Poor People, Poor Health: The Health Status of the Homeless

Clinical data from the National Health Care for the Homeless program are analyzed to provide a portrait of the health status of the urban homeless. Ill health, physical as well as mental, is both a cause and a consequence of homelessness; homeless people suffer from many physical disorders at dramatically elevated rates. Homelessness also greatly complicates the delivery of adequate health care. The paper concludes that homelessness should be considered as a remediable condition of the environment that places a large and growing portion of the urban poverty population at high health risk.