摘要：受新冠肺炎疫情的影响，美国经济下调、收入锐减、失业人口激增，导致无家可归者的数量不断激增。根据美国住房和城市发展部发布的数据，2020年美国无家可归者约为58万，较2019年（56.77万）增加2.2%。据美国《国会山报》当地时间12月1日...
受新冠肺炎疫情的影响，美国经济下调、收入锐减、失业人口激增，导致无家可归者的数量不断激增。根据美国住房和城市发展部发布的数据，2020年美国无家可归者约为58万，较2019年（56.77万）增加2.2%。
据美国《国会山报》当地时间12月1日报道，美国加州大学洛杉矶分校研究人员发表的一份报告显示，在2020年3月至2021年7月期间，洛杉矶至少有1493名无家可归者死于街头。
Screenshot via the report
Affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. economy has been downgraded, income has plummeted, and the number of unemployed people has surged, resulting in a continuous rise in the number of homeless people. There are approximately 580,000 homeless people in the U.S. in 2020, an increase of 2.2% from 2019 (567,700), according to data released by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Nearly 1,500 unhoused people died on the streets of Los Angeles between March 2020 and July 2021, according to a new report by the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) researchers, The Hill reported on December 1.
报告称，在洛杉矶街头死亡的近1500人中，35%的人死在人行道上，平均死亡年龄仅为47岁，大大低于洛杉矶县82岁的预期寿命。最常见的死因是意外服药过量，40%的死者吸毒或酗酒。
然而报告还指出，真实的死亡人数应该远大于这一数字，因为那些在医院、救助站以及车内身亡的无家可归者均未被统计在内。
更令人震惊的是，仅从死亡人数也能看出美国社会存在严重种族不平等问题。报告中表示，死在街头的黑人人数占比高达25%，而洛杉矶县只有8%的人口是黑人。
Researchers analyzed nearly 1,500 homeless deaths by place of death, age, gender, race and other dimensions, the report said. However, the report says the true death toll is likely to be much higher, because homeless people who die in hospitals, shelters or cars were not counted.
Over 35% of such unhoused deaths were at locations designated as sidewalks.
The average age at death for unhoused persons was 47 years old—significantly lower than LA County’s life expectancy of 82 years.
Black unhoused persons accounted for 25% of all unhoused deaths, while only 8% of LA County’s population is Black.
Nearly half of all unhoused deaths were attributed by the coroner to an accidental manner of death, with less than one-fifth attributed to a natural death.
For unhoused accidental deaths, nearly 40% were attributed by the coroner to drug/alcohol overdose.
美国街头的无家可归者所面临的困境，是美国政府冷漠政策的真实写照。
加州大学洛杉矶分校拉斯金不平等和民主研究所主任阿南亚·罗伊 （Ananya Roy）表示，如果这样的现象出现在世界上任何其他地方，美国人都会对其嗤之以鼻，并认为这是一个极度贫困的地区，声称这是对人权的侵犯，是霸凌政权欺压人民的表现。通过对这些数据和现象的研究，美国社会才能更深刻地认识到真实存在的极度贫困现象，以及社会抛弃低收入人民的现象。
此外，无家可归者权利组织“洛杉矶街头观察” （Street Watch LA）的组织者克洛伊·罗森斯托克（Chloe Rosenstock）表示，当有人在户外或人行道上死去时，这就意味着这个国家是失败的，而且很多死亡悲剧本身是可以避免的。
Ananya Roy, director of the UCLA Luskin Institute on Inequality and Democracy, which produced the report, said the young age of death was particularly disturbing: "If we were to see this metric in any other part of the world, we would dismiss that place as one of great poverty, as a violator of human rights, as a predatory government that exploits its people. We’ve got to get serious about using that metric to understand the levels of impoverishment and abandonment here in the US."
"When people are passing away outdoors and on the sidewalks, that is a failure of the state," said Chloe Rosenstock, co-author of the report and an organizer with Street Watch LA, an advocacy group for the unhoused.
The most of deaths were not from "natural" causes and were preventable, she stressed.
