Journal Article

Housing assistance among people who are unstably housed and use drugs in Oregon: a cross-sectional study

Lambdin, Barrot H., Wenger, Lynn D., Kral, Alex H., Chung, Esther O., Good, Danielle, Godvin, Morgan, Leichtling, Gillian

2025

Overview

Background Unstable housing has tremendous harms on health and well-being and people who use drug experience significant barriers to housing. The objectives of this study were to estimate the prevalence of housing assistance among people who use drugs experiencing unstable housing in Oregon and explore factors associated with obtaining housing assistance. Methods We used cross-sectional survey data collected between March and November 2023 from people who were unstably housed and used drugs across eight counties in Oregon ( N  = 425). Unstable housing was defined as experiencing unsheltered or sheltered homelessness in the past year. Participants reported whether they obtained housing assistance in the past year. We explored associations between sociodemographic characteristics and housing assistance using multivariable log-binomial models. Results There were 133 participants (31.3%) who reported obtaining housing assistance in the past year. There was a lower prevalence of housing assistance for cisgender men (versus cisgender women and gender expansive participants) (PR = 0.73, 95% CI: 0.55–0.98) and those interviewed in non-urban counties (versus urban counties) (PR = 0.72, 95% CI: 0.53–0.98). Using opioids 21 or more days (versus 0–20 days) was associated with a lower prevalence of obtaining housing assistance (PR = 0.67, 95% CI: 0.48–0.94) Community supervision was associated with a higher prevalence of housing assistance (PR = 1.70, 95% CI: 1.27–2.27). Conclusion We found a large gap in housing assistance for people who use drugs in Oregon and identified several factors associated with obtaining housing assistance. Our findings can inform future interventions to connect people who use drugs with stable housing.

• Publisher: BioMed Central,BioMed Central Ltd,Springer Nature B.V,BMC
• Subject: Adult / Affordable housing / Age / At risk populations / Biostatistics / Cisgender / Cocaine / Counties / Cross-Sectional Studies / Douglas, Jackson / Drug overdose / Drug use / Drugs / Economic aspects / Environmental Health / Epidemiology / Ethnicity / Female / Fentanyl / Health aspects / Heroin / Homeless people / Homelessness / Housing / Housing - statistics & numerical data / Housing assistance / Housing policy / Humans / Ill-Housed Persons - statistics & numerical data / LSD / Lysergic acid diethylamide / Male / Medicine / Medicine & Public Health / Mental health / Methamphetamine / Middle Aged / Narcotics / Non-binary gender / Opioids / Oregon - epidemiology / Overdose / People who use drugs / Public Health / Public relations / Social aspects / Social services / Sociodemographic Factors / Sociodemographics / Stimulants / Substance-Related Disorders - epidemiology / Surveys and Questionnaires / Unstable housing / Urban areas / Vaccine / Well being / Young Adult