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Homelessness is a global challenge.

The United Nations Human Settlements Program estimates that 1.1 billion people live in inadequate housing, and the best data available suggest that more than 100 million people have no housing at all.

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PATH Webcast Resource: Consumer Participation in the PATH Program
Check out the "Consumer Participation in the PATH Program" webcast, which showcased a document created by the PCPN outlining best practices for involving consumers in the PATH Program. This webcast was broadcast on Wednesday, May 11, 2011 at 1:00 - 2:00pm Eastern Time. Please click below to access the following webcast resources:View a recording of the Consumer Participation in the PATH Program webcastAccess the PowerPoint...
Bridging the Gap: the Question of "Social Rent" in European Housing Policy
Christian Donner
As a starting point for this book, this report followed the impression that private initiatives were increasingly being used to provide social rental dwellings in a number of European countries. The clear demarcation of the funding and roles of each sector of the housing market seemed to be becoming blurred. The private sector would no longer work solely with private finance and no longer operate solely along strictly...
Substance use comorbidity among veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder and other psychiatric illness
I.L. Petrakis
R. Rosenheck
R. Desai
There is considerable concern about the emergence of significant substance abuse among younger veterans of war in the Middle East, especially among those with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), but little information exists on the magnitude of this problem. Using national administrative data from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) (n = 1,001,996), this study examined rates of diagnosed substance use disorders in...
Health of the Homeless and Climate Change - Homeless Hub Research Summary Series
The Homeless Hub
The most common definition of homelessness refers to individuals who sleep in shelters as well as the “absolute homeless” which describes individuals who sleep outdoors or in other places not intended for human habitation. It is estimated that 1% of Toronto’s population use a shelter each year. Homeless people are amongst the most vulnerable groups in developed regions, and suffer from higher rates of chronic disease than the...
Decayed and missing teeth and oral-health-related factors: Predicting depression in homeless people
Emma Coles
Karen Chan
Jennifer Collins
Gerry M. Humphris
Derek Richards
Brian Williams
Ruth Freeman
The objective of the study was to determine the effect of dental health status, dental anxiety and oral-health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) upon homeless people's experience of depression. A cross-sectional survey was conducted on a sample of homeless people in seven National Health Service Boards in Scotland. All participants completed a questionnaire to assess their depression, dental anxiety and OHRQoL using reliable...
Effectively Treating Homeless Persons with Co-occurring Disorders Involved in the Criminal Justice System
R. Esterly
S. Neumiller
D. Freeman
A. Manwar
S. Brumbaugh
J. Hardison-Walters
E. O'Brien
K. Calendine
Biopsychosocial challenges confront homeless persons involved in the criminal justice system, especially when they have co-occurring mental health and substance abuse disorders. In this article, the Criminal Justice Treatment for Homeless Workgroup, a group comprising program and evaluator professionals working in homeless projects funded through the Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration, focuses on lessons...
A Case Study of a Homelessness Intervention Programme for Elderly People - Homeless Hub Research Summary Series
The Homeless Hub
This research studies the ability of the Homelessness Intervention Program (HIP) to address the needs of elderly people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness and it describes the factors that either helped the program meet the needs of the clients or stood in its way
Moving Forward, Together: Why Integrate People with Experiences of Homelessness
Laura Prescott
Leah Harris
This installment of the Moving Forward, Together series addresses the benefits to implementing consumer involvement. Advantages to consumer involvement include benefits to current consumers, consumer-providers, and agencies as a whole. Moving Forward, Together Why Integrate People with Experiences of Homelessness? Integrating people with experiences of psychiatric disability, substance use, trauma, and homelessness is...
Cigarette, marijuana, and alcohol use and prior drug treatment among newly homeless young adults in New York City: Relationship to a history of foster care
R.G. Thompson
D.S. Hasin
An estimated 750,000 to 2 million Americans age 18 to 24 years experience homelessness in any given year (Ammerman et al., 2004). The prevalence of substance use disorders among these young adults is 3 to 4 times higher than that of their never-homeless counterparts (Reardon et al., 2003; Shelton et al., 2009), with about half having a history of alcohol disorders and approximately one third having a history of drug disorders...
Homelessness, Drug Use and Hepatitis C: A Complex Problem Explored within the Context of Social Exclusion
Joanne Neale
This commentary explores the relationships between homelessness, drug use and Hepatitis C infection, within the broader context of social exclusion. Although it is difficult to estimate the number of homeless people who are misusing drugs or the number of drug users who are homeless, UK and international literature indicate a significant overlap between the two groups. Homeless drug users (HDUs) tend to experience many life...
Homelessness and neuropsychological impairment: Preliminary analysis of adults entering outpatient psychiatric treatment
C.A. Bousman
E.W. Twamley
L. Vella
M. Gale
S.B. Norman
P. Judd
Homelessness has been associated with neuropsychological (NP) impairment, but few studies have adequately controlled for factors known to affect NP performance. The authors performed brief NP testing that examined learning, recall, processing speed, executive functioning, and verbal fluency in 50 ever- and 22 never-homeless persons entering outpatient psychiatric treatment. Groups were matched a priori on key demographic,...
Emotional refuge? Dynamics of place and belonging among formerly homeless individuals with mental illness
Desiree Fields
This study investigated the emotional and spatial dynamics of belonging among formerly homeless individuals with mental illness living in independent supportive housing in New York City. The notion of belonging connects with a renewed interest in understanding how to achieve integration of this population in their communities and broader society ([Ware et al., 2007] and [Wong and Solomon, 2002]). Eighteen in-depth interviews...
Muskoka, Ontario: Understanding Homelessness in Muskoka
Maureen Callaghan
Little is known about the extent of homelessness in Muskoka. We rarely see people sleeping on park benches or huddling by warm grates. In a municipality where the majority of dwellings are second homes for their owners, it is incongruous to think that some families may have no home at all. Nevertheless, there has been growing awareness that Muskoka may not be immune from the growing problem of homelessness that is more...
“Where East Meets West”: Police, Immigration and Public Order Crime in the Settlement of Canada from 1896 to 1940
Augustine. Brannigan
Z. Lin
Hypotheses: Immigration and the Policing of Conflict versus Consensus Crimes. Police pressure to suppress unsavoury habits like drunkenness among immigrants suggests that the relationship between crime and immigration was in significant measure a matter of labeling and cultural conflict. From this perspective, any association between immigration and crime probably reflected the relative inability of low status groups to...
A Time for Action: A National Plan to Address Aboriginal Housing
National Aboriginal Housing Association
Steve Pomeroy
The housing conditions in Aboriginal communities have been well documented and compared to third world conditions. This focuses almost exclusively on Aboriginal housing on Reserve; lesswell known is the reality that almost three-quarters (73%) of the Aboriginal population do not live on reserve, and this non-reserve population is increasing. Moreover, the non-reserve Aboriginal population experiences a much larger rate of...
A Review of Working with Homeless Adolescents with Comorbid Mental Health and Substance Misuse Problems
Matthew Corrigan
David Manley
This report analyzed the literature on co-occurring disorders in adolescents to identify the intervention strategies that show the most promise. This article presents an overview of the issues of providing care for homeless adolescents who present with comorbid mental health and substance misuse problems within a specialist child and adolescent mental health service. The limited evidence base concerning dual diagnosis among...
Community-Based Services for Homeless Adults Experiencing Concurrent Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders: A Realist Approach to Synthesizing Evidence
Patricia O'Campo
Maritt Kirst
Nicole Schafer-McDaniel
Michelle Firestone
Allison Scott
Kelly McShane
This resource provides information about community-based services within the Toronto area in regards to co-occurring disorders. Consultations with community-based service providers in Toronto identified a lack of strong research evidence about successful community-based interventions that address the needs of homeless clients experiencing concurrent mental health and substance use disorders. We undertook a collaborative...
Measuring Success: Show What We Know - Evaluation Strategies for Drop-In Settings
Sean Meagher
Measuring Success: Show What We Know is the primary component of the third phase of the City of Toronto Drop-in Review, which is intended to identify strategies for measuring the success of drop-ins and to support drop-ins in implementing success measurement strategies. This phase of the review was carried out by Public Interest Strategy & Communications, and facilitated by the Toronto Drop-In Network (TDIN), an active...
Effect of a housing and case management program on emergency department visits and hospitalizations among chronically ill homeless adults: a randomized trial
Laura S. Sadowski
Romina A. Kee
Tyler J. VanderWeele
David Buchanan
The purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness of a case management and housing program in reducing use of urgent medical services among homeless adults with chronic medical illnesses. A randomized controlled trial was conducted at a public teaching hospital and a private, nonprofit hospital in Chicago, Illinois. Participants were 407 social worker–referred homeless adults with chronic medical illnesses (89% of...
Identification of cognitive impairment and mental illness in elderly homeless men: Before and after access to primary health care
D. Joyce
M. Limbos
The objective of this study was to describe the occurrence of mental health problems and cognitive impairment in a group of elderly homeless men and to demonstrate how clinical examination and screening tests used in a shelter setting might be helpful in identifying mental illness and cognitive impairment. Participants were admitted to a community-based shelter that offered access to regular meals, personal support and...