Decreased homelessness among women involved in the criminal legal system after a COVID-19 housing intervention

ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 outbreak fueled unprecedented public health efforts to mitigate the spread of infection, including rapid provision of non-congregate housing to people experiencing homelessness. People on community supervision (criminal probation or parole) have high levels of homelessness due to housing discrimination, poverty and racism, and are among the groups most vulnerable to COVID-19. We examined housing status in a cohort of women with probation histories in Alameda County, CA before and after the COVID-19 outbreak (N = 204). Before March 2020, 38% of women in the cohort reporting being homeless (95% CI: 34–43%), a level that was consistent over 12 months. As of August 2020, 15% of the cohort was homeless (95% CI: 10–20%; relative risk [RR] 0.40, 95% CI: 0.28, 0.55; p < 0.001). During a period of assertive public health efforts to reduce COVID-19 risk through provision of housing, we found meaningful reductions in homelessness in this sample of vulnerable women.

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-19
• homelessness
• criminal justice
• women
• housing

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities: [grant number R01MD016662]; National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities: [grant number R01MD010439]; National Cancer Institute: [grant number #R01CA226838].

Notes on contributors

Jennifer Lorvick

Jennifer Lorvick, DrPH conducts community-based research focused on social and structural determinants of poor health, such as deprivation, violence, criminal legal system involvement and racism.

Jordana L. Hemberg

Jordana Hemberg, MPH is a research public health analyst who specializes in community-based research with marginalized populations.

Erica N. Browne

Erica Browne, MS is a statistician skilled in analysis, study design, and data management. Her expertise includes longitudinal data, survival analysis, mixed models, generalized linear models, latent class modeling, and causal inference.

Harrison Alter

Harrison Alter, MD, MS, FACEP retired in January 2021 as Interim Medical Director of Alameda County Health Care for the Homeless. He was previously Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Alameda Health System.

Megan L. Comfort

Megan Comfort, PhD has extensive experience conducting research focused on understanding pathways to promote equity, justice, and wellbeing for people involved with the criminal legal system and their loved ones.