Californians experiencing homelessness are aging, presenting unique challenges. A recent special report released by the UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative on older adult homelessness highlights their experiences during homelessness, and what impacted their return to permanent housing. Margot Kushel, MD, director of the UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative, said, "The older you are when you first become homeless, sort of the more stuck in homelessness you get."

This topic brief examines who experiences unsheltered homelessness, how they lost their housing, their experiences during homelessness, and barriers to regaining housing. The findings highlight the urgent need for the homelessness system to advance evidence-based strategies to meet the needs of unsheltered people.

Half of people experiencing homelessness are older than 50, and almost half of older homeless adults became homeless for the first time after they turned 50. This webinar is about the causes and consequences of homelessness in late life. Margot Kushel, MD, and other BHHI presenters will discuss findings from the Health Outcomes of People Experiencing Homelessness in Older Middle Age (HOPE HOME) project—a longitudinal cohort study following older adults experiencing homelessness in Oakland, CA, and the California Statewide Study of People Experiencing Homelessness (CASPEH)—the largest representative study of homelessness in the United States since the mid-1990s.

Homelessness and behavioral health issues (mental health and substance use) are intertwined. The UCSF Benioff Homelessness & Housing Initiative held a webinar about this complex bidirectional relationship, along with solutions to this crisis. Margot Kushel, MD, Claudine Sipili, Darrell Steinberg, JD, and Stephanie Welch, MSW, discussed findings from the California Statewide Study of People Experiencing Homelessness (CASPEH), highlighted key policy recommendations, and answered audience questions. Marc Dones moderated the webinar.

Black Californians are nearly four times more likely than White Californians to experience homelessness. This webinar is about the causes and consequences of homelessness for Black Californians. Kara Young Ponder, PhD, Tiana Moore, PhD, Lived Expertise Advisory Board Members Sage Johnson and Robynne Rose-Haymer, and National Alliance to End Homelessness VP of Research and Evidence Joy Moses discussed findings from the California Statewide Study of People Experiencing Homelessness (CASPEH), highlighted key policy recommendations, and answered audience questions.

Are you a researcher who wants to include people with lived experience in your research? Are you an organization that wants to authentically involve community members in your program development or evaluation? The UCSF BHHI recently released a report on the largest representative study of homelessness in the United States since the mid-1990s—the California Statewide Study of People Experiencing Homelessness (CASPEH). The CASPEH was guided by a Lived Expertise Advisory Board—a group of advisors from across the state of California who represent a range of lived and living experiences of homelessness. Join Kara Young Ponder, PhD, Lived Expertise Advisory Board Members Michelle Ochoa, Dez Martinez, and Robynne Rose-Haymer as they discuss the nuts and bolts of how they did research together from designing survey questions to helping train field staff, analyzing data and disseminating findings. 

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.

Latine Californians represent more than one-third of the state's homeless population. Yet their experiences are too often left out of research, policy, and service design. The UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative (BHHI) held a discussion of Toward Equity: Latine Experiences of Homelessness in California, the latest report from the California Statewide Study of People Experiencing Homelessness (CASPEH) series. This webinar highlights key data on how structural anti-Latine racism, housing exclusion, and administrative barriers shape pathways into homelessness, and explores what policy, service, and community leaders can do to close equity gaps.

Most people experiencing homelessness in California do so in unsheltered settings, such as outdoors or in vehicles. This webinar is about the causes and consequences of unsheltered homelessness. Margot Kushel, MD, moderated a conversation with Marc Dones, Ashley Meehan, MPH, and Carter Hewgley, discussing recommendations and solutions for addressing unsheltered homelessness in a way that preserves health, dignity, and civil rights for those experiencing it.

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.

California is home to 12% of the United State's population, but is home to nearly one-third of the nation’s people experiencing homelessness. A landmark study by the UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative took an intimate look at the root causes of homelessness. The research team included people who were formerly or are currently unhoused residents in California. In this podcast episode of What Next, host Mary Harris speaks with Claudine Sipili a co-chair of the CASPEH Lived Expertise Advisory Board. "And the older I get, the more I get to a place where I’m seeking understanding, like this point of intersection where I’m connecting with another human and helping them see what I see" said Claudine.

It’s a common belief about homeless people in California: they move here from other places because of the state’s tolerance, mild weather, and generous services. But according to a recent UCSF study, at least 90% of those experiencing homelessness lived in California before losing their housing and 75% are in the same county they used to live in. In the largest study of its kind in nearly three decades, researchers talked to thousands of participants about their experiences to find out what factors pushed them over the edge into homelessness. The real story, researchers found, has more to do with the state’s poverty, inequality, and high housing costs. Talking about the study findings, UCSF BHHI Director and study author Margot Kushel, MD, and BHHI LEAB representatives, Jesica Giannola and Robynne Rose-Haymer, were guests on KQED Forum's ongoing series about homelessness in the Bay Area.

California has 12% of the US's population, but makes up roughly half of the nation's unsheltered homeless population. In late June, the UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative released a landmark report on the state of homelessness in California. In this episode of the Ezra Klein Show, Ezra speaks with the Atlantic writer, Jerusalam Desmas, about the reports core findings, what we know about homelessness, and what solutions exist to address it.

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."

The perception of people experiencing homelessness is often based on anecdote. On this episode of UCLA Housing Voice podcast, Margot Kushel, MD, director of the UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative, joins host Shane Phillips to talk about the California Statewide Study of People Experiencing Homelessness, and what it says about who experiences homelessness, why they become homeless, their experiences while living without housing, and barriers to re-entering stable housing. As the conversation moved to mental health, substance use disorder, and people experiencing homelessness, Dr. Kushel said, "People in those in depth interviews, talk to us really clearly, that while they might have been using these drugs before they became homeless, they're using them while homeless was a coping strategy."

30 percent of homeless population lives in California. A comprehensive new study finds half of all unhoused adults in California are older than 50 years of age, and that people of color are disproportionately affected. Ali Rogin spoke with Margot Kushel, MD, director of UCSF’s Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative and lead investigator about the new landmark study. "This is really, I think, the story of homelessness in the last few decades, the proportion of people over 50 has skyrocketed" said Dr. Kushel.