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Homelessness is a global challenge.

The United Nations Human Settlements Program estimates that 1.1 billion people live in inadequate housing, and the best data available suggest that more than 100 million people have no housing at all.

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Distance to Veterans Administration Medical Centers as a Barrier to Specialty Care for Homeless Women Veterans.

Homeless women Veterans have a high prevalence of chronic mental and physical conditions that necessitate frequent healthcare visits, but travel burdens to specialty services may be overwhelming to navigate for this population, especially for those in rural settings. Access to specialty care is a key priority in the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) and understanding the geographic distribution and rural designation of...

Characteristics of the Highest Users of Emergency Services in Veterans Affairs Hospitals: Homeless and Non-Homeless.

Efforts are underway to understand recent increases in emergency department (ED) use and to offer case management to those patients identified as high utilizers. Homeless Veterans are thought to use EDs for non-emergent conditions. This study identifies the highest users of ED services in the Department of Veterans Affairs and provides descriptive analyses of these Veterans, the diagnoses for which they were seen in the ED,...

Factors associated with cognitive impairment in a cohort of older homeless adults

Christina Weyer Jamora

Margot Kushel

This study evaluated cognitive function and factors associated with cognitive impairment in a cohort of older homeless adults. Researchers hypothesized that substance use and a history of traumatic brain injury would be associated with cognitive impairment. Participants had a median age of 58 years [IQR 54–61], 76.7% were men, and 79.9% were African American. A quarter (25.1%) of participants met criteria for impairment on...

Understanding the health of veterans who are homeless: A review of the literature

Jillian Weber

Rebecca C. Lee

Donna Martsolf

The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development estimates that almost 50,000 veterans are homeless on any given night. Homeless veterans are at greater risk of health disparities than their housed counterparts due to the multifactorial nature of their health and social needs. The Department of Veterans Affairs, in collaboration with more than a dozen other federal agencies, has concentrated efforts to improve...

Unsafe sexual behaviour associated with hazardous alcohol use among street-involved youth

While risky sexual behaviours related to illicit drug use among street youth have been explored, the impacts of alcohol use have received less attention. This longitudinal study examined hazardous alcohol use among a population of street-involved youth, with particular attention to sexual and drug-related risk behaviours. Data were derived from the At-Risk Youth Study, a prospective cohort of street-involved youth in...

U-District Job Co-op: Constructing a Future Vision for Homeless Young People and Employment

David Gordon Hendry

Jill Palzkill Woelfer

Thuy Duong

This study addresses the question, "how might socio-technical systems help homeless young people to succeed broadly in employment?" The purpose of this article is to present a future vision, the U-District Job Co-op, where youth take on “mini-jobs” offered by neighborhood stakeholders. Drawing on value sensitive design, design-based, and qualitative research methods, the Job Co-op is explicated by reporting on three linked...

Trauma-informed Education in the Care of Homeless Veterans

Marilyn Hughey

The social aggregate of veteran homelessness is a major national concern. The point-in-time (PIT) Count is completed every January by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to count how many people in America are without safe, stable housing that night. Veterans are included in the statistics. The January, 2015 PIT count showed there were 48,000 homeless veterans nationally. The January, 2015 data is the...

2016 Kamloops Youth Homelessness Count

Katherine McParland

John-Paul Baker

Across Canada, there is growing awareness of the significant differences between youth and adult homelessness. Kamloops has conducted an annual Point in Time (PIT) Count for years. A PIT Count is a snapshot of how many people are visibly homeless on the street or shelter system on a single morning every year. However, youth are less likely to use homelessness services and, because they may be transient and pursue survival...

Food security among individuals experiencing homelessness and mental illness in the At Home/Chez Soi Trial

Vered Kaufman-Shriqui

Daniel Poremski

Luis Ivan Palma Lazgare

Jino Distasio

Slimane Belbraouet

Sindi Addorisio

Individuals experiencing homelessness are particularly vulnerable to food insecurity. The At Home/Chez Soi study provides a unique opportunity to first examine baseline levels of food security among homeless individuals with mental illness and second to evaluate the effect of a Housing First (HF) intervention on food security in this population. At Home/Chez Soi was a 2-year randomized controlled trial comparing the...

The Hidden Homeless: Addressing the Obstacles of the Rural Homeless in Rockbridge County, Virginia

Edward Stroud

Rural homelessness is an understudied subset of homelessness population in the United States. Yet, the rural homelessness has important distinguishing characteristics and barriers to care that make addressing the problems of this population more difficult than their urban counterparts. Given that rural communities face barriers of their own, HUD’s Continuum of Care framework allows for such communities to overcome these...

Healthcare costs among homeless and/or substance using adults presenting to the emergency department: a single centre study

Active substance use and unstable housing are both associated with increased emergency department (ED) utilization. This study examined ED health care costs among a cohort of substance using and/or homeless adults following an index ED visit, relative to a control ED population. Consecutive patients presenting to an inner-city ED between August 2010 and November 2011 who reported unstable housing and/or who had a chief...

Identifying Quality of Life Measures That Correlate With Quality of Family Relationships Measures in Homeless Persons With Mental Illness: Avenues for Exiting Homelessness?

Jean-Pierre Bonin

Geneviève Lavigne

Catherine Gros

Family relationships are known to play a significant role in helping persons with mental health issues exit homelessness. This study aims to identify the independent quality of life factors that correlate with quality of family relationships. A cross-sectional design was used involving individuals enrolled in the At Home initiative for homeless persons with mental illness in five cities across Canada (N = 2,255). Linear...

7. Addressing the Vocational Needs of LGBTQ2S Youth Experiencing Homelessness with Supported Employment

Kristin M. Ferguson

Previous research reveals high unemployment rates among LGBTQ2S youth experiencing homelessness. This chapter provides an overview of the vocational needs of LGBTQ2S youth experiencing homelessness and introduces the Individual Placement and Support (IPS) model of supported employment as one evidence-based solution to help this population gain and maintain competitive employment. The author illustrates the chapter with...

Where Am I Going to Go? Intersectional Approaches to Ending LGBTQ2S Youth Homelessness in Canada & the U.S.

This book is an effort to address LGBTQ2S (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning and two-spirit) youth homelessness in both Canada & the U.S. It includes an examination of the identity-related structural barriers LGBTQ2S youth experiencing homelessness face while accessing adequate services and transitioning out of homelessness, as well as program models that successfully address those barriers. Each...

Punishing Benevolence: The Criminalization of Homeless Feeding as an Act of State Harm

Christopher P. Dum

Robert J. Norris

Kevin Weng

The homeless population in the United States increased substantially since the 1980s. As a result, research into homelessness and its effects, as well as policies aimed at addressing this vital social problem, have also grown. Because such state actions extend the criminal justice system by criminalizing benevolent acts, restrictions on feeding the homeless are ripe for critical examination. This article examines such...

Feasibility and Acceptability of a Colocated Homeless-Tailored Primary Care Clinic and Emergency Department

Homeless adults have low primary care engagement and high emergency department (ED) utilization. Homeless-tailored, patient-centered medical homes (PCMH) decrease this population’s acute care use. We studied the feasibility (focused on patient recruitment) and acceptability (conceptualized as clinicians’ attitudes/beliefs) of a pilot initiative to colocate a homeless-tailored PCMH with an ED. After ED triage, low-acuity...

DOG TAGS: Homeless Veterans and Their Companion Animals

Susan K. Lee

Pamela Willson

Military veterans are at an increased risk for homelessness. Of the United States population, 10% are veterans. Of the homeless adult population, veterans account for 16%, which equates to approximately 66,000 on any given night. Typically, homeless veterans who served during the Vietnam era, are older and report physical and psychological problems, post-traumatic stress disorder, and alcohol or drug dependencies. Challenges...

Life Satisfaction, Hope, and Positive Emotions as Antecedents of Health Related Quality of Life Among Homeless Individuals

Among a sample of individuals identifying as homeless (N′ = 275), this study modeled the relationship between the psychological well-being variables of hope, life satisfaction, positive emotions, and health related quality of life (HRQoL). Specifically, covariance based structural equation modeling (CB-SEM) was used to test a prior theory that life satisfaction serves as an antecedent of HRQoL with hope and positive emotions...

Homelessness Following Disability-Related Discharges from Active Duty Military Service in Afghanistan and Iraq

Many dynamics in the relationship among military service-related disabilities, health care benefits, mental health disorders, and post-deployment homelessness among US Veterans are not well understood. This study saught to determine whether Veterans with a disability-related discharge from military service are at higher risk for homelessness, whether Veterans Health Administration (VHA) service-connected disability benefits...

No Right to Rest: Police Enforcement Patterns and Quality of Life Consequences of the Criminalization of Homelessness

Tony Robinson

Laws restricting the behaviors of homeless people in public places are proliferating. Proponents argue that such “quality of life” laws will encourage homeless people to move off the streets and into services, and thereby improve their quality of life. Critics argue that these laws target vulnerable individuals and show little evidence of improving the lives of homeless people. To inform this debate, this article reports data...

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