Higher Rates Of Homelessness Are Associated With Increases In Mortality From Accidental Drug And Alcohol Poisonings

Original research
by
Bradford, W. David & Felipe Lozano-Rojas

Release Date

2024

Geography

USA

Language of Resource

English

Full Text Available

Yes

Open Access / OK to Reproduce

Yes

Peer Reviewed

Yes

Objective

In this article we contribute to the literature that links homelessness, the most extreme form of housing disruption, to accidental SUD-related poisonings.

Findings/Key points

We found large effects of homelessness on SUD-related poisonings (for example, a 10 percent increase in homelessness led to a 3.2 percent increase in opioid poisonings in metropolitan areas). Our findings indicate that reducing local homelessness rates from the seventy-fifth to the fiftieth percentile levels could have saved more than 1,900 lives from opioid overdoses across all metropolitan localities in the final year of our study data.

Design/methods

Using plausibly exogenous variation from a state’s landlord-tenant policies that influence evictions, we estimated the causal impact of homelessness on SUD-related mortality.

Keywords

Housing
Mortality
About PWUD