Unsheltered Homelessness and the Right to Metabolism: An Urban Political Ecology of Health and Sustainability

“I Felt Safe”: The Role of the Rapid Rehousing Program in Supporting the Security of Families Experiencing Homelessness in Salt Lake County, Utah

“…Besides trauma, people experiencing homelessness tend to suffer other chronic illnesses such as diabetes, cellulitis, peripheral cardiovascular disease, hypertension, respiratory diseases, and more [ 10 ]. Health conditions are much worse among the unsheltered populations [ 46 ]. In a previous study of TRH RRHP in Salt Lake City, authors found that 26.6% of heads of a household reported having mental health problems and 23.7% reported having chronic health problems [ 15 ].…”

Air Pollution-Related Health Impacts on Individuals Experiencing Homelessness: Environmental Justice and Health Vulnerability in Salt Lake County, Utah

“…While there are multiple categories of institutions that are considered part of the sheltered status definition (e.g., emergency shelters, congregate shelters, transitional housing, motels paid for by charitable organizations), unsheltered homelessness may include people living in spaces including cars, parks, abandoned buildings, condemned buildings, greenfields, brownfields, streets, alleyways, and others [ 13 ]. For many of these people, with social services either unavailable, inaccessible, or undesirable, individuals facing unsheltered homelessness turn to public spaces for meeting basic human needs such as eating, sleeping, socializing, urinating, defecating, and other necessities of life [ 14 ]. With these necessities, and the ability to meet them, in question, individuals facing homelessness are some of the most vulnerable in society, and face increased health concerns [ 15 , 16 ].…”

“…Environmental justice research and scholarship contends that exposures to pollution and other environmental risks are unequally distributed by a variety of social markers, with particular emphasis on race and class [ 25 ]. Environmental justice work has traditionally examined marginalized and vulnerable communities’ exposures to particular hazards, and IEHs regularly live, work, sleep, and exist in increasingly exposed physical locations, where basic biophysical functioning is often difficult and contested [ 14 ]. Providing environmentally just conditions like clean water and clean air in those places is critical, but that people have adequate access to these spaces and resources must also be a priority [ 26 ].…”