Marin memorial held for homeless residents who died in 2022

Marin’s homeless community paused this week to remember those who died while living on the streets.

A memorial hosted by the San Rafael-based Street Chaplaincy held Wednesday at First Presbyterian Church of San Rafael featured a reading of the names of 21 people who died while homeless in Marin this year and 45 people who died last year.

Marin County’s Department of Health and Human Services records show a total of 36 people died in Marin during 2022 who were without shelter, or died soon after being housed after previously being homeless.

Analysis by the county health department determined that from 2018 to 2021 accidental overdose was the leading cause of death among Marin’s homeless population accounting for 19% of all deaths. Using a more thorough process to capture deaths related to substance use, the researchers found that drugs played a role in 26% of the deaths in this population.

The health department conducted its analysis after community-based organizations serving the homeless in Marin noticed an alarming increase in deaths among people experiencing homelessness during the COVID-19 pandemic. Forty unhoused Marin people died in 2021 and 37 died in 2020. In 2019, there were 19 deaths and in 2018 there were 18.

The rise in deaths occurred even though the incidence of coronavirus infection among the homeless has remained low. The fact that the unhoused spend so much time outdoors is believed to reduce their chances of catching the virus.

Marin’s homeless point-in-time count conducted in February found an increase in reported alcohol and other drug use among the homeless from 28% in 2019 to 49% in 2022.

According to the county health department, based on data from 2018 to 2021, a homeless adult in Marin was 50% more likely to die from any cause than an average Marin adult. The average age at death among Marin’s homeless population during that period was 61, compared with an average age of 83 years for all other Marin residents.

On Wednesday, Warren and Toni Carriero were the first to arrive to the annual memorial service.

Their daughter, Maggie, died of a fentanyl overdose while living on the streets of San Francisco in 2021, but since she grew up in San Rafael they decided to attend.

“She was really smart and really fun,” her father said.

But their daughter, who was 29 when she died and felt conflicted about her gender identity, struggled with drug addiction. As a result, she was in and out of rehab facilities and unhoused much of the time, her family said.

“These people need help,” her father said, “and they don’t know they need help. I don’t know if you can help someone who doesn’t want it.”

Among those who died in Marin this year was Julianne Riebeling. Riebeling, 51, who grew up in San Rafael, died by suicide in Marin County Jail on Feb. 22. She had been in custody since her arrest on June 7, 2021 on charges of robbery, assault with a deadly weapon, and resisting a police officer.

Juliet Wood, Riebeling’s mother, said her daughter began experiencing bipolar mood swings when she was 14, and Wood believes that led to her developing a substance abuse problem.

“The drugs would put her in an alternate way of being in the world,” Wood said, “and that was helpful for her.”

Wood said the day before her daughter died she had stopped speaking. She said she was frustrated that the county did not monitor her for self-harm.

“She was really detached from the world at that point,” Wood said.

Todd Schirmer, interim director of county’s behavioral health division, said in an email that the county was unable to comment.

“Due to privacy laws, I cannot provide any information about behavioral health treatment of incarcerated people in the county jail,” he said.

Wood said before her death her daughter tried different psychologists and psychiatrists and was in and out of various facilities for drug problems without success.

“Julianne for me was almost more than a person can bear,” Wood said. “There just seemed to be no safety net anywhere that worked for her and no set of people who were on her side. I feel like she was stolen from, like she was kidnapped.”

Marin’s 24/7 suicide prevention and crisis hotline at 415-499-1100. Donations to the Street Chaplaincy can be made at streetchaplaincy.org.