Chair Hudson questions Dalton on older adults, substance use, and mortality data

And then...

You went through, obviously, deaths and incidents in the shelter system.

And I'm wondering, you called out specifically the older adult population as well as those with substance use disorder.

And I'm wondering...

If you know how the share of those populations have changed over the years.

So are those populations in particular increasing in terms of the number of people you're seeing in the shelter system that are either older adults or experiencing substance use abuse?

I don't have those numbers in front of me.

I think we are seeing an increase in the share of older adults using our shelter system.

And I'm not certain that we track precisely the number of people who have a diagnosis or are experiencing substance use disorder, but we could certainly see what we have and get back to the council.

Yes.

It would be interesting to know, you know, whether it's at intake or obviously people who are being sent to specific or sent to shelters who provide specific services, you know, what those numbers look like and how they've changed.

over time.

Okay, one second.

Okay, and then one point of clarification.

You mentioned that the death rate in shelter has fallen by two-thirds in three years, from about 11 per 1,000 residents in fiscal year 2022

to three and a half in fiscal year 2025.

And that part of that reflects a younger population with more children, while also a greater population of older adults.

So if you can just provide a little bit more clarity on those numbers.

Sure.

I was also just trying to put into context the very significant decline in mortality data is also a function of who we're serving in the system.

So I wanted to add that caveat.

I'll go back and look at the numbers, but I think it can be consistent that there is a growing share of children in the system and older adults and that the share in between is what is declining.

But we can obviously provide the changing demographics of the shelter system.

That would be great.

Thank you.

Okay.

I don't have any more questions specifically pertaining to...

your testimony, I'd like to turn it over to my colleagues and then I'll get into my long list of questions.