The New England ATTC in partnership with RICARES is providing a basic/universal TA session titled “State-level homelessness and drug overdose mortality: Evidence from US panel data” on 3/21/24 from 12:30 PM to 1:30 PM. Although we in recovery science understand well that not having access to steady, safe, and secure housing is a risk factor for drug overdose for a given individual, less is known about the relationship between homelessness and overdose mortality (the rate of death resulting from drug overdose) at the state level. In this study, researchers looked at data on housing, population, substance use, overdose, unemployment, and other variables from 2007–2020 for all US states and Washington DC. The result was that overdose mortality was found to be positively associated with homelessness at the state level in other words, the more homelessness there is in a state, the higher the state’s overdose mortality rate is likely to be. However, they found that this association becomes weaker when fentanyl is widely available in a given state. Researchers concluded that, given this association, policies, and programs to prevent and reduce homelessness should be considered critical elements of overdose prevention efforts.

Article link:

www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0376871623011481?ref=pdf_download&fr=RR-2&rr=85fb4e876ef442b5