A third unhoused Sacramentan has frozen to death this winter. Here’s what happened

The last time Denise Agan spoke to Loaves and Fishes staff, in late October, she said she was going to die outside if she didn’t get shelter. Several days later, she froze to death at a bus stop outside a hospital.

The Nov. 5 death of Agan, 66, marked the third homeless person in Sacramento to die of hypothermia this winter.

She was found on Nov. 4 at an unknown time, according to the coroner death report. The low Nov. 4 was 42 degrees, while the low Nov. 3 was 39 degrees, according to the National Weather Service. That was cold enough to cause hypothermia, but not to prompt city or county officials to open public buildings as walk-up warming centers. Officials have opened the centers sporadically this winter during bouts of extreme cold and rain, but there are still no 24-7 walk-up warming or cooling centers anywhere in Sacramento.

The coroner’s office listed chronic alcoholism as a “significant condition” that also contributed to the death.

‘A tortured soul’

Agan was a longtime Sacramentan. She was a guest at Maryhouse, the women’s program at the Loaves and Fishes nonprofit in the River District, for nearly two decades before she died, said Shannon Dominguez-Stevens, Maryhouse director.

In late October, Agan was kicked out of a shelter, Dominguez-Stevens said. She showed up at Maryhouse crying.

“She was crying, saying she needed to get back in but they wouldn’t let her,” Dominguez-Stevens said. “As she walked away she said, ‘If they don’t let me back in I am going to died out here.’”

Agan died just days later.

According to the death report, Agan’s body was found on Nov. 4 “altered and unresponive” at a bus stop at 29th and K streets outside Sutter Medical Center, the report said. She was taken to Sutter on Nov. 5, where she died at 1:17 p.m. There were no witnesses so the office has no further information, Sacramento County Coroner Rosa Vega said.

Agan suffered from several serious health ailments, including pancreatitis, and thyroid, colon and foot issues, according to her records at Maryhouse. She walked very slowly, and used a wheelchair at times, Dominguez-Stevens said.

“None of our guests have an easy time surviving on the streets of Sacramento but unlike other guests, we rarely saw Denise experience any respite or joy,” Dominguez-Stevens said. “Even her time in the program was full of stress and concern. Denise was a tortured soul. She had medical issues and lived with the disease of addiction, she loved to drink. As a result, shelter was very hard for her to find or even stay connected to. We always held space for Denise, inviting her in to take a break with a snack or a nap and for that she was grateful.”

Like many of Sacramento’s unhoused folks, Agan wanted to get indoors so badly it was all consuming.

“She didn’t have enough money,” Dominguez-Stevens said. “She didn’t have the supplies she needed. Her doctors appointments weren’t going well. She was like Eeyore. She carried sadness everywhere.”

Agan had also been the victim of physical abuse in her past, Dominguez-Stevens said.

She was a widow, according to the death report.

Third hypothermia death

About nine days after Agan died, another Sacramento man froze to death outdoors. Morris John Jobe, 74, died of hypothermia along the American River near Camp Polluck. About two weeks after that, on Nov. 30, Francisco Ramirez, 58 and a beloved father, died of hypothermia on a River District sidewalk. A warming center was open near where Ramirez died, but he may not have known about it, his daughter said.

The coroner will likely determine additional people who died of hypothermia this winter. At least 200 homeless people died in Sacramento last year, but many of their causes are still undetermined.

In 2021, eight unhoused people in Sacramento died of hypothermia. Sacramento’s homeless population has grown to 9,300, most of whom sleep outdoors. The city and county provide roughly 2,300 shelter beds, all of which are usually full.

The county is planning to open hundreds of tiny homes in south Sacramento by June, and 350 tiny homes from the state are set to open in the fall. No additional beds are planned to open this month however, as nighttime temperatures often remain in the 40s. Rain is in the forecast Saturday through Tuesday, which increases chances of hypothermia.

Activists say that homeless deaths from weather-related causes are particularly disgraceful because they could be prevented by greater efforts to get people indoors, especially into vacant public buildings.

“The tragic and untimely death of Denise Agan continues to underscore the need for the city and county to abandon their weather criteria for deciding to open a warming or cooling center,” said Bob Erlenbusch of the Sacramento Regional Coalition to End Homelessness. “It is unconscionable that the city and county profess ‘to do whatever it takes,’ but our unhoused neighbors continue freeze to death. Shameful.”