Columbus City Council and your Mayor continue to work to maintain the 2026 title as most homeless deaths for any city in Ohio. Worse yet, the total number of Columbus homeless deaths is more than the number of homicides. Math is difficult.
January 2026 had 14 homeless deaths.
February 2026 had 13 homeless deaths.
- 9 white and 4 African American / Other.
- 11 male and 2 female.
- Oldest was 78 and the youngest was 30.
Four died of hypothermia or environmental cold exposure (including one by dog attack followed by exposure). Nine died of complications with chronic ethanol and/or drug use including fentanyl and cocaine.
The city that you live and work in was responsible for allowing four people to freeze to death during the month of February. Again, these were people that they just chose not to help.
Columbus City Hall always has enough money to fund a for-profit women’s volleyball team, or pay $84,791 to settle a lawsuit for abuse of a city employee by a member of City Council, but never enough to help the less fortunate of our community. Unfortunately, the homeless don’t vote or make campaign donations to Columbus politicians. It tells you a lot about a city whose leaders actively do nothing to help the less fortunate, yet give away hundreds of millions of dollars in tax abatements to wealthy developers.
Case Study: Ricky A. Estep, Jr.
Ricky Estep, 48 years old, was found at a warming center at 946 Parsons Avenue suffering from a drug overdose: acute mixed drug (fentanyl, cocaine, and cocaethylene) intoxication. He was transported to the Grant Medical Center where he was pronounced dead.
“The reality is that Ricky spent the last 10 plus years stuck in homelessness and substance use and the current resources available could not meet his needs. I remember seeing him in and out of random houses, either abandoned or pretty sketchy set ups, or he would be in a homeless camp on the west side in Franklinton or the Hilltop.” – Ben Sears
And just because you’re homeless doesn’t mean that you don’t have a Facebook page. Take a look at his:
https://www.facebook.com/ricky.estep.94?rdid=zQ7X1YOcCSprnZfA&share_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fshare%2F18159491yV%2F
Ricky graduated from Westland High School where he played on both the baseball and football teams.
When I knew Ricky, for most of the years, he was with his partner Maranda, and they would be trying to figure out how to survive but could never line up services for substance use and mental health with safe stable housing.” – Ben Sears
The Propaganda from City Hall.
“The City’s continued commitment to addressing homelessness is making a meaningful difference across our region.
Through sustained leadership and partnership, we are advancing housing solutions that respond to the scale of the challenge. We’re grateful to the County and business community for supporting this shared effort.”
Remember that these deaths are not as important as the millions of dollars in unnecessary tax abatements. These lives might have been saved if the funding existed to help, but they just don’t matter to City Hall.
Power and money matter the most.
Special thanks to the Franklin County Forensic Science Center for their data. The Columbus Free Press hopes to keep you updated during the year with the hope that someone will take this seriously enough to solve this problem.
