Sudden spike in deaths among homeless Londoners leaves community and agencies reeling

Mayoral candidates are under pressure to take action following a recent spike in homeless deaths. CTV’s Daryl Newcombe reports.

Three deaths in the last 10 days have deeply impacted London’s homeless community and the agencies that serve them.

“Those numbers are striking. They’re quite high,” said Season Bieronski, manager of Housing Services at London Cares. “We as a community are feeling that collective loss quite significantly.”

On Thursday, more than 200 people attended a celebration of life at 602 Queens Ave. for the most recent individual to die.

“I’ve personally known him for 10 years. He is someone whose been side by side with me throughout my career. We’ve lost someone who was really a pillar in our community, he was so well known and so well loved,” Bieronski added.

She said the ice cream served at the memorial event held special meaning, “He loved ice cream. He loved chocolate milk, and microwaved ice cream.”

London Cares has also sent out a statement about the impact of the losses, “We are hurting right now. If you know someone who works on the frontlines in London—at London Cares, in shelters, in outreach, in healthcare—there’s a good chance they knew a few of the people who have passed recently. Check in on them.”

CTV News is not identifying the people who have died over the last week and a half.

However, London Cares describes them as “People we’ve known for years at London Cares, who were connected to so many other services, and who were friends and support systems for their peers. Their absence is loud. These losses have hit like a truck on a personal level, and like a tsunami on the community level.”

Bieronski believes homelessness and housing must be a top priority for candidates and voters in the upcoming municipal election, “Any campaign, for anybody involved in politics [because] housing and homelessness is political. Housing is healthcare. Healthcare is housing. We need everyone at that table to be saying those exact same words.”

Mayoral candidate Kirsten Krose attended the Celebration of Life and recently received a tour of London Cares and House of Hope.

“This is an issue that’s very high on my priority list,” Krose told CTV News afterwards. “We’re spending a lot of money to address this issue. And a community is really only as strong as its weakest link. So we need to start looking at how we’re going to support them, not only in the short term but long term, and do that while respecting the taxpayer and making sure those dollars are being used effectively.”

Krose points to the supportive housing units at House of Hope as a model she supports.

“More needs to be done. I think we need a solution that brings in all the organizations and really addresses what the vulnerable community needs,” she explained.

Mayor Josh Morgan cites the progress made during this term of council housing unsheltered Londoners, despite a deepening province-wide crisis.

“We’ve had 1,500 people leaving the streets into stable [and] secure housing, but more people falling into homelessness,” Morgan explained. “That’s why it’s a crisis. It’s why it needs to rise to the top of the provincial and national agendas. It’s why it’s at the top of the municipal agenda and something we talk about every day.”

He added, “Make no mistake, I still think 25 deaths [in 2025] on the streets is too many. It’s better than the 55 a few years ago, but each and every one of those is a real person who we shouldn’t be politicizing, who we should just be seeing as a person we care for, a person we’ve lost in this community, and someone who we need to continue to do better each and every year to help.”

Bieronski suggests a pathway to preventing more deaths, “Housing works, Housing First works, and highly supportive housing works. Those are the types of things that we need more of to really bolster up our community and make sure that people have the right place to go at the right time. The other piece that we always talk about when we discuss death in our community is the toxic drug supply that is circling around London.”

Mayoral candidates will unveil their commitments about addressing homelessness, housing, and other municipal issues during the campaign period leading up to Election Day on Oct. 26.

Also running for mayor are Coun. Susan Stevenson, John Feher, and Lawrence-Zachary Howe.