The Impact Of Recent Initiatives To End United States Homelessness On Measures Of Health Utilization

PI: Elizabeth Ty Wilde, Ph.D.
Department of Health Policy and Management
Mailman School of Public Health
Columbia University

THE IMPACT OF RECENT INITIATIVES TO END UNITED STATES HOMELESSNESS ON MEASURES OF HEALTH UTILIZATION

Over the last several years, policymakers have identified a promising new model for the prevention and treatment of chronic homelessness in the United States. Many cities, counties, and states have adopted 10-Year Plans to mobilize community resources to fight homelessness. Despite policymakers' substantial enthusiasm for such plans, the small set of studies that evaluate these interventions typically only look within a community, at conditions before and after the implementation of these plans. In our study, we build upon these studies, expanding our analysis beyond one particular community or place and controlling for confounding factors, in an effort to isolate whether this new strategy has reduced medical care utilization. Using differences-in-differences, we measure the impact of these plans on emergency department visits, comparing the change in health-care utilization over time for communities that adopted 10 year plans to the change in health-care utilization for communities yet to adopt such plans.