This collection offers an expanding range of resources designed, in collaboration with the Center for Health Care Strategies, to address the COVID-19-related and chronic health care needs of people experiencing homelessness. Topics include promising and best practices for service delivery, partnerships, and other ways to address the health care needs of Californians who are unhoused.

This is an ongoing series, so please check back frequently for the most recent additions to the collection. See all of CHCF’s work on the topic of Homelessness and Health Care.

 

 

Publication

Breaking Down Silos: How to Share Data to Improve the Health of People Experiencing Homelessness

July 2021
Homebase
Homelessness & Health Care, Data Exchange
With more than 150,000 people experiencing homelessness on any given day, purposeful collaboration between the housing and health care sectors are critical. This report focuses on ways in which the two systems are sharing data to better coordinate and support clients' needs.
Publication

Sobering Centers Explained

September 2021
Shannon Smith-Bernardin, Bonar Menninger
Behavioral Health
Sobering centers offer a cost-effective alternative for providing care to people with acute intoxication whose public alcohol or drug use puts themselves or others at risk. New interest in the decades-old approach has been sparked by recent CalAIM (California Advancing and Innovating Medi-Cal). Learn more about these programs through these two publications: a high-level issue brief and a detailed report.
Project

Project Roomkey: A Statewide Evaluation

Homelessness & Health Care
CHCF is cofunding a statewide evaluation of Project Roomkey, a COVID-19 response program to provide noncongregate shelter for people experiencing homelessness.
CHCF Blog

Street Medicine Programs Improvise to Meet Shifting Challenges

March 30, 2021
Rob Waters
Homelessness & Health Care
Using approaches tailored to local needs and resources, mobile teams provide humane care to unhoused people in cities and counties across California.
Publication

Homelessness and Health Care: Lessons and Policy Considerations from the COVID-19 Pandemic

March 2021
Center for Health Care Strategies
Homelessness & Health Care
The COVID-19 pandemic has strained communities and health care systems across the country. Among the challenges: how to best meet the health care needs of people experiencing homelessness. This brief, part of a series by the Center for Health Care Strategies, synthesizes innovative approaches and key lessons for supporting the health care needs of Californians experiencing homelessness during COVID-19.
CHCF Blog

Both Progress and Pain in Fight to Reduce Homelessness During Pandemic

March 15, 2021
Heather Tirado Gilligan
Homelessness & Health Care
Stories That Caught Our Attention: Lack of housing is "unignorable" and puts responsibility squarely into the hands of health care practitioners, physician experts say.
Publication

Street Medicine Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic

January 2021
Center for Health Care Strategies
Homelessness & Health Care
The Center for Health Care Strategies recently spoke with representatives from the Los Angeles Christian Health Centers and with a provider from the Street Team Outreach Medical Program at the Roots Community Health Center in Oakland to learn more about how their street medicine programs are adapting to meet patients’ needs amid the pandemic.
CHCF Blog

A Key to Addressing Homelessness

November 2, 2020
Xenia Shih Bion
Homelessness & Health Care
Stories That Caught Our Attention: California's "Housing First" policies acknowledge that a roof over one's head is essential to health and a successful life.
Publication

How Can Health Plans Support People Experiencing Homelessness During the COVID-19 Pandemic?

August 2020
Center for Health Care Strategies
Homelessness & Health Care
L.A. Care Health Plan has rapidly recalibrated existing homelessness support services to address the immediate needs of people experiencing homelessness related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Center for Health Care Strategies spoke with the director of Safety Net Programs and Partnerships at L.A. Care to discuss how the health plan has been supporting those experiencing homeless during the pandemic.
External Resource

Providing Medical Respite for People Experiencing Homelessness During COVID-19

Medical respite sites play a critical role in supporting individuals who are homeless, as well as hospitals experiencing a surge in capacity during the COVID-19 pandemic. This webinar, coordinated by the Center for Health Care Strategies and the National Institute for Medical Respite Care and made possible through support from CHCF, highlighted the experiences and innovations of three medical respite centers in California and Washington State during COVID-19.
Publication

Alcohol Management Program Pilots

July 2020
Center for Health Care Strategies
Homelessness & Health Care
Managed alcohol programs aim to prevent potentially life-threatening effects of alcohol withdrawal. Two Bay Area counties are piloting programs for people experiencing homelessness during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Publication

California’s Project Roomkey

July 2020
Center for Health Care Strategies
Homelessness & Health Care
California’s Project Roomkey is the first statewide effort to leverage FEMA funding to provide thousands of Californians experiencing homelessness with temporary housing. This snapshot provides an overview, including initial progress.
External Resource

How Destination Home Is Partnering with Santa Clara County to Care for Individuals Experiencing Homelessness Amid COVID-19

While the COVID-19 pandemic has strained this country’s health care system in innumerable ways, a critical challenge is how to best support the health care needs of individuals experiencing homelessness. California’s Santa Clara County, where many homeless individuals in the Bay Area reside, has been a leader, fueled by its early surge of COVID-19 infections.
CHCF Blog

How San Diego Is Protecting Its Homeless Population from COVID-19

June 29, 2020
Padma Nagappan
Homelessness & Health Care, Workforce
The pandemic prompted local leaders to swiftly establish one of the nation's largest shelters and apply painful lessons learned from the region's 2017 hepatitis A outbreak.
CHCF Blog

California Cost & Quality Atlas Helps Map Path to Higher-Value Care

April 3, 2017
Jeffrey Rideout
Health Care Costs
When it comes to health care services, geographic differences in cost and quality are neither expected nor valued — and now researchers are compiling and sharing data that could help reduce disparities.