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.

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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.

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.

California Health Care and Homelessness Learning Community

Homelessness & Health Care

To address the challenges related to meeting the health care needs of people experiencing homelessness, the Center for Health Care Strategies, with support from CHCF, is launching the California Health Care and Homelessness Learning Community. This statewide initiative will bring together stakeholders to learn from peers and experts across the nation about innovative approaches to improve health services for homeless populations.

Homelessness and COVID-19

Homelessness & Health Care

At least 151,000 people are homeless in California, 75% of whom are not living in a shelter — the largest proportion of people living without shelter in the country — with about one-quarter thought to be experiencing chronic homelessness. Now, with the emergence of the coronavirus pandemic, two crises have collided, causing a disproportionate risk to people who are unsheltered.

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

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.

Heading Off a COVID-19 Disaster for Californians Experiencing Homelessness

Michelle Schneidermann

Homelessness & Health Care, Behavioral Health

Philanthropy has a critical role to play in supporting progressive approaches to serving vulnerable people in need.

Homelessness and COVID-19 Collide in California

Xenia Shih Bion

Behavioral Health, Medi-Cal, Homelessness & Health Care

Stories That Caught Our Attention: How do you practice social distancing when you live on the streets or in a crowded shelter?

Across the Tracks: To End Homelessness, See the Whole Person

Sandra R. Hernández

Medi-Cal, Homelessness & Health Care

The rising rate of homelessness is a call to action. It is time to make health care work for all Californians.

Addressing Homelessness Is High on Governor Newsom’s Agenda

Xenia Shih Bion

Behavioral Health, Medi-Cal, Homelessness & Health Care

Stories That Caught Our Attention: The governor devoted nearly his entire State of the State address to California’s housing and homelessness crisis.

Mental Health Tops Californians’ Health Care Priorities in Statewide Poll

Eran Ben-Porath, Emily Hachey, Jazmyne Sutton, Jennifer Su

Behavioral Health, Health Care Costs, Coverage Trends, Medi-Cal, Workforce, Homelessness & Health Care

The survey offers detailed insight into Californians’ views on a range of critical health issues, including health care affordability and access, perceptions on homelessness, the health care workforce, Medi-Cal, and the experiences of the uninsured.

Mental Health in California

Adriana Ramos-Yamamoto, Scott Graves

Behavioral Health, Medi-Cal, Homelessness & Health Care

This chartbook from the California Budget & Policy Center provides a detailed look at California's public mental health system, which serves more than a million California children, youth, and adults annually.

CIN Stories from the Field: Social Needs Screening and Referral Models

Homelessness & Health Care

What practices, tools, and workflows have leading health care organizations adopted to assess and address social needs that impact health?