WIHI: Gimme Housing, Not the ED: A New Campaign for Housing the Homeless

Date:  January 21, 2010

Featuring: 

• Rosanne Haggerty, Founder and President, Common Ground
• Becky Kanis, Director of Innovations, Common Ground
• Maria Raven, MD, MPH, MSc, Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine, NYU School of Medicine
• Joe McCannon, Faculty, Institute for Healthcare Improvement

 

Every winter in the US, volunteers fan out across most major cities to count the number of people residing in shelters and living on the streets. This annual census of the homeless serves many functions, but always reminds us of the complex web of economic, behavioral, and social factors that underlie life without any permanent housing for at least three million Americans at any given time.

 

Many of the people living on the streets and in shelters are well known to nearby hospital emergency departments (EDs). The health problems are typically chronic, sometimes life threatening, and usually part of a repeating pattern of addiction, mental illness, or disease that those who work in EDs can only begin to address. Underlying needs often go unmet.

 

Common Ground has a proven track record of creating housing for people on the streets. Now, as part of its effort to end homelessness, Common Ground wants to forge innovative relationships with hospitals to better target outreach and resources to some of the most vulnerable. WIHI host Madge Kaplan talks with two of the organization’s leaders, Rosanne Haggerty and Becky Kanis, who are actively laying the foundation for permanent, affordable housing for the homeless, as well as new, effective coalitions with the health care system to stop the revolving door in and out of the ED. Dr. Maria Raven is an expert on care coordination for complex patients, and Joe McCannon is helping Common Ground map out a new, national strategy.