A young man without a home dies along the Rec Trail in the midst of a street drug crisis.

On the morning of Aug. 22, Franklin Andrew Glenn, 29, died under a cypress tree in Window on the Bay Park in Monterey, just off the Rec Trail and steps from Del Monte Beach. Franklin was his given name, but everyone in the community of fellow people who are unhoused on the Monterey Peninsula called him “Smalls.” Toxicology tests are still pending, according to the Monterey County Sheriff-Coroner’s Office, but those who knew him well say they believe it was likely the lethal drug fentanyl that killed him.

Two days after Glenn’s death, a gathering of his friends were eating lunch just down the trail from where he died, sharing stories about their fallen friend. One man who goes by Steve-O says he saw Glenn slumped over by a tree and instantly knew what had happened. “I had to leave,” Steve-O says through tears. “He’s a strong guy. A good guy. Everyone who knew him liked him.”

If Glenn did die from an overdose, it would not be his first. Friends report he suffered at least three previously. (A Monterey Police spokesperson could not confirm due to health privacy laws.) What happened to Glenn is becoming increasingly common in the homeless community, say those who work with the population, although it touches all levels of society, with young people under 30 overrepresented in the data, especially male teens and adults.

“It’s like the Wild West out there,” says Marta Sullivan, senior program officer of substance abuse services for Community Human Services. The nonprofit offering homeless and mental health services, as well as outpatient substance abuse disorder care, is seeing more overdoses and deaths. At this point, CHS clients know that nearly all street drugs are laced with fentanyl and other highly potent drugs and could lead to death, but they continue to use, due to how addictive it is.

Dr. Reb Close, an emergency room doctor at Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula and co-founder of Prescribe Safe, reports there have been 608 suspected overdoses so far in 2023, with 72 fatalities.

In a case of good news/bad news, Monterey County’s death rate per 100,000 residents in 2022 was near the bottom compared to other California counties, according to data compiled by the San Francisco Chronicle. Monterey County’s rate was 20.6 deaths per 100,000. (San Francisco had a rate of 72.9 deaths per 100,000 residents.) The bad news: Monterey County’s rate nearly doubled since 2018, which saw a rate of 11.1 per 100,000.

Close also keeps track of the use of the antidote to fentanyl, naloxone, which goes by the commercial name Narcan. She says it’s been used in attempts to revive overdose victims 265 times this year “that we know of.” The lifesaving drug is routinely given away free throughout the county.

At a candlelight vigil marking International Overdose Awareness day on Sept. 1 at Salinas Valley Health in Salinas, several parents who lost children spoke out. Hundreds of doses of Narcan were distributed over two hours by medical professionals.

On Sunday, Sept. 3, an informal memorial for Glenn was held near Del Monte Beach. An impromptu shrine was left, with a cardboard sign reading “RIP SMALLS.” Next to the sign were two boxes of naloxone, free for the taking.