In his final months before dying of natural causes, a man with a rare form of cancer had to be helped to a shelter.
The reason?
He had nowhere to go.
The homeless man’s story is one of several in the United States.
In Texas, there’s one known case of an undocumented immigrant who died of a stroke while waiting to receive Social Security benefits.
And in Texas, the city of Austin recently received a death certificate from a woman who died at the age of 49 after being refused medical treatment for depression and anxiety.
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The issue is getting worse in many of the states that are trying to tackle homelessness, according to research from the Urban Institute.
About 20% of all Americans who are homeless or living in temporary housing say they had been denied medical assistance for mental health problems.
And the percentage of states with a significant homeless population is rising.
Texas has seen the number of homeless people jump nearly 400% since 2007, according the state’s Department of Health Services.
In 2017, the average number of people living in shelters was 3,600, the department said.
But that figure rose to 4,900 in 2018.
The number of Americans living in “hot spots” for homelessness has increased in recent years, said Heather Martin, a senior fellow at the Urban Center for Urban Policy Research.
In 2015, for instance, the number was about 300.
That number jumped to 1,500 in 2016, 1,800 in 2017 and 3,400 in 2018, according an analysis by the center.
The Austin American-Statesman reported last month that Texas was the only state to see a decrease in the number and number of new homeless people in 2017.
The state was among the first to expand mental health services in 2016.
“We’re not going to get to a place where we’re seeing the numbers that we were at five years ago,” said Matt McCracken, director of the Austin-based Austin Family Crisis Center.
“I think we’re heading toward a place that we’re going to see more and more homeless people.”
The Texas Department of State Health Services says the state has more than 1,600 beds for the homeless.
But there are only about 3,000 beds available, the agency said.
That’s a problem for homeless people and families in Austin.
Martin said the lack of housing, combined with the lack, often times, of adequate health care and services, has caused some people to flee their homes, or end up in the streets.
She also pointed to a shortage of mental health beds, a shortage in mental health workers, and a lack of mental healthcare providers.
The Texas Tribune says Texas ranks 17th among the 50 states in the rate of uninsured people, according a 2016 report by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
And as of last year, the percentage who had a job was only 9.7%.
Martin said people often find themselves on the streets or in shelters because they can’t afford to stay there or because they have nowhere else to go, either.
Martin, who is also director of Austin’s Downtown Emergency Medical Services, said it’s difficult to count the number.
She said the city’s homeless shelter population, for example, was 1,200 people in the fall of 2017.
She declined to give an estimate for the number who died in a single day.
Martin pointed to the homeless shelters in Austin as an example.
She said one shelter in Austin has a capacity of about 10 people, which is the same as a shelter in downtown Dallas.
But the shelter in Dallas is not open 24/7, so people have to find another place to stay, she said.
“The problem is, it’s a very volatile situation,” she said, noting that many of those people are homeless, many of them families who cannot afford the shelter.
“They can’t go out and eat, they can not go out to the grocery store.”
