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.

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.

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.

Black Californians are nearly four times more likely than White Californians to experience homelessness. This webinar is about the causes and consequences of homelessness for Black Californians. Kara Young Ponder, PhD, Tiana Moore, PhD, Lived Expertise Advisory Board Members Sage Johnson and Robynne Rose-Haymer, and National Alliance to End Homelessness VP of Research and Evidence Joy Moses discussed findings from the California Statewide Study of People Experiencing Homelessness (CASPEH), highlighted key policy recommendations, and answered audience questions.

Domestic violence, frequently referred to as intimate partner violence (IPV), is a common precipitant of homelessness. This webinar is about the intersection of intimate partner violence and homelessness. Anita Hargrave, MD; Lived Expertise Advisory Board Members Jesica Giannola and Dez Martinez; Tiana Moore, PhD, and Debbie Chang, MPH, CEO of the Blue Shield of California Foundation discussed relevant findings from the California Statewide Study of People Experiencing Homelessness (CASPEH), highlighted key policy recommendations, and answered audience questions.

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—from rural and urban, living sheltered and unsheltered, young and old, in families and single. This webinar is about creating authentic and meaningful collaborations between researchers and people with lived experiences. Panelists discussed how this partnership between BHHI and the CASPEH LEAB brought equity, collaboration and shared power to each phase of the CASPEH. They also talked about what they did together and shared tips for forming a board to advise on research projects and programs.