Resources

How Housing Insecurity Creates Barriers to Healthcare

No Address, No Healthcare

Many essential health services require a mailing address for insurance enrollment, medical records, and follow-up care. Without a stable home, patients may:

• Lose access to Medicaid or other public health programs due to missed renewal paperwork.
• Be unable to schedule follow-up visits or receive reminders for critical screenings.
• Struggle to access telehealth services that require reliable internet and phone connections.

Without continuity of care, preventable health conditions go untreated, leading to more severe illnesses and costly emergency interventions later on.

When Survival Comes First, Health Comes Last

For individuals struggling to keep a roof over their heads, food, rent, and immediate survival often take priority over medical care. This means:

• Skipping preventive care like vaccines, screenings, and check-ups.
• Ignoring early symptoms of illness, leading to complications.
• Delaying medications because of cost, resulting in worsening conditions.

When doctor visits become a luxury, chronic illnesses spiral out of control. Diabetes, hypertension, and respiratory diseases are all significantly harder to manage when housing is unstable.

Housing Conditions Directly Affect Physical and Mental Health

Even for those with a roof over their heads, poor living conditions can be just as damaging to health as homelessness.

• Mold, pests, and poor ventilation in low-income housing increase rates of asthma and respiratory infections.
• Unsafe neighborhoods and lack of green space lead to higher stress levels, anxiety, and depression.
• Overcrowded shelters and frequent relocations disrupt sleep patterns and contribute to cognitive and developmental delays in children.

Chronic stress from housing instability doesn’t just affect mental health—it impacts the entire body, leading to higher rates of cardiovascular disease, weakened immune function, and increased inflammation.

Emergency Rooms Become the Only Option

When routine healthcare is out of reach, emergency rooms become the primary care provider for people experiencing housing insecurity.

• Without access to a regular doctor, many rely on ER visits for conditions that could have been treated earlier.
• After hospital stays, patients with no home to return to are often readmitted within weeks, creating a cycle of costly, ineffective care.
• Mental health crises and substance use disorders are also disproportionately treated in emergency settings, where long-term care solutions are rarely available.

This overburdens hospitals, drives up healthcare costs, and ultimately fails to provide real solutions.

Breaking the Cycle: The Need for Housing-Inclusive Healthcare

The healthcare system alone cannot solve the crisis of housing insecurity, but it can play a major role in addressing its health consequences. Expanding medical respite care, strengthening Medicaid coverage for housing-related services, and investing in community-based healthcare solutions are critical steps toward ensuring that housing instability does not lead to lifelong health disparities.

Without stable housing, good health is nearly impossible to maintain. If we want to improve healthcare outcomes for vulnerable populations, we must first ensure they have a place to call home.

Determinants of Health: Isolation & Belonging, Environmental Factors, Access to Healthcare, Public Services