Homelessness & Health Care - California Health Care Foundation

Homelessness & Health Care
On any given day, more than 150,000 people experience homelessness in California. Being homeless is dangerous to your health: People who live on the streets die an average 20 years earlier than people who are housed. CHCF is launching work to improve the delivery of health and social services to people experiencing homelessness, with the goal of promoting care that is responsive, person-centered, and focuses on the patient’s emotional, physical, and psychological needs.

Sign up for CHCF updates on Homelessness & Health Care

Sobering Centers Offer Clients Pathway to Stable Lives

September 20, 2021

Bonar Menninger

Homelessness & Health Care, Medi-Cal

A conversation with Shannon Smith-Bernardin, PhD, RN, a national leader in the field.

Seeking COVID Justice Through Policy Change

September 13, 2021

Health Equity, Homelessness & Health Care

Public Health Advocates, a California organization that advances policies to reduce health disparities, created an initiative to respond to the deep-rooted inequities brought into focus by the pandemic.

Medical Respite Care Bridges Critical Gap for Californians Without Housing

August 25, 2021

Homelessness & Health Care, Medi-Cal

Recuperative care provides comprehensive services while reducing costs and hospital readmissions.

In Their Own Words: How Fragmented Care Harms People with Both Mental Illness and Substance Use Disorder

Susan Anthony, Rebecca Catterson, Suzanne Campanella

Behavioral Health, Homelessness & Health Care

CHCF commissioned interviews with 54 people enrolled in Medi-Cal who are dually diagnosed with mental illness and substance use disorder. The paper and accompanying videos highlight what is working — and not working — for them in the health care system.

In Humboldt, the Community Works Together to Tackle Homelessness

Claudia Boyd-Barrett

Data Exchange, Homelessness & Health Care

How an electronic records system made life better for people experiencing homelessness in Humboldt County and for the social service and health care workers helping them.

Homelessness Response 101

Homelessness & Health Care

This resource guide for health care providers offers practical information about how homeless assistance works at the local level, with particular focus on Continuums of Care and Coordinated Entry and includes suggestions on how to participate in your community’s response to homelessness.

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

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.

Medical Respite: Post-Hospitalization Support for Californians Experiencing Homelessness

Aurrera Health Group

Homelessness & Health Care

Medical respite provides acute and postacute care for people experiencing homelessness who have recently been discharged from the inpatient setting. This report surveys the California medical respite landscape and examines the variation in programs by program components, funding sources and mechanisms, and challenges.

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.

California Statewide Survey on Homelessness

Homelessness & Health Care

CHCF, in collaboration with the Blue Shield of California Foundation, is funding an 18- to 24-month research project that aims to improve understanding of the immediate precipitants of homelessness and barriers to exiting homelessness in California.

Street Medicine Programs Improvise to Meet Shifting Challenges

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.

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

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.

Both Progress and Pain in Fight to Reduce Homelessness During Pandemic

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.

Street Medicine Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic

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.

Adapting Our Goals to a Changing World

November 13, 2020

Health Equity, Telehealth, Homelessness & Health Care, Data Exchange

In an uncertain environment, CHCF will focus its grantmaking on what we can do to make the biggest immediate impact.