Lexington homeless man found dead of hypothermia while living in a shed
A 56-year-old homeless man died this weekend of hypothermia, Fayette County officials said.
Fayette County Coroner Gary Ginn said Arthur Barnes died Saturday. Barnes was living in a shed at the time of his death. The person who lived in the residence “pretty well gave him permission to stay there and there was a heater in it and the heater was working properly at the time,” Ginn said.
Ginn said drugs were likely a contributing factor in Barnes death.
A second homeless man, who has yet to be identified, was also found dead this weekend but he likely died of a drug overdose and not hypothermia, Ginn said.
Temperatures this weekend and this week have dipped into the teens and single digits.
Ginn said his office is seeing fewer hypothermia deaths than it used to. He attributes that to the city’s efforts to address homelessness. Ginn said there were five to six “exposure” deaths per year in the 1970s and 1980s, but in recent years his office typically only responds to one or two a year.
Ginny Ramsey, director of the Catholic Action Center, one of the city’s homeless shelters, said Lexington police and service providers were bringing people that traditionally live outside to shelters throughout the weekend and this week-- housing hundreds in private hotel rooms.
Lexington’s Office of Homelessness Prevention and Intervention has a cold weather plan which is meant to prevent the estimated 700 homeless individuals in the city from having to endure extreme cold outdoors, according to city officials. When the plan is activated, Lexington shelters expand capacity to accommodate more people.
“We have people who have been on the streets for years who came in,” Ramsey said. “Lexington police have been wonderful in helping us find people and bring them inside.”
Yet, there is nothing the city or service providers can do if someone doesn’t want to seek shelter. Many chronically homeless people have severe mental illness or substance abuse disorders or both.
In addition to the two deaths this weekend, Ramsey and others have said two homeless people died on Lexington streets in December.
“We are trying to do the best we can but we know we can do better,” Ramsey said.
Since March 2020, the city has allocated $58 million toward homeless prevention and intervention programs, according to city records. That’s a combination of city money, federal eviction prevention dollars and coronavirus federal relief funding.
This story was originally published January 26, 2022 at 1:14 PM.
CORRECTION: Arthur Barnes was 56 when he died. This information was incorrect in a previous version of this story.
