A growing and diversifying homeless population faces tremendous social burdens and structural barriers to health care that contribute to high morbidity and mortality. Health care for homeless people must address intersecting health and social challenges through a combination of health-related and social interventions.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Relevant articles
Open Access articles citing this article.
-
Effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of a peer-delivered, relational, harm reduction intervention to improve mental health, quality of life, and related outcomes, for people experiencing homelessness and substance use problems: protocol for the ‘SHARPS’ cluster randomised controlled trial
Trials Open Access 13 December 2025
-
Barriers to access and factors associated with health care utilization among the adult homeless population in Dhaka, Bangladesh: a mixed method cross-sectional study
BMC Public Health Open Access 02 December 2025
-
History of Alcohol Use Disorder and Housing Instability as Predictors of Fatigue and Mental Health Problems During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Prevention Science Open Access 11 February 2025
Access options
Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals
Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription
$32.99 / 30 days
cancel any time
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 1 digital issues and online access to articles
$119.00 per year
only $119.00 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on SpringerLink
- Instant access to the full article PDF.
USD 39.95
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References
Pottie, K. et al. Clinical guideline for homeless and vulnerably housed people, and people with lived homelessness experience. CMAJ 192, E240–E254 (2020).
Fazel, S., Geddes, J. R. & Kushel, M. The health of homeless people in high-income countries: descriptive epidemiology, health consequences, and clinical and policy recommendations. Lancet 384, 1529–1540 (2014).
Hwang, S. W. Mortality among men using homeless shelters in Toronto, Ontario. JAMA 283, 2152–2157 (2000).
Fazel, S., Khosla, V., Doll, H. & Geddes, J. The prevalence of mental disorders among the homeless in Western countries: systematic review and meta-regression analysis. PLoS Med. 5, e225 (2008).
Baggett, T. P. et al. Mortality among homeless adults in Boston: shifts in causes of death over a 15-year period. JAMA Intern Med. 173, 189–195 (2013).
Tsai, J. & Wilson, M. COVID-19: a potential public health problem for homeless populations. Lancet Public Health 5, e186–e187 (2020).
Khandor, E. et al. Access to primary health care among homeless adults in Toronto, Canada: results from the street health survey. Open Med. 5, 94–103 (2011).
Wadhera, R. K. et al. Disparities in care and mortality among homeless adults hospitalized for cardiovascular conditions. JAMA Intern Med. 180, 357–366 (2020).
Miyawaki, A., Hasegawa, K., Figueroa, J. F. & Tsugawa, Y. Hospital readmission and emergency department revisits of homeless patients treated at homeless-serving hospitals in the usa: observational study. J. Gen. Intern. Med. 35, 2560–2568 (2020).
de Vet, R. et al. Effectiveness of case management for homeless persons: a systematic review. Am. J. Public Health 103, e13–e26 (2013).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Liu, M., Hwang, S.W. Health care for homeless people. Nat Rev Dis Primers 7, 5 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41572-020-00241-2
Published:
Version of record:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41572-020-00241-2
This article is cited by
-
Barriers to access and factors associated with health care utilization among the adult homeless population in Dhaka, Bangladesh: a mixed method cross-sectional study
BMC Public Health (2025)
-
History of Alcohol Use Disorder and Housing Instability as Predictors of Fatigue and Mental Health Problems During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Prevention Science (2025)
-
Effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of a peer-delivered, relational, harm reduction intervention to improve mental health, quality of life, and related outcomes, for people experiencing homelessness and substance use problems: protocol for the ‘SHARPS’ cluster randomised controlled trial
Trials (2025)
-
Examining the experiences of vulnerably housed patients visiting Kingston, Ontario’s emergency departments: a qualitative analysis
International Journal for Equity in Health (2024)
-
A scoping review examining patient experience and what matters to people experiencing homelessness when seeking healthcare
BMC Health Services Research (2024)