Medically Homeless
People dealing with homelessness deserve a safe place to recuperate from illness.
Housing and health are inextricably connected, and without a safe place to recuperate, people experiencing homelessness cannot fully heal and often wind up back in the hospital.
We are advocating for medical respite, defined as medical care for people experiencing homelessness who are too sick to recover from a physical illness or injury on the streets, but are not sick enough to be in a hospital. This approach has been successfully developed and implemented around the country, and now we are advocating for it in New York City.
LegalHealth, along with other Coalition for Housing and Health (CHH) members developed concrete recommendations for New York City to best address the unique healthcare and housing needs of the medically homeless.
Read our full report here.