Grant: CIHR Fellowship

Housing is a basic human need and a significant socio-economic determinant of population health. In Canada an increasingly large number of individuals are facing homelessness and inadequate housing, with tens of thousands of people being homeless on any given night. Homelessness and inadequate housing have considerable negative impact on individuals' physical and mental health as well as their quality of life. In order to elucidate factors that affect residential (in)stability, and the interactions between inadequate housing, health, and quality of life, longitudinal research is needed. This project draws upon Canada's first longitudinal multi-site cohort study of homeless and vulnerably housed individuals (HVHIs). In this study, 1200 HVHIs are interviewed annually over a 3-year period in Ottawa, Toronto, and Vancouver. The interview surveys assess demographic characteristics, residential trajectory, physical and mental health diagnoses, psychological distress, human capital, family history, social support, risk behaviours, service utilization, contact with the legal system, life events, and quality of life. These data will be linked to participants' health insurance databases providing information on their health care utilization. Complex statistical methods will be employed to examine the relationships between housing, health, and quality of life among the HVHIs over time; the combination of individual, contextual, and health factors that predict residential (in)stability; and how health status, psychological distress, social support, risk behaviours, quality of life, and use of health care services change during or after periods of residential stability. This research is critical for understanding the relationships between inadequate housing, health and quality of life and for creating research knowledge that can be used to inform programs and policy decisions for improving the health and quality of life of Canadians who are homeless or vulnerably housed.