Particularly for active drug users, access to stable housing can greatly affect the risk of contracting HIV. Julia Dickson-Gomez is Principal Investigator of the study Housing Status/Stability and HIV Risk Among Drug Users at The Institute for Community Research (ICR), which analyzed the role of housing policies in limiting drug users' access to stable housing. Mark Convey, MA, an ethnographer on the project, will present at December’s HIV Forum, which will take place on Tuesday, December 12, 2006, from noon to 1:30 pm at ICR, 2 Hartford Square West (146 Wyllys St.), Suite 100. The event is free; lunch will be provided and advance registration is required.
Starting in the fall of 2004, researchers conducted and studied interviews with 65 active drug users in Hartford about their housing status. “Drug users without a secure place to live find it much more difficult to practice harm reduction,” says Convey. “Not having a steady place to live means you don’t have a place to store condoms or clean needles. Since unprotected sex and injection drug use are the two primary ways people contract HIV, housing has a big impact on risk.” When interviewing homeless people living on the streets and in shelters, researchers found that one of the biggest variables concerning homelessness and HIV risk is “doubling up,” or staying with someone else temporarily. “If you’re doubling up with another drug user or a sex client, that makes it more likely you’ll use drugs or have unprotected sex, increasing your HIV risk,” says Dr. Dickson-Gomez. “However many people who stay with family members decrease their drug use, and therefore their HIV risk.”
A primary goal of the study was to analyze how structural factors, such as housing policies, affect homelessness and HIV risk on the individual level. For many active drug users, having an arrest record that stems from drug charges is the biggest challenge to finding stable housing. Having a record makes it more difficult to qualify for subsidies, to stay in shelters, and to qualify for federal housing aid like Section 8. “To reduce HIV risk among the most vulnerable populations, we need an increase in general housing subsidies, an increase in housing first resources, and an increase in services that target people living on the streets and those doubling up,” says Convey, who will explain these and other policy suggestions in his presentation. “Research analysis indicates that the housing first model, where a shelter accepts people even if they are using drugs, is the best way to reduce a homeless person’s risk of HIV,” says Dr. Gomez. The forum will be of particular interest to service providers, homeless advocates, researchers, social scientists, medical professionals, persons living with HIV, and particularly policy makers who would like to learn more about the connections among homelessness, drug use and HIV.This is the fourth presentation in the Autumn, 2006 series of forums organized by The Institute for Community Research and the Connecticut AIDS Education and Training Center with support from Gilead Sciences, GlaxoSmithKline and Boehringer Ingelheim. The Hartford HIV Forum meets from 12:00 noon to 1:30 p.m., on the second Tuesday of each month from September through June. The goal of the forums is to give the local community the most up-to-date information on current topics in AIDS prevention, treatment, research and care. To register for the forum, call the Institute for Community Research at 860-278-2044. For more information about the series, contact Kim Radda at The Institute for Community Research at 860-278-2044 X285.
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The Institute for Community Research is an independent, nonprofit organization that conducts applied research and community enhancement programs to promote equal access to health, education, and cultural resources. The Connecticut AIDS Education and Training Center trains providers with the goal of improving HIV clinical care through a grant from the Health Resources & Services Administration (Federal Grant No. 1H4A HA 00050-AO). |
