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Understanding the experiences of people experiencing homelessness is logistically difficult. The UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative conducted an ambitious study, where researchers sought to reflect the experiences of all people aged 18 and older experiencing homelessness in California. The study's findings provide evidence that the lack of housing services is a meaningful barrier to health care and income benefits. "I was really surprised by how little people thought it would have taken to prevent their homelessness. Do we know if people are overly optimistic? Sure, they might be. But I sort of believe people are experts in their own lives and people really felt that, had they interrupted that cycle, they could have hung on, but once they became homeless everything else fell apart." said Margot Kushel, MD, the the study's principal investigator and director of UCSF’s Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative.

Many people talk about California’s homeless community as a monolith, yet the state has distinct homeless populations. The makeup of California's homeless population is more varied than the public assumes. A new statewide study released by UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative helps provides more clarity to the causes and consequences of homelessness in California, debunks common myths, and recommends policy changes to shape programs in response.

For the California Statewide Study on People Experiencing Homelessness, the largest study on homelessness in California since 1996, the research team included people who were formerly or are currently unhoused residents in California. The CASPEH Lived Expertise Advisory Board members at the UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative provided input on survey questions and planned outreach to people experiencing homelessness. Robynne Rose-Haymer, CASPEH Lived Expertise Advisory Board representative, said, "We did extensive training with our interview team, not just in being trauma-informed, but in being empathetic listeners and approaching everyone with dignity."

In the largest representative study of homelessness in California since the mid-1990s, the California Statewide Study of People Experiencing Homelessness provides policy recommendations and demystifies common misconceptions. On Inside with Vicki Gonzalez, Margot Kushel, MD, director of UCSF’s Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative and lead investigator spoke with the host about the study's findings. "90% of people lost their last stable housing in California. Of the 10% who did not lose their housing in California, 30% of them were born in California" said Dr. Kushel.

The California Statewide Study of People Experiencing Homelessness “paints a representative picture” of homelessness and suggests policies backed by evidence, said Dr. Tiana Moore, the Policy Director at the UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative. “There's a lot of noise in California around who's experiencing homelessness and why,” Dr. Moore said, adding that the study pushes back against narratives that are dominating conversations right now. The study found that nine out of ten participants lost their last housing in the state. It is the largest study of its kind since the mid-1990s and the first large-scale study to use surveys as well as in-depth interviews, allowing researchers to “amplify the voices of those who are experiencing homelessness directly,” Dr. Moore said.

A comprehensive new study finds the vast majority of the California's unhoused residents lived in the state before losing their housing. The goal of the report was to take a systematic approach to understanding the causes of homelessness and potential solutions instead of relying on the emotional responses the crisis can trigger, said study author Margot Kushel, MD, director of the UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative. “What we were trying to do is take the rhetoric down a bit, and using really scientific best practices, to get a handle on not only who was experiencing homelessness but what was happening in their lives before they became homeless,” Dr. Kushel said.

Homeless people in California are already a vulnerable group, often struggling with poor health, trauma and deep poverty before they lose their housing. Lead investigator of the new study, Margot Kushel, MD, director of the UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative, spoke with KTLA's the reports findings. Dr. Kushel said, "the main drivers of homelessness are deep poverty."

California is home to 12% of the United State's population, but makes up to half of all the country's unsheltered population. In this podcast episode of Fifth & Mission, host Cecilia Lei speaks with Margot Kushel, MD, director of UCSF’s Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative and lead investigator, about California's largest examination of homeless adults since 1996. "This is a story of deep poverty in a state with incredibly high housing costs." said Dr. Kushel.

Researchers at UCSF just released the findings of a statewide study that’s the most comprehensive look at homelessness in nearly three decades. NBC Bay Area’s Raj Mathai spoke to Margot Kushel, MD, the study’s principal investigator and director of the UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative, for some insight. "People experiencing homelessness in California are Californians," said Dr. Kushel. "People just couldn't keep up with the incredibly high cost of housing. We need to up our game in prevention to keep people from losing their housing in the first place."

A large new study, conducted by the UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative asked people experiencing homelessness from all over California about what would have helped them avoid losing their housing. Margot Kushel, MD, the study’s principal investigator and director of UCSF BHHI, spoke with TIME about the studies key findings and recommendations. “You can’t build a homelessness prevention program only around eviction prevention. Those programs are important, but you’re going to miss a big chunk of people.” said Dr. Kushel.

People experiencing homelessness in California are already a vulnerable group, often struggling with poor health, trauma, and deep poverty before losing their housing. Margot Kushel, MD, the study's principal investigator and director of UCSF’s Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative spoke with KTVU news about the key findings and recommendations. Dr. Kushel said, "These are not folks coming into California once they are homeless. They are our neighbors, our friends, our community members."

There is a massive shortage of affordable housing for people with very low incomes in California. Only 24 units of housing are affordable for every 100 extremely low income households in California, compared to 33 units nationally. To address the housing crisis, the statewide study on people experiencing homelessness recommend a variety of policies to increase affordable housing and provide more effort to prevent people from becoming homeless. "This is all about the disconnection between people’s incomes and housing costs" said Margot Kushel, MD, a physician who treats homeless people, and the lead investigator of the study for the UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative.

Loss of income is considered the number one factor for why Californians experience homelessness, according to new research from UCSF. The new findings highlight the idea that money is not only the main cause of the homelessness, but also a potential solution. "I think it’s really important to note how desperately poor people are, and how much it is their poverty and the high housing costs that are leading to this crisis" said Margot Kushel, MD, director of the UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative and principal investigator of the landmark study.

California’s homelessness crisis is a homegrown problem that is deepening amid a shortage of affordable housing and emergency shelter, and it’s often the brutal conditions of living on the street that trigger behavioral health problems, such as depression and anxiety, researchers found in a comprehensive study on homelessness. The new findings show that at least 90% of adults who are experiencing homelessness in the state became homeless while living in California. “This idea that homeless people are rushing into California is just not true,” said Margot Kushel, a physician who treats homeless people, and the lead investigator of the study for the UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative. “There’s so much myth-making around this magnet theory that people who are homeless flock to California, but this is our own problem.”

With modern home prices out of reach for many California residents on fixed incomes, older adults have become the fastest-growing segment of the unhoused population across the state, according to new research from UCSF. California makes up 30% of the nation’s unhoused population and is home to half of all the country’s unsheltered population, according to the landmark study, which looks at how people in the Golden State become unhoused, experience homelessness, and exit homelessness. Nearly half of all unhoused adults in the study were age 50 or older, and Black and Native American residents were “dramatically overrepresented,” the study shows. “The results of the study confirm that far too many Californians experience homelessness because they cannot afford housing,” said Margot Kushel, MD, director of the UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative and principal investigator of the landmark study.

Public policy and common perception have long tied the road to homelessness with mental illness and drug addiction. But a new study—the largest and most comprehensive investigation of California’s homeless population in decades—found another cause is propelling much of the crisis on our streets: the precarious poverty of the working poor, especially Black and brown seniors. “These are old people losing housing,” said Margot Kushel, MD, the lead investigator on the study and the director of the UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative.

There are a lot of myths about people who are homeless in California: They’re from another state. They don’t want a job. They don’t want a home. A new study published by the University of California, San Francisco, paints a different picture, one of people who were working and living in poverty in the state until they suddenly lost their homes. Not knowing where to turn, they ended up on the street, where they endure violence and poor health as they try for years to climb back to stability. “Something goes wrong, and then everything else falls apart,” said the study’s lead researcher, Margot Kushel, MD, director of the UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative. “Everything in their life gets worse when they lose their housing: their health, their mental health, their substance use.”

SAN FRANCISCO – The University of California, San Francisco Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative (BHHI) today released the largest representative study of homelessness in the United States since the mid-1990s, providing a comprehensive look at the causes and consequences of homelessness in California and recommending policy changes to shape programs in response.