The invisible massacre of the homeless: 393 people living on the streets died in 2022

ROME – Here is the Report on the homeless who died in 2022, which brings with it the heaviest toll in the last 3 years. 393 homeless people died, more than one person a day, with an increase of 55% compared to 2021 and 83% compared to 2020. Confirming what has been claimed for years, people in a state of severe marginalization they die in every month; there were 109 deaths in summer, 101 in autumn, 86 in winter and 97 in spring.

The emergency is not in winter, it is all year round. The “cold plans”, with the expansion of beds in the night shelters and the strengthening of the activity of the street units, contain, at least in part, the deaths but then they end and the emergency resumes The deaths of people without residence affect the whole national territory, from North to South, from large cities to small provincial towns. As we highlight in the report, deaths are in fact recorded in 234 Italian municipalities. The cities with the highest number of deaths are Rome (32) and Milan (21), but alarming data also come from Naples, Florence, Genoa and Bologna.

The leading cause of death. In 46% of cases it is attributable to external and traumatic events: transport accidents (15%) and assaults or homicides (9%), but also suicides (8%), drowning (6%), fires (4%), falls and other accidental events (4%). “Guaranteeing access to a home, care and social reintegration paths to those who live on the street and in conditions of extreme vulnerability” – says the president of the Cooperative Cristina Avonto Tent Project – “Is this the first step in being able to live a dignified life and supply those who have the most? need a safety net that can save lives”. “Although indispensable”, continues Avonto, “traditional services, such as the distribution of meals, clothes and blankets are no longer sufficient. In recent years, huge resources have been allocated to combat serious adult marginalization and these allocations should create the conditions to trigger a change in the mentality with which the phenomenon is tackled”.