Tag Archives: housing

Making PrEP Accessible to Patients Experiencing Homelessness

By | November 9, 2023

Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) has gone from a deadly infection to a manageable health condition in the last thirty years. Today, we have medications available that can treat those with HIV and prevent HIV in uninfected people. Pre-exposure prophylaxis, also known as PrEP, is a medication given to individuals without HIV to keep them from… Read More »

Multimorbidity and Psychosocial Aspects of Homelessness

By | September 13, 2021

Homelessness persists in the US, and across the world, despite decades of recognition and longstanding efforts to end the condition. There have been major successes in our understanding of what policies and programs work to prevent and end homelessness. However, the work must and will find new ways to adapt and improve if we are… Read More »

Health and Housing Equity: a new report released by the American Public Health Association

By | October 12, 2020

Earlier this fall the American Public Health Association (APHA) released a remarkable report on the relationship between Housing Equity and Health, “Creating The Healthiest Nation: Health and Housing Equity.” APHA’s Caucus on Homelessness is deeply appreciative of the report’s focus on US housing inequalities and the shortcomings of our current affordable housing programs to address… Read More »

Framing Success for Supportive Housing Services

By | June 11, 2020

In this post we reflect on the definition of success in a study measuring the value of peer support services administered through the HUD VASH program and discuss client-centered definitions of value. We propose designing and understanding programmatic success goals tailored to unique need categories within veteran participant groups. With stay-at-home orders lifting all across… Read More »

COVID-19 and homelessness

Our neighbors who are experiencing homelessness during this SARS-COV-2 pandemic are facing unique risks and extreme hardships. In the corner of American society almost defined by economic and racial disparities, COVID-19 has compounded and taken advantage of these long-standing vulnerabilities. An outsized burden of risk factors for COVID-19 compound the risks of crowded shelters and… Read More »

Witnessing and Responding to Homelessness

By | December 11, 2019

Homelessness is both a public health issue and a deeply troubling sign of policy failures in a rich country such as the US. Yet what are the right ways to respond, both in the moment and on a larger scale? In early November, the American Public Health Association (APHA) gathered for our annual meeting at… Read More »

Homelessness as a Public Health Issue

By | June 12, 2019

Homelessness and housing are issues of public health significance. This month, we published a Special Commentary about homelessness in Medical Care, informed by the 2017 policy statement we co-authored for the American Public Health Association (APHA) about homelessness and how federal, state, and local authorities can use evidence-based solutions to help bring an end to… Read More »

Tailoring VA primary care to address the social determinants of health

By | March 14, 2019

Tailoring the primary care medical home model improves the care experience for US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) patients with homelessness experience, according to a recent study by Dr. Audrey Jones and colleagues in the journal Medical Care. Researchers from the VA’s Informatics, Decision-Enhancement, and Analytic Sciences (IDEAS) Center and Center for Health Equity Research… Read More »

Smoke-free Public Housing: A Rule Whose Time Has Come

By | June 9, 2016

Earlier this month, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) released a proposed federal rule to implement smoke-free public housing. The proposed rule would affect all living units, common areas, outdoor areas up to 25 feet away from the housing areas, and administrative offices. The change would affect over 700,000 units no later than… Read More »