Housing and Homelessness
How many individuals in New York suffer from homelessness?
Source: Coalition for the Homeless, also contains other great visualizations of homelessness in NYC!
What does it mean to be ‘homeless?’
Scroll through the tabs on this page to learn about what is homelessness, who is affected by it, and why it occurs. (~10m)
https://nationalhomeless.org/about-homelessness/
What’s the relation between housing and health?
Take a look at this fact sheet about the interconnected nature between housing and health. (~8m)
https://nhchc.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/homelessness-and-health.pdf
Can we treat people on the street?
Learn about ‘street medicine’ and one doctor’s experience working with the chronically homeless in Los Angeles.
Video (~5m) or Article (~10m)
https://www.statnews.com/2016/05/13/skid-row-homeless-doctor/
What can hospitals, medical institutions, and specifically emergency medicine departments do about this?
Listen to Stephen Brown, Director of Preventative Emergency Medicine at University of Illinois, discuss an innovative new program that focuses on housing individuals who are homeless to improve health. (~11m)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TCpwdKR8sk
Why don’t we address the root cause of homelessness—housing?
Read about a ‘housing first’ approach and what it might take for America to solve the issue of homelessness. (~13m)
https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/04/end-homelessness-us/479115/
What if I want to learn more?
Dr. Kelly Doran and Dr. Maria Raven write about what the future holds for the field of emergency medicine in addressing housing and homelessness. (~6m)
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/acem.13392
Listen as Dr. Laura Jannek discusses the management of homeless patients during the COVID crisis. (~25m)
https://soundcloud.com/acep-frontline/homelesspatientsandcovid
Read about how the Urban Institute’s case analysis to learn about strategies that integrate both housing and health. (~3m, full 46pg report and summaries also available)
Read “Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City,” a Pulitzer Prize winning book chronicling the plight of eight families as they deal with housing insecurity. (Available at your favorite small business bookshop) You can also read more about the book here.