The B-C Coroners Service says more than half of homeless people who died in 2016 were killed by accidental drug overdoses or alcohol poisoning, which is up more than a third in the years prior from 2007 to 2015.
175 homeless people died in BC in 2016, a huge increase from an average of 70 people per year over the preceding decade.
Here on the Island, that increase was even greater, going from an average of 9, to 25 deaths in 2016
Meanwhile, a seperate report says island overdose prevention sites have been visited more than a quarter million times in their two years of operation, with no overdose deaths at any of their 9 sites.
In a news release from island health, they say more than 1000 overdoses have been reversed a their overdose prevention and supervised consumption sites that are located in Port Alberni, Campbell River, Courtenay, Nanaimo, Duncan, and Victoria.
