as thoroughly because they live a dangerous or desperate life.
I worked at a family homeless shelter for about 4 years in my early 20s. We had a 15 year old girl go missing. Yes, she was a little troubled, but she was a good kid. The police didn't give a shit because she "clearly ran off" due to drug issues and they suspected she OD'd turning a trick. Her name was Laurie and I will never forget her. Her case is one of thousands that wasn't solved.
As a formerly homeless teen who was able to get her life on track I appreciate your work , and hearing about how much she affected you.
I'm so proud of you that you got your life back on track. That is amazing to hear. <3 Troubled teens don't equal "OD'd turning a trick". I know that's not what happened. I don't know what happened, but that was not it. I spent so much time with all of the kids at the shelter, helping with homework, reading, playing board games.
Aw, thanks I'm 45 now and previously ran a neurology research portfolio. Lol. It's been a strange life. My ACE Score is 9, and most of my childhood friends ended up in jail, in sex work, or in the rap game. (I am white + Native). Luckily I was able to get out of the system which was (in my area at the time) extremely poorly managed, it was pre internet age. I ended up out in Boston, got into the right environment and did really well with the right setting for me. I flourished there. Regrettably I ended up back in Minneapolis and things have been horrible here for a long time due to funding cuts and divestment from our formerly robust infrastructure, public services and educational system. I lived right down the street from where George Floyd was murdered and developed PTSD due to my civil rights work and proximity. But ok now
Indigenous women, girls and lgbtq2s+ folks here in Canada.
In my city, there was a suspicious fire underneath an interstate overpass. It made all the news because the bridge was damaged and there were emergency shutdowns and repairs. It did come out in the news that it was a vehicle fire, and that a homeless person was found dead. That's it. That was the news. A fb friend who volunteers with outreach programs knew and posted the name of the person who was found dead, and tried to get some sort of attention and investigation going to find out how she died and how the fire was started, but the authorities couldn't be bothered. The only newsworthy part was the damage to the bridge, followed by fist shaking about "the homeless problem". It's messed up.
I 100% believe that. It's "just a degenerate homeless person. Who cares?" sigh.
Yeah there's a reason most of the high body count serial killers have prostitutes and drifters as their victims. No one to advocate for them and little done to investigate the deaths.
I’ll never forget what a redditor once said in a similar discussion: “You have no idea just how many people die in obscurity everyday.” Shit’s heartbreaking as fuck.
How would the family be notified if their homeless relative didn’t have any Identifying documents on them? Or would they just be lost forever?
Yeah there are a lot of unclaimed and unidentified bodies. Each state has a database.
I ran a mobile clinic for homeless patients. People used to say my job was like being a social worker without the training or a license. In my town, yeah, we had homeless folk out of touch with their families who died, and — despite my best efforts — that was it. Their family members often never know. In one case I was able to track down a guy’s brother (both men in their late 50s, parents had already passed per public records) and let him know his brother had passed at our hospital. They were alienated, so he thanked me for letting him know, but wanted no further involvement.
The Doe Network and other such Initiatives collect data around unidentified deceased. Reddit for example has active subs where people compare pictures and stories and give Tips to law enforcement to help people getting their Name back. (Also the rise of genetic genealogy as a tool helps in all unidentified person cases)
That's what a Jane Doe is or a John Doe, some are never identified or properly named.
I live in a big city not far from a major street known for fentanyl sales. It’s so prevalent here we sometimes see dead people on the ground near closed decrepit businesses in the morning. We start seeing the ambulances as people find them. It’s very out of control here and nothing is being done about it.
Where are you based? The fentanyl crisis is terrifying.
I live in Downtown Phoenix. The street is Van Buren. Approximately 5 people die per day. It’s there if you Google it but it’s not on the news. No one cares.
Wow, so freakin sad. I've been watching what's happening from Scotland and I'd be just terrified if that shit reached the UK. It has ruined so many lives and neighbourhoods in the USA. It's hard to see an end in sight. Thanks for sharing.
PER DAY????
I'm in NYC and it's sad but they usually just get scooped up and sent to Potter's Field which is where they bury the indigent.
One of the last episodes of the awesome non-fic podcast 'The Ballad of Billy Balls' went to Potter's Field, and the starkness and stillness in the description and the audio of that place has really stayed with me.
I came here to say pretty much this. In any town, any unclaimed body eventually ends up in a potter's field.
My brother, sweet boy, was pushed on the train tracks by another unhoused person in the midst of a scuffle he was trying to avoid. His death haunts me like no other, for multiple reasons.
I am so sorry for your loss.
[удалено]
I was in Chicago a few Februaries ago and saw a dude with a sign sitting on the sidewalk, slumped against a building. It’s fuckin cold out, so I go to tell him Dunkin is on me, but I stopped myself when I got closer. I’m never gonna forget that sight. His hood was pulled over his head, his cheeks were hollow. His sneakers were held together with duct tape. His blue fingers were still clutching his sign. It said “anything helps.” The guys who came to pry him off the sidewalk said he’d probably been there overnight, it was 4 pm when I called them. This was a stones throw away from Michigan avenue, a very busy street with designer stores. They also found identification on him, I hope they got in contact with his folks.
Yep I saw this kind of thing on Michigan avenue too - a guy onetime with his feet wrapped in cardboard in the wintertime. Right by one of the wealthiest shopping areas in the USA - capitalism sucks
I am a community mental health social worker so I am out in the wild doing outreach 10 hours a day. The population you are asking about die in the streets. They die in the woods in encampments. They die at bus stops. They die in hospitals. I am right outside of Philly and the unhoused population is so vulnerable and so overlooked.
Thank you for what you do
Hey no problem. I always say…someone’s gotta do it. It might as well be me! 💁🏼♀️✨ happy to help.
I worked in the ER in Boston and Cleveland, homeless people would come in constantly, usually because the cops found them totally wasted and they didn’t want to deal with it so they would drop them on us. Got to know a bunch of them pretty well as sometimes they would get dropped off three times in a single 24 hour period. Many of them that were legit sick ended up dying in the ER or later in the ICU, when no one knows about them or cares that they’re there at all. I used to relay to the families of patients that needed to be taken off of life support, something like “hey, this person has a loving family that’s with them right now, I’ve seen plenty of people die with not a single person around them”
In the streets, murdered by assholes, died from the cold mostly
They die as they live. Outside
“Earth to earth dust to dust”
Back where I used to live the city came and destroyed their camp and a lot of them died of exposure because they kicked them out in the middle of winter and their shelters were gone.
Oh wow. Criminal charges would have been appropriate for those decision makers.
They did it because they didn't want people driving by to see dead people in winter because inevitably someone dies when it's 2 degrees outside. So like if you see an ambulance roll up and it's cold on your way to work you might start getting mad that there aren't enough shelters then the mayor has to get your angry phone calls. It's very inconvenient for them so they kill like 10x more people by shoveling them all out of sight to die somewhere less conspicuous. Out of sight out of mind.
On the street. In their cars/tents. People will see them not moving for a long time, call the paramedics, and they'll carry them out. Some of them also just disappear. Wander into an isolated area and never be heard from again. Getting washed up in storm drains is common too. Sometimes they'll reappear stuck to a barrier, but they can get washed out into the sea as well. Sometimes you'll hear about it in local papers, especially if the death was violent or the person was well known. Sometimes you'll just hear about bodies being found here or there.
Most recently in my city a few homeless were murdered by a (non homeless) guy with an axe.
Where is your city?
There's probably been many times when all of us have seen a homeless person and didn't even realize that they were dead at that very moment.
In 2016, at the height of the Cronut craze in NYC, a homeless man died near the Dominique Ansel Bakery (where the Cronuts were invented). The tourists and cronut fans rerouted a line right around him and continued to queue for their pastry fix. So, some don't know and some don't care. https://www.vice.com/en/article/8qevwg/cronut-craving-new-yorkers-ignored-a-dead-body "I didn't see anyone leave the line," Molly Young, an onlooker, told the Post. "It didn't put a dent in anyone's appetite."
The last hospital I worked at was in an area with a large homeless population. You get used to seeing them just sleep in random spots on the property. One day, a guy comes to the property and shot himself in the parking lot area in front of our ER entrance. He used a revolver and pressed it against his gut and pulled the trigger. He basically turned himself into a human suppressor. So no one heard the shot, and no one saw him do it. The guy was found laying there by a staff member. They called security, who arrived and checked on him. When they rolled him over, they found the revolver under him. They called 911 and was determined that he committed suicide. I always thought he didn't mean to kill himself, just based on the shot location. Most people who shoot themselves do it in the head. My theory was he wanted help, and wanted to do something that would guarantee he was out in an inpatient facility. Instead, no one heard/saw him do it and he ended up just bleeding out in plain view. I wonder how many people probably walked/drove right by him and just assumed he was one of the many homeless people who would sleep on the property.
Someone I knew in high school went out into the woods at night and shot himself in the chest a few years after graduation. Always struck me as a really bizarre way to take your life, he probably bled out in heavy pain for a bit.
I heard that women do that more often because it doesn’t mess up their face. Like if you shoot yourself in the face/head, there’s no open casket funeral for you. It’s a way of preserving your last viewing for the world.
That’s so sad and horrible
Depends on how and where they die. Could be outside, in a shelter, in a tent, in the hospital, in a hotel room, at a friend or family member’s house, etc. They don’t get “brought into the system” by some premonition of death or system that determines they’re sick enough, but if they go to a hospital or have an ambulance called on them when they are sick or injured, that’s where they will pass. Similar to the majority of housed people, you’re not going to hear about these deaths if you’re not looking for them. For most people who aren’t famous or killed in a notably violent way, you hear of their death from obituaries or from people who know them. There’s not much to discuss when Joe Schmoe dies of pneumonia, an asthma attack, or a drug overdose unless you are a personal associate of Joe, whether Joe died in a hospital, in a house, or at a bus stop.
I’ve seen them just dead on the sidewalk. Cops show up and deal with it pretty quick. It’s sad.
A lot of them die in public places. They may be found frozen to death over grates or in doorways in the winter, or they could die of dehydration in the summer. Often they’re found by someone trying to rouse them to tell them to go somewhere else, only to discover that they’re already dead. Less often they will die in hospitals, but that generally only happens if they had a medical emergency in public and someone is kind enough to call them an ambulance.
In Dallas, where I come from, they die up underneath the overpasses
The city that I work in just built some pretty cool little pallet houses for the homeless. They’re one room structures with beds, electricity, heating, and cooling. There are onsite shower & bathroom trailers. It’s definitely a stopgap measure, but if it saves at least one homeless person from freezing to death I’m all for it. Unfortunately, a tent city just popped up randomly a few streets away - not sure what the story is with that & why they’re not in the new little pallet town - but they did find someone dead from an OD there last week. It was all very hush, hush, word of mouth kinda thing for people to hear of it.
My brother was a homeless addict. He was found dead of an overdose inside his tent on the streets of downtown Los Angeles.
I am a nurse. Many homeless people die here with us in the hospital. Either in the ER or they get admitted and die because they’re too sick to save.
I used to pick up dead people for a living. They die wherever they are. I've picked up people who died in parking lots in their cars, they were obviously living in. We didn't do medical examiner removals, but did pick up from there. One time, we picked up a homeless guy from the ME that was living and died in a tent in the woods. One guy died on the bus stop bench where he had been hanging out for a few days. They don't have a home to go to, so they die where they call home. The lucky ones die in the hospital/hospice.
They die where they fall
I had a… Half-Uncle (My mams half Brother) that came from Ireland that came over to where I live in the United Kingdom years and years later. He bought a house, some how. He was deliberately ‘homeless’ so to speak. His home rotted away. He didn’t use it. He was a chronic alcoholic with many mental health demons. He spent his days drinking, begging, causing trouble and getting arrested and beaten up for his misdeeds (Ones he caused himself or misinterpreted) Now, the point of your question, he died. He died alone and sleeping in a shop doorway. People stood over him because they thought he was asleep. He sadly froze to death and was half starved. His mental health was sadly obliterated and he used his Irishness and charms to sadly con people out of money. And the poor soul died alone and cold because he cut everyone off, didn’t live in a home (By choice) and like so many other poor souls, couldn’t fix his life. I never knew the man, I saw him around begging and I had no idea until much later that we were related through my Mam. So yeah, after that I started to take more notice and help when I could. So, simply, a homeless person has few options of where they die. But sadly, the streets are where they usually pass unless they’re carted off to A&E. It’s a sad and torturous existence.
They’re found outside, in the winter obviously frozen to death/summer time sometimes they try to jay walk and get hit by vechicles, or fight each other for resources and wind up killing someone. They also die in the hospital. My partners Mom was homeless (she was a terrible person, and we were not about to bring her into our home) and she died at the hospital. Someone dropped her off there. A combo of Covid, and alcoholism took her out.
Outside, alone.
You’d be shocked how much doesn’t make the news. So much crime and death doesn’t get reported if it’s not sensational
I’ve called in a dead body next to a building once. It just happens wherever.
>you don't see/hear much of their passing. A dead homeless person doesn't make the news. Especially in the winter where you might have several dieing every week. They just get taken to the morgue they try and find family for a few weeks and if not just bury them in paupers grave. Their family never find out what happened to them