A new report published by the California Policy Lab, “Health Conditions Among Unsheltered Adults in the U.S.,” found that unsheltered individuals experiencing homelessness face profoundly greater health challenges, higher rates of experiences of violence and trauma, and longer periods of homelessness than people staying in shelters.
The authors examined survey data from the Vulnerability Index Service Prioritization Decision Assistance Tool (VI-SPDAT), which is administered to determine how to prioritize housing and supportive services to people experiencing homelessness. The report analyzes 64,000 responses from sheltered and unsheltered individuals experiencing homelessness in 15 states.
They found significant differences in reported factors that contributed to housing loss among unsheltered and sheltered homeless individuals: compared to those in shelters, unsheltered people were four times more likely to report physical health conditions, three times more likely to report mental health conditions, and eight times more likely to report substance abuse. About 46% of unsheltered people reported experiences of abuse or trauma as causes of housing loss, as did 34% of sheltered people. The data show greater vulnerability for unsheltered women. Whereas 38% of unsheltered men (and 34% of sheltered women) report emotional, physical, psychological, or sexual trauma as a cause of housing loss, 80% of unsheltered women report such trauma.
The report also finds disparities in the health conditions of sheltered and unsheltered individuals. Unsheltered individuals were more than four times more likely than sheltered individuals to report physical health problems. Unsheltered individuals were 25 times more likely to report they were concurrently dealing with physical health, mental health, and substance abuse conditions. Unsheltered people also reported twice as many visits to emergency rooms and ambulance rides as sheltered people. Regardless of shelter status, though, the health conditions of those experiencing homelessness appeared to worsen over time.
The authors recommend further research on the role the lack of adequate health care plays among the causes of homelessness. They call for renewed attention to strategies that effectively move people from the streets and shelters into permanent housing, as well as to interventions that can reach unsheltered homeless individuals better than emergency shelters. To be successful, such strategies require more permanent housing.
The full report can be accessed at: https://bit.ly/2ICQKip.