Resource Center

"You cannot have a healthy society with this many people living on the economic and social margins," said UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative director Margot Kushel, MD. "Homelessness is lethal. We’re not going to be able to solve this without solving homelessness." An analysis from 2016 to 2020 shows homeless deaths have increased in cities across the United States, and numerous negative health outcomes are associated with homelessness.

Homelessness and housing news from the past week that you may have missed.

This podcast episode tackles some of the most common myths about homelessness. Margot Kushel, MD, director of the UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative, is among the guests who discuss why it’s harder to get housed than people think, explain how most people who are homeless are not suffering from mental illness or substance abuse, and highlight how anyone can experience homelessness. The hosts also interview two people with lived homelessness experience.

Tobacco use is common in people who experience homelessness; however, research in homeless and unstably housed (HUH) women is sparse. Researchers found that the most common reason for tobacco use was to reduce stress and anxiety. The findings suggest that tailored counseling and healthcare interactions that include smoking cessation efforts and address food insecurity during treatment.

Homelessness and housing news from the past week that you may have missed.

The popular book suggests that substance use, mental illness and moral permissiveness are more to blame for California's homelessness crisis than housing unaffordability. But that argument is based on flawed reasoning and a misunderstanding of the available evidence.

Homelessness and housing news from the past week that you may have missed.

Homelessness and housing news from the past week that you may have missed.

A recent book sheds light on the policy choices that caused housing prices to skyrocket in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and which may have helped to birth the modern homelessness crisis.

Homelessness and housing news from the past week that you may have missed.

Homelessness and housing news from the past week that you may have missed.

Homelessness and housing news from the past week that you may have missed.

Homelessness and housing news from the past week that you may have missed.

San Francisco was one of the first major cities to adopt a housing-first policy: give someone a permanent place to live, provide access to robust care and resources, and positive outcomes will follow. Margot Kushel, MD, director of the UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative, said, “Solving the homelessness crisis will take resources and a commitment to house everyone—and then the ability to match services to the need.” While there will always be a need for emergency short-term shelter options, Dr. Kushel said, “a focus on shelter in lieu of housing is the worst of all options” because it “costs society a lot and doesn’t solve homelessness.”

Homelessness and housing news from the past week that you may have missed.

The Terner Center for Housing Innovation has issued a new report looking at the pressures that force extremely low-income households in the Bay Area to the edge of homelessness. Policy manager Ned Resnikoff looks at what the report has to say about how income disparities contribute to the region's crisis of housing affordability.

Policy manager Ned Resnikoff explains why housing people in "all those vacant apartments" is not a viable solution to homelessness. The homelessness rate is highest in the cities where rental vacancy rates are lowest. The homelessness crisis will not end without building more extremely low-income housing—and more housing in general.