The role of health care in addressing homelessness

What's possible when health care works more closely with the homeless response system?

A lot better outcomes — for patients and systems. Take this example from Oregon: a woman showed up at the emergency room with sores and a heart problem. Her health care team learned she didn't have safe, stable housing.

Instead of discharging her back into unsafe conditions, she was given a hotel room and regular visits by a home health nurse. She continues to receive care from her home health nurse now that she's in permanent housing.

This approach is part of a broader movement, led by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and Community Solutions, that fosters collaboration between health care and homeless response systems.

“For the first time in many of these communities, information about the population experiencing homelessness is being shared across systems, opening the possibility of cross-sector care coordination to improve health and housing outcomes,” explained Meghan Arsenault, Senior Strategy Lead at Built for Zero.

Discover the impact health and homelessness partnerships.

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