Improving Health Care for Homeless People

• Published in: JAMA : the journal of the American Medical Association Vol. 316; no. 24; pp. 2586 - 2587
• Main Authors: Koh, Howard K, O’Connell, James J
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Medical Association 27.12.2016
• Subjects: Health care access; Healthcare Disparities; Homeless people; Homeless Persons - statistics & numerical data; Housing; Humans; Insurance, Health - organization & administration; Insurance, Health - statistics & numerical data; Patient-Centered Care - organization & administration; Patient-Centered Care - standards; Patient-Centered Care - trends; Public health; Quality Improvement; Quality of care; Quality of Health Care; United States; Vulnerable Populations - statistics & numerical data; United States > US
• ISSN: 0098-7484; 1538-3598
• DOI: 10.1001/jama.2016.18760

The most recent US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) report on homelessness, published in 2015, estimated that about 564,000 homeless people in the US live in shelters and on the streets. This figure, based on a point-in-time snapshot on a single night each January, may well be an underestimate, given varying definitions of homelessness, peripatetic populations, and the lack of robust surveillance systems. Despite official figures documented in the HUD report noting an overall recent population decline of about 11% from 2007 to 2015, numbers of homeless individuals have increased in cities with rising housing costs, such as New York and Los Angeles. Some estimate as many as 2.3 million to 3.5 million individuals experience homelessness each year; persons of color are disproportionately affected, with one-third unsheltered. Here, Koh and O'Connell discuss how to address homelessness and how to improve their health care.