A report from the BC Coroners Service shows a significant increase in the number of homeless people who died in the province since the opioid crisis began in 2016.
According to the report, 175 homeless people died in 2016, a 140 per cent increase over the 73 deaths in 2015.
In 2016, 86 per cent of accidental deaths and 53 per cent of all deaths were a result of unintentional drug and/or alcohol poisoning.
By comparison, between 2007 and 2015, drug and/or alcohol poisoning accounted for an average of 63 per cent of accidental deaths and 34 per cent of all deaths province wide.
The most deaths were in Vancouver, Surrey, Victoria, and Kelowna.
Kamloops ranked ninth with 15 deaths in the ten year span between 2007 and 2016, with seven of those in 2016.
Across the Interior Health Authority, there were 81 recorded deaths with 33 of those in 2016 alone.
The Coroners Service also says over half of the deaths over the ten year span – 54 per cent – were people between the age of 40 and 59, while 56 per cent of them were accidental in nature.
The findings also show that 85 per cent of the people who died were male.