Grant: Catalyst Grant: Patient-Oriented Research

'Housing First' principles recognize housing as a critical anchor for health, quality of life, social connectedness and self-sufficiency especially for persons who are homeless. Older women (age 50+, and both indigenous and non-indigenous) are a growing and understudied group with unique experiences of homelessness in terms of negative health outcomes. Homelessness, defined here as having no housing, or living in substandard, unsafe or unaffordable housing, is most evident in Victoria and Vancouver given high costs of living relative to other centres. Older women who are homeless have complex health conditions and unmet needs associated with inappropriate housing and poor access to primary care, medications and treatments, and supportive community and health-related services and programs. Their health is further exacerbated by their stigmatized and 'voiceless' status in society. This one-year, community-driven qualitative project reflects a collaboration between academic researchers (UVic/UNBC), and women with lived experience of homelessness as patient-partners and core research team members. It is further supported by proactive and committed community partners (the Greater Victoria Coalition to End Homelessness, Community Social Planning Council, BC Housing, BC SUPPORT Unit Vancouver Island Centre, Island Health, and the BC Office of the Seniors Advocate). The purpose of this project is to undertake 'patient-oriented research' to build evidence and knowledge regarding understanding the pathways into homelessness, and the impacts of homelessness on health and QoL for older women; and to share the insights gained with wider stakeholder audiences and knowledge users to catalyze positive health-related system-level changes. A related goal is to use the evidence from this project to catalyse a larger, more comprehensive research grant that considers other diverse geographic areas and populations with vulnerability to homelessness.