Homelessness, Addiction and Housing Interventions: What We Don’t Know So Far

Developing housing solutions for homeless individuals with complex psychosocial problems is an important challenge facing the over 300 communities working to end chronic homelessness in the United States. Within the extremely heterogeneous group classed by the federal government as “chronically homeless” are some where addiction is the primary problem, or a major competing problem. Scientific data plays a role in how communities discuss this challenge, and allocate resources. This presentation will review the strengths and weaknesses of scientific data concerning interventions for persons who are chronically homeless with addiction as the major problem. Two categories of intervention include “Housing First” interventions and many more traditional approaches that link short-term residential support to treatment participation. This presentation will identify constraints of the presently available research data on both, and identify challenges in deploying these data to inform policy.

Stefan G. Kertesz, MD, MSc is a primary care physician and health services researcher with 12 years' experience providing primary care to homeless individuals in community health centers and other settings. He has conducted research on health services issues related to addiction and the care of homeless individuals since 2000, receiving funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the Veterans Health Administration. His research has addressed topics that include the effectiveness of homeless medical respite care, the implications of chronic homelessness for health-related quality of life, housing/employment outcomes among persons who have voluntarily sought addiction treatment, and the decline in health care access for homeless persons in Birmingham, Alabama. He currently leads a VA-sponsored project to develop a homeless consumer-centered measure of primary care quality.

PDF of Powerpoint Presentation: What We Don't Know So Far

Click here for Audio of Kertesz Presentation