Resource Center

At least 19 states are directing funds from Medicaid programs to help patients who are experiencing homelessness find housing and avoid eviction. Evidence supporting redirecting Medicaid funding to housing is mixed. Margot Kushel, MD, director of the UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative, said, "It’s much better than nothing, but it’s far from providing the long-term housing and stability that people really need."

Volunteers, on a clear night in San Francisco, count the number of people who are unhoused on the streets. Groups of people were assigned specific areas, and write down whether a person is confirmed, suspected, or if no one on the block is unhoused. The point-in-time count is nationwide. However, the counts are not perfect and some groups are undercounted. Margot Kushel, MD, director of the UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative, said, "Homeless families do everything they can to stay out of the public eye because they are really worried, for good reason, that their children will be taken from them."

On a single night in 2023, more than 653,000 people experienced homelessness in the United States. In this overview, researchers highlight the structural and individual risk factors that lead to homelessness, explore evidence on the relationship between homelessness and health, discuss programmatic and policy innovations, and provide policy recommendations.

Cancer is a leading cause of death in older unhoused adults. In this retrospective cohort study, researchers assessed whether being unhoused, gaining housing, or losing housing in the year after cancer diagnosis is associated with poorer survival compared with being continuously housed. Researchers used a national sample of veterans with lung, colorectal, and breast cancer during the period of 2011-2020. Findings showed veterans who were unhoused before and for the twelve months after their diagnosis had 10–20 percent greater risk for all-cause mortality than veterans who were consistently housed, even after adjustment for multiple factors.

In this op-ed, Marguerita Lightfoot, PhD, MA, Associate Dean for Research at the OHSU-PSU School of Public Health, highlights the need to make youth experiencing homelessness more visible. She outlines that the estimates of youth experiencing homelessness are vastly underrepresented. Youth experiencing homelessness are often not in the locations that are surveyed. Dr. Lightfoot writes, "It falls to HUD and lawmakers to make the invisible, visible — to look for and truly see young people experiencing homelessness." 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.

The point-in-time count is a survey that measures the number of people staying in shelters. Data from the point-in-time count has its limitations, but the information is still valuable. San Francisco has a team of workers and volunteers to conduct the count; each group is given a detailed map of streets and alleyways and instructions on how to record the findings. With regards to the value of point-in-time count, Margot Kushel, MD, director of the UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative, said, "It’s easy to understand that there are way too many people experiencing homelessness, but it would help us to understand what is happening in people’s lives right before they’re homeless."

Responses to the overdose crisis in North America are increasingly centered on harm reduction approaches. In this commentary researchers aim to highlight current housing-based overdose prevention interventions and to situate them within the broader environmental contexts of marginal housing. Housing interventions need to be expanded, but also attend to the contextual drivers of risks in these settings to best foster enabling environments for harm reduction and maximize impacts.

In this op-ed, Zena Dhatt, a Qualitative Research Project Manager at the Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative, calls for action to expand loan forgiveness. She outlines the struggles students face, from the high-interest rates to parents also taking out loans. Ms. Zhatt also calls for addressing the root cause of the cost of higher education. "It is urgent to stop imposing unmanageable loans on those who choose education and to encourage those to seek higher education without fear of a significant debt burden, and one that perpetuates disparity." writes Ms. Zhatt. 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.

A special report on the relationship between intimate partner violence and homelessness in California by the UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative, found that 1 in 5 women who become homeless in California flee their homes to escape violence. Participants described the need to plan their exit in advance and to accumulate resource; however, of those who experienced intimate partner violence in the 6 months prior to homelessness, only 12% sought help from a domestic violence organization. Margot Kushel, MD, director of the UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative, said, "Some people honestly had no idea what is a domestic violence shelter. Other people told us when they had to run, they had to run. They didn’t have time to figure out where to find a shelter."

A special report, released by UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative, explored the relationship between intimate partner violence (IPV) and homelessness in California. Findings from the report showed how violence and economic insecurity can be intertwined. Margot Kushel, MD, director of the UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative, said, "There are only so many places you can hide when you’re unsheltered."

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.

To better understand the experiences of survivors of intimate partner violence currently experiencing homelessness, this report analyzed data related to IPV in the California Statewide Study of People Experiencing Homelessness (CASPEH)—the largest representative study of homelessness since the mid-1990s. The mixed-methods study included data about participants’ experiences of violence across the life course, in the six months prior to homelessness, and during their current episode of homelessness. The report presents these findings to advance evidence-based solutions for preventing and responding to homelessness among survivors of IPV. 

SAN FRANCISCO – The University of California, San Francisco Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative (BHHI) today released a special report on the relationship between intimate partner violence (IPV) and homelessness in California. The analysis is based on survey data and in-depth interviews from the California Statewide Study of People Experiencing Homelessness (CASPEH), the largest representative study of homelessness in the United States since the mid-1990s.

In this op-ed, Morgan Philbin, PhD, MHS, associate director at the Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative and director of the Educations Program, calls for progressive states to become safe havens for LGTBQ+ adolescents. She highlights the various discriminatory policies that have been introduced across the US and how those policies force LGTBQ+ individuals to move, often to more expensive areas. Dr. Philbin writes, "While supportive policies are imperative to counteract the discriminatory legislation enacted nationwide, progressive states must also develop policies and programs to support LGBTQ+ adolescents who are being forced to move there to access healthcare and maintain their physical and mental wellbeing." 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.

A growing number of people with lived experience of homelessness are finding opportunities in California to influence academic projects. More entities are beginning to create entire boards or councils of people who know what it is like to lose their housing. With regards to including a lived expertise advisory board in UCSF BHHI's California Statewide Study of People Experiencing Homelessness, Kara Young Ponder, PhD, director of community engagement and racial justice at the UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative, said, "The researchers had missed an entire world of economic insecurity, and the survey was much richer because the board members could see things the researchers could not."

In this op-ed, Jesica Giannola, one of the CASPEH Lived Expertise Advisory Board members, calls attention to the unfair polices in the "Fair Housing Act". She outlines the issues and the need for reform, calling for young-adult and high school students to also be included under the same protections of families with minor children. "While it’s absolutely fair to ensure tenants can reliably pay rent, it’s incomprehensible that the same screening conditions applied to adults are also required of their 18-year-old high school students." Ms. Giannola 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 civic responsibility physicians have, even as private citizens, to be thoughtful in how they share their views. She explains that free speech protections are crucial for physicians regarding their practice of clinical medicine, but physicians should take care to not create an environment that could cause patients harm. Dr. Raven writes, "While hate speech from a physician's private social media account may be protected by the First Amendment, it stands in stark contrast to the ethical embodiment of 'first do no harm.'" 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, Cheyenne Garcia, senior research analyst at the Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative, calls for colleges to step up in helping students who experience homelessness. She outlines the how the school breaks disrupts the lives of students, as not every student has a place to go once classes are over. "The chronic stress of finding short-term housing break after break and year after year can take a toll on the mental and physical health of already stressed students." Ms. Garcia 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.