{"id":1450,"date":"2024-10-23T13:18:49","date_gmt":"2024-10-23T13:18:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/?p=1450"},"modified":"2024-10-23T13:18:49","modified_gmt":"2024-10-23T13:18:49","slug":"crackdown-on-homeless-encampments-raises-public-health-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/?p=1450","title":{"rendered":"Crackdown on Homeless Encampments Raises Public Health Questions"},"content":{"rendered":"

As states turn<\/a> to the health-care system to help address homelessness, experiments with housing<\/a> and other social services aimed at getting people healthier and off the streets are running up against new, aggressive crackdowns \u2014 with some cities ratcheting up enforcement of existing anticamping laws and others passing new restrictions.<\/p>\n

From Florida to California, elected officials and law enforcement agencies have launched widespread operations targeting homeless people following the U.S. Supreme Court\u2019s ruling in June<\/a> that makes it easier for states, cities and counties to fine and arrest those living outside \u2014 even if there is no shelter or housing available.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese tactics cause chaos, not order. They are not a solution to homelessness, and in fact, they will make the problem worse,\u201d said Ann Oliva<\/strong>, CEO of the National Alliance to End Homelessness<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The sweeps are a response to rising public frustration over the proliferation of homeless encampments and the public health hazards that often accompany them.<\/p>\n

But a growing body of evidence<\/a> indicates that housing services and health care can help get people off the streets while stabilizing their health. What to do about homelessness has become a rising political issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cVoters believe mental health and physical health care are important parts of the solution,\u201d said Celinda Lake<\/strong>, a national Democratic pollster. \u201cThey feel if you just arrest people and move them around, you\u2019re just going to make the situation worse. Voters want real solutions. That\u2019s what we\u2019ve heard from Minnesota to Tulsa, to Omaha, Nebraska, and even Great Falls, Montana.\u201d<\/p>\n

Politicians are responding to the visibility of homelessness by clearing encampments, but in doing so, they are thwarting efforts to stabilize people and make them healthier.<\/p>\n

Those sweeps are breaking crucial connections to street medicine<\/a> providers, housing navigators and case managers funded by Medicaid and through other state and national programs, including the federal Health Care for the Homeless<\/strong><\/a> program launched in 1987 to improve the health of those living outside.<\/p>\n

As law enforcement operations expand, health-care providers on the ground say the efforts are making people sicker. Homeless people are skipping medical appointments, losing their medications, and having their IDs, birth certificates and other vital documents thrown away, slowing efforts to get them indoors.<\/p>\n

Health and social service providers in cities across the West, where there has been a surge in people living outdoors, also report an uptick among homeless people in substance use, thoughts of suicide and other mental health issues such as anxiety and depression.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s all this health-care money to try to stabilize people and get them to a place where they can get healthy, but if they\u2019re constantly being forced to move, we can\u2019t find them,\u201d said Beth Rittenhouse-Dhesi<\/strong>, a longtime street medicine provider in San Francisco.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are losing their medications or getting them thrown away, and all of a sudden, conditions like diabetes, hypertension, HIV, asthma, opioid use \u2026 are becoming significantly worse,\u201d because they are left untreated.<\/p>\n

This article is not available for syndication due to republishing restrictions. If you have questions about the availability of this or other content for republication, please contact NewsWeb@kff.org<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

KFF Health News<\/a> is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF\u2014an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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This story can be republished for free (details<\/a>).<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As states turn to the health-care system to help address homelessness, experiments with housing and other social services aimed at getting people healthier and off the streets are running up against new, aggressive crackdowns \u2014 with some cities ratcheting up enforcement of existing anticamping laws and others passing new restrictions. From Florida to California, elected…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1451,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1450"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1450\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}