Homelessness is detrimental to health, and clinicians can play an essential role in mitigating the deleterious effects of homelessness. Margot Kushel, MD, director of the UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative, discusses this and more with JAMA Senior Editor Karen E. Lasser, MD, MPH. Dr. Kushel said, "When you are an individual provider, in a room, you are trying to understand the difficult environmental conditions that your patient has and do things to decrease that part."

In a cohort of over 100,000 patients who received care from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) health system, those experiencing homelessness were more likely to be diagnosed with stage IV colorectal cancer compared with those who had housing. The patients who experienced homelessness also had longer hospital stays for all the cancer types studied. However, the findings differed across healthcare settings. In a commentary accompanying the study, Maria C. Raven, MD, MPH, associate Professor and Chief of Emergency Medicine at UCSF, said "Reducing healthcare disparities for people experiencing homelessness is essential, and the [VA] can serve as an example of what it takes to do so."

Hospital emergency departments (ED) are on the frontlines of serving people experiencing homelessness, and this report investigated what ED data can reveal about homelessness in California. Hospitals operated by counties and the University of California reported higher shares of ED visits by people experiencing homelessness. Linking discharge data with homeless services programs can offer insights into how people engage with programs and help provide better resources to evaluate the programs and investments aimed at improving the lives of Californians experiencing homelessness.

California’s homeless population has increased in recent years, and so has public investment in addressing homelessness, making understanding the size and needs of the state’s homeless population more important than ever. Discharge data from emergency departments (EDs) can help. PPIC researcher Shannon McConville and UCSF professor Hemal Kanzaria, MD outlined key findings from a new report and discussed the implications for policymakers.

Veteran homelessness has dropped about 55% in the United States, while it has remained relatively stagnant amongst the general population. The US government has reached a consensus and has offered a wide range of programs to limit homelessness or factors that put people at risk for experiencing homelessness. The VA’s Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF), the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (VASH) program are the foundation to the efforts. Margot Kushel, MD, a professor of medicine and director of the Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative at UCSF, said "I think it gives us a blueprint of exactly what we need to do."