Resource Center

In this op-ed, Leslie W. Suen, MD, MAS, an assistant professor of medicine in the UCSF Division of General Internal Medicine at San Francisco General Hospital, calls upon physicians to oppose medical discrimination against methadone patients. She highlights how methadone patients are routinely denied the care they need, exacerbating health disparities. "It’s far past time for every stakeholder to recognize their responsibilities and provide equal access to all patients, regardless of their medical condition or treatment." Dr. Suen writes. This op-ed was published as part of the Public Voices Fellowship in partnership with The OpEd Project and funding from the California Health Care Foundation.

Bakersfield focused its efforts on a specific goal in 2015, to reach functional zero chronic homelessness, and by January 2020, it hit the mark. Access to quality data was essential to knowing every person experiencing homelessness, but also cooperation among agencies and strong engagement from the healthcare system was key to achieving this goal. Unfortunately, Bakersfield could not sustain functional zero homelessness. It was hard to secure affordable units. Margot Kushel, MD, professor of medicine and director of the Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative at UC San Francisco, said "The rates of homelessness and the ability for people to exit homelessness really has everything to do with the availability and affordability of housing for low-income folks." This is the second installment of a 4 part series exploring solutions to homelessness in California.

More than 181,000 Californians were unhoused in 2023, with nearly 70% living on the streets. Cities provide resources for emergency solutions, but it is not really a solution. Margot Kushel, MD, director of the UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative, said, "We’re at a place in California, unfortunately, where doing well is often running in place." This is the first installment of a 4 part series exploring solutions to homelessness in California.

In this op-ed, Margot Kushel, MD, professor of medicine and director of the Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative at UCSF, highlights that those who are often living in homeless encampments are frail older adults. She outlines the health impact of homelessness on aging and why so many older adults are experiencing homelessness. "Now is the time to create an America that doesn’t abandon its elders. In doing so, we will not only improve the world for those experiencing homelessness, but create a future that is better for all." Dr. Kushel writes. This op-ed was published as part of the Public Voices Fellowship in partnership with The OpEd Project and funding from the California Health Care Foundation.

Are you a researcher who wants to include people with lived experience in your research? Are you an organization that wants to authentically involve community members in your program development or evaluation? The UCSF BHHI recently released a report on the largest representative study of homelessness in the United States since the mid-1990s—the California Statewide Study of People Experiencing Homelessness (CASPEH). The CASPEH was guided by a Lived Expertise Advisory Board—a group of advisors from across the state of California who represent a range of lived and living experiences of homelessness. Join Kara Young Ponder, PhD, Lived Expertise Advisory Board Members Michelle Ochoa, Dez Martinez, and Robynne Rose-Haymer as they discuss the nuts and bolts of how they did research together from designing survey questions to helping train field staff, analyzing data and disseminating findings. 

In this op-ed, Ryan Assaf, PhD, MPH, a postdoctoral fellow with the Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative, highlights the benefits of adding Middle Eastern or North African to the US Census. He emphasized the diverse culture in the MENA communities and the importance of separating Middle Eastern or North African from White. "When Middle Eastern or North African is included as White, we lose any insight to the impact MENA communities experience." Dr. Assaf writes. This op-ed was published as part of the Public Voices Fellowship in partnership with The OpEd Project and funding from the California Health Care Foundation.

Homelessness has surged in the United States. It is a devastating public health crisis with ruinous, often permanent, effects on people’s lives.  Margot Kushel, MD, professor of medicine and director of the Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative at UC San Francisco, said, "We will not solve this problem by denying the enormous trauma that people who’ve experienced homelessness have been through.”

About 130,000 Montanans have lost Medicaid coverage as the state re-evaluates everyone's eligibility following a federally mandated pause in disenrollment that began during the COVID-19 pandemic. People experiencing homelessness may not have the resources to fill out the paperwork and being without health coverage can be risky. Margot Kushel, MD, director of the UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative, said, "Being out of your asthma medicine for three days can be life threatening."

In this op-ed, Margot Kushel, MD, professor of medicine and director of the Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative at UCSF, and Gregg Colburn, Ph.D., an associate professor at the University of Washington, call for providing subsidized housing with services to people experiencing homelessness. They outline the lack of access to housing, the increase in rent, and the ongoing challenge to provide permanent housing. "The answers to homelessness are clear. It is critical that policymakers in local, state and federal governments use their power to address the acute affordable housing shortage that plagues communities in every state in the nation." Dr. Kushel and Dr. Colburn write. This op-ed was published as part of the Public Voices Fellowship in partnership with The OpEd Project and funding from the California Health Care Foundation.

In this op-ed, Claudine Sipili, one of the Lived Expertise Advisory Board co-chairs, calls for restoring dignity to people experiencing homelessness. She outlines the need to prioritize human worth and respect while pursuing practical solutions to address homelessness. "The erosion of dignity that comes from losing one’s home can make it more difficult to take advantage of housing solutions." Ms. Sipili writes. This op-ed was published as part of the Public Voices Fellowship in partnership with The OpEd Project and funding from the California Health Care Foundation.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of Americans who got their health coverage from Medicaid increased. States are now required to check that every person is still eligible for Medicaid. However, some people who do qualify have accidentally lost coverage. This is particularly harmful for people experiencing homelessness. Margot Kushel, MD, director of the UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative, said, "It doesn't seem like such a big deal to fill out paperwork. Put yourself in the position of an elder who's experiencing homelessness and has lost their vision and has no access to computer, no access to car, doesn't have a cell phone."

In this op-ed, Maria Raven, MD, MPH, associate director at the Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative, outlines the issues with California's new law forcing people into drug treatment. She explains how emergency departments have treated people with severe alcohol disorder, but emergency departments are already filled with countless of patients. Dr. Raven writes, "SB43 is already creating confusion. It empowers law enforcement officers and others to bring more patients to our already crowded department on involuntary psychiatric holds for severe substance use alone, thinking we will provide a path to conservatorship. However, that path breaks down if a patient has decision-making capacity once no longer intoxicated." This op-ed was published as part of the Public Voices Fellowship in partnership with The OpEd Project and funding from the California Health Care Foundation.

Margaret Handley, PhD, MPH, a professor in the department of epidemiology and biostatistics and medicine at the University of California San Francisco shares a letter she wrote to Science about how her past, her family, and a rare instrument relate to her current career focus on public health and homelessness. Dr. Handley wrote, "The idea of helping people stay in housing, or improving their lives as they revolve around the uncertainty of a storage locker existence, keeps me going on my research-weary days."

Margot Kushel, MD, director of the Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative, delivered the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies’ 23rd John T. Dunlop Lecture. After the lecture there was a panel, featuring, Boston Healthcare for the Homeless founder, Harvard Medical School professor James J. O’Connell, and Peggy Bailey, a leader of a housing policy research center. The panelists shared there perspectives on policy and economic approaches to addressing the housing crisis, agreeing that providing dedicated, sustained support to unhoused individuals is necessary. “The first thing we need to do is to recognize that every single path to ending this crisis flows through housing,” Dr. Kushel said.

More Californians have fallen into homelessness, and more have died while unhoused. However, the state’s ability to track these deaths and assess the scope of the problem hasn’t kept pace. In 2022, California added a field to death records for homeless status. The data is essential to assess the state's public health interventions and shape decisions. Margot Kushel, MD, director of the UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative, said, "One of the problems with not reporting it is that it makes it harder to act."

Margot Kushel, MD, director of the Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative, delivered the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies’ 23rd John T. Dunlop Lecture. Dr. Kushel spoke about the impact that homelessness has on an individual’s quality of life, highlighting the lived experiences of unhoused Californians who participated in the California Statewide Study of People Experiencing Homelessness. After the lecture there was a panel, featuring, Boston Healthcare for the Homeless founder, Harvard Medical School professor James J. O’Connell, and Peggy Bailey, a leader of a housing policy research center. JCHS Managing Director Chris Herbert, the moderated the panel. Dr. Kushel said, "While it is really easy to blame people impacted by homelessness, doing so not only is not fair or right, but it also isn’t going to get us any closer to a solution."

In this op-ed, Maya Vijayaraghavan, MD, MAS, director of the UCSF Smoking Cessation Leadership Center, highlights the need for affordable housing to be free of secondhand smoke. She emphasizes the threat of secondhand smoke exposure disproportionately affects Black Americans and the effectiveness of smoke-free policies. However, barriers still remain to implement smoke-free policies. "The implementation of smoke-free policies in public housing was a step in the right direction and should be expanded to all affordable multi-unit housing." Dr. Vijayaraghavan writes. This op-ed was published as part of the Public Voices Fellowship in partnership with The OpEd Project and funding from the California Health Care Foundation.