The UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative collaborated with Kaiser Permanente and the National Health Care for the Homeless Council to provide guidance on COVID-19 screening in congregate shelters.  The Antigen Testing in Congregate Shelters: Process Outline and Implementation Playbook provides key strategic planning and operational considerations for screening using inexpensive rapid-testing solutions in lieu of PCR-only testing. To better protect people experiencing homelessness from the impacts of COVID-19, local health jurisdictions, health care service providers, and congregate shelter sites can use this guidance to coordinate operational needs and processes while implementing a screening testing program.

This toolkit offers guidance for researchers, advocacy groups, non-profit organizations, government agencies and others interested in, or currently engaging in, meaningful community-eng...

The UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative collaborated with the California Homeless Coordinating and Financing Council and the California Health Care Foundation to create resources to help homelessness response systems with COVID-19 vaccination planning. The second in a series, these materials detail key lessons learned from the early rollout of COVID-19 vaccination events for sheltered or service-connected people experiencing homelessness.

The UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative collaborated with the California Homeless Coordinating and Financing Council and the California Health Care Foundation to create resources to help homelessness response systems with COVID-19 vaccination planning. The third in a series, these materials describe important considerations in planning strategies for vaccinating unsheltered people, as all persons experiencing homelessness are now eligible for vaccination in California.

People with multiple, complex health and housing needs frequently receive fragmented care because the providing systems operate independently. The California Policy Lab at UC Berkeley and the UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative worked with partners in San Francisco’s public health and criminal legal systems to link together ten years of data from the physical health, behavioral health, housing, and criminal legal sectors.

The pandemic has had and continues to have a profound impact on youth experiencing homelessness  in the Bay Area. Youth and Allies Against Homelessness (YAAH) employed a web-based survey of such youth in San Francisco and Alameda counties to document the impact of the pandemic on their trajectory to adulthood during the summer of 2021.

Conducted by the UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative, the California Statewide Study of People Experiencing Homelessness (CASPEH) is the largest representative study of homelessness in the United States since the mid-1990s. The study provides a comprehensive look at the causes and consequences of homelessness in California and recommends policy changes to shape programs in response.

To better understand the experiences of Black Californians experiencing homelessness, the UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative examined the experience of Black Californians within the California Statewide Study of People Experiencing Homelessness (CASPEH), the largest representative study of homelessness since the mid-1990s. This report reviews who experiences homelessness in the Black community, what may have precipitated their homelessness, experiences during their episode of homelessness, and what impacts their return to permanent housing. These findings aim to inform evidence-based solutions for preventing and ending homelessness for Black Californians.

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. 

The first brief on creating and sustaining effective homelessness organizations and systems looks at challenges to and opportunities for the California Advancing and Innovating Medi-Cal...

The State of California Homeless Coordinating and Financing Council, the California Health Care Foundation, and the Benioff Housing and Homelessness Initiative at UCSF have joined together to create a series of resources to help homelessness response system leaders and providers prepare and implement a strategy for vaccinating homelessness service workers and people experiencing homelessness in every California county and community. These planning materials are the frst resources of the series.