Improving health and preventing mortality: Homelessness, criminal justice involvement and substance use issues

Health and Homelessness: People who experience homelessness are a diverse and socially marginalised group who often have complex health issues that can lead to an early death. Homelessness can include living on the street; living in temporary accommodation; staying with friends or family; or living in substandard housing. Given that unstable housing is both a cause and a consequence of poor health, it is not surprising that people experiencing homelessness have worse health and higher rates of death than the general population. In high-income countries like Australia, people experiencing homelessness are between two and five times more likely to die than the general population. Premature death among people experiencing homelessness is often attributed to preventable causes, including infectious disease (for example, HIV, tuberculosis), ischaemic heart disease, substance use, injury, suicide and homicide. For example, in Queensland, the suicide rate for people experiencing homelessness is two times higher than that of housed people.