The Guardian “Out in the Cold” Series on Homelessness Cites Home2Health Homeless Deaths Research
To help elucidate the premature death crisis seen in the homeless population, The Guardian has created a series of articles titled “Out in the Cold” which references Home2Health’s homeless deaths research in many of its articles.
Despite a mounting body of evidence that people experiencing homelessness have a life expectancy gap of three decades less in comparison to the general Australian population, the federal government still does not collect any data related to homeless deaths. In conjunction, one of The Guardian’s articles highlights the refusal to broaden the scope of Professor Lisa Wood’s homeless death tracking by the federal government even though they refuse to track these deaths themselves:
Her research methodology could be applied more broadly across the country but she says she has had no interest from governments elsewhere.
- The Guardian, What do we know about homelessness deaths in Australia – and why is nobody tracking them?
“People are literally dying waiting for a house”
The Home2Health team tracks the deaths of people experiencing homelessness within the Perth area using a culmination of homeless service data and hospital data. The median age at death of this population is 50 years of age.
“When there’s a three-decade life expectancy gap, and no other group – even the other most disadvantaged population group in the country – is anywhere near that, [homelessness] is clearly the common denominator,” Wood said. “If we had more transparency around life expectancy then we could start to see well are we seeing any shifts … in people who are getting rapid housing, who are getting specialist healthcare, who are getting trauma counselling. “If it remains invisible, it’s going to be hard to see whether we are making progress at all.”
- The Guardian, Homeless Australians are dying at age 44 on average in hidden crisis
Multiple health conditions alongside not having a safe place to rest and recoup are prevalent in the homeless population. In an interview with The Guardian for the “Out in the Cold” series, Professor Lisa Wood describes trying to manage health conditions while sleeping rough as a “disaster”.
“People are literally dying waiting for a house,” Lisa says. “That is untenable. “Anyone who is homeless deserves rapid housing but certainly what homeless healthcare workers say is that there should be even more prioritised pathways for people who already have chronic health conditions.”
- The Guardian, ‘People are dying waiting for a house’: how Australia’s healthcare system leaves rough sleepers with nowhere to turn
See the articles by The Guardian below that cite Proffessor Lisa Wood and her Home2Health’s team research:
