Health of the Homeless and Climate Change

Ramin, Brodie; Svoboda, Tomislav

doi:10.1007/s11524-009-9354-7

Cited by 94 publications

(89 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…Homeless people in The Netherlands fall under the responsibility of the municipality, but in Belgium there is no governmental organisation responsible for them. However, homeless people are a risk group due to them having poorly controlled chronic diseases, respiratory diseases and mental illnesses, which render them vulnerable [22]. One stakeholder pointed out that individuals with little social contact do not receive enough attention in the national heatwave plan, and a survey held in the Wallonia region in Belgium came to a similar conclusion [15].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stakeholders’ Perception on National Heatwave Plans and Their Local Implementation in Belgium and The Netherlands

Loenhout

Rodriguez-Llanes

Guha-Sapir

2016

IJERPH

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National heatwave plans are aimed at reducing the avoidable human health consequences due to heatwaves, by providing warnings as well as improving communication between relevant stakeholders. The objective of this study was to assess the perceptions of key stakeholders within plans in Belgium and The Netherlands on their responsibilities, the partnerships, and the effectiveness of the local implementation in Brussels and Amsterdam. Key informant interviews were held with stakeholders that had an important role in development of the heatwave plan in these countries, or its implementation in Brussels or Amsterdam. Care organisations, including hospitals and elderly care organisations, had a lack of familiarity with the national heatwave plan in both cities, and prioritised heat the lowest. Some groups of individuals, specifically socially isolated individuals, are not sufficiently addressed by the current national heatwave plans and most local plans. Stakeholders reported that responsibilities were not clearly described and that the national plan does not describe tasks on a local level. We recommend to urgently increase awareness on the impact of heat on health among care organisations. More emphasis needs to be given to the variety of heat-risk groups. Stakeholders should be involved in the development of updates of the plans.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stakeholders’ Perception on National Heatwave Plans and Their Local Implementation in Belgium and The Netherlands

Loenhout

Rodriguez-Llanes

Guha-Sapir

2016

IJERPH

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“…The literature highlights a number of individual, organisational, and structural factors that increase the risks posed by disasters and extreme weather events to people with a lived experience of homelessness. The most significant structural factor is limited or no access to housing that can be temperature‐controlled or structurally modified to heighten safety, exposing people to the elements more often, with less ability to protect themselves (Jacobs and Williams, 2009; Ramin and Svoboda, 2009; Barnett et al, 2013). Those without housing are subject to laws, land‐use policies, and negative social attitudes that force them out of public areas, making them harder to reach, less trusting of authority figures, and reducing their access to safe spaces to shelter from severe weather (Jewell, 2001; Lynch and Stagoll, 2002; Jonas, 2003; Edgington, 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

There's nowhere to go: counting the costs of extreme weather to the homeless community

2019

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People experiencing homelessness are vulnerable to extreme weather in unique ways. The entrenched inequalities that underpin disaster vulnerability are compounded by extreme isolation and the stress of transient living on mental and physical health. However, the impacts of extreme weather on the homeless in Australia are largely undocumented and rarely incorporated in emergency planning. Interviews with and surveys of emergency and homeless services and service users revealed that the primary ramifications of losing shelter and worsening mental health deepen the cycle of homelessness and trauma. Consequently, homeless shelter losses, such as tents, should be included in pre‐ and post‐event impact statistics and subsequent recovery support. Extreme weather response plans should include early triggers and strategies for ‘non‐severe’ weather events, as the homeless community is affected earlier and by a wider range of meteorological conditions. Moreover, this study also explores the benefits of a trauma‐informed response to extreme weather when working with the homeless.

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“…Specifically, the percent of the county population that is Hispanic, the percent black, and the percent “other” are used in the analysis. It should be noted that CMF contains all death counts in the US, including the deaths of marginal populations that are more susceptible to climatic conditions (Ramin & Svoboda, 2009), such as the homeless.…”

Section: Data Measures and Methodologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Climatic conditions and human mortality: spatial and regional variation in the United States

Yang

Jensen

2016

Popul Environ

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Previous research on climatic conditions and human mortality in the United States has three gaps: largely ignoring social conditions, lack of nationwide focus, and overlooking potential spatial variations. Our goal is to understand whether climatic conditions contribute to mortality after considering social conditions and to investigate whether spatial non-stationarity exists in these factors. Applying geographically weighted regression to a unique nationwide county-level dataset, we found that (1) net of other factors, average July temperatures are positively (detrimentally) associated with mortality while January temperatures mainly have a curvilinear relationship, (2) the mortality-climatic condition associations are spatially non-stationary, (3) the relationships between social conditions (e.g., social capital) and mortality are stable geographically, and (4) without a spatial approach to understanding the environment-mortality relationship, important spatial variations are overlooked. Our findings suggest that a universal approach to coping with the relationships between rapid climate changes and health may not be appropriate and effective.

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Health of the Homeless and Climate Change

Cited by 94 publications

References 52 publications

Stakeholders’ Perception on National Heatwave Plans and Their Local Implementation in Belgium and The Netherlands

Stakeholders’ Perception on National Heatwave Plans and Their Local Implementation in Belgium and The Netherlands

There's nowhere to go: counting the costs of extreme weather to the homeless community

Climatic conditions and human mortality: spatial and regional variation in the United States

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