SPOKANE, Wash. — The Spokane Regional Health District’s new data shows most overdose deaths in Spokane County involve people who are housed, even as overdoses among unhoused people can be more visible in the community.
The health district recently updated its opioid dashboard with data showing whether people who died from overdoses were housed or unhoused.
In 2024, housed people accounted for 68% of overdose deaths in Spokane County, according to the dashboard. Unhoused people accounted for 32%.
“Two-thirds of overdoses do occur among the housed population,” Danielle Wrenn-St. Pierre, the Spokane Regional Health District’s data center manager, said. “So I think we know that it may be more visible among our unhoused population, but this is a broader issue that impacts our community more broadly.”
The district also reports a suspected decline in overdoses so far this year. The monthly average for reported overdoses was 223 in 2025. So far in 2026, no month has recorded more than 179 reported overdoses.
Health district officials said rising community awareness and naloxone use could be contributing to the downward trend. The dashboard also tracks how many overdose responses include naloxone.
“We’re doing our part in access to education and access to treatment services and making sure there’s access to naloxone,” Kelli Hawkins of the Spokane Regional Health District said. “There’s also our partners with EMS and our partners with law enforcement that are doing their part to help.”
The district is adding geographic information to the dashboard to identify where overdoses occur most often and where prevention efforts can be focused.
The dashboard also includes overdose death and emergency room visit rates for other substances, as well as information about whether other drugs were involved in an overdose.
The updated opioid dashboard is available on the Spokane Regional Health District’s website.
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