Housing Is an Essential Part of Health Care—“Treat ‘Em and House ‘Em”

People experiencing homelessness bear a disproportionate burden of chronic illnesses and are unable to consistently practice social isolation; unsurprisingly, they have been disproportionately affected by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Studies from the early months of the pandemic in the United States demonstrated infection rates¹ and, in some places, hospitalization rates² in this population that were substantially higher than in those with stable housing. Like many social predicaments, homelessness is generally treated by health systems as unfortunate but ignorable; patients without homes are discharged to the street if their medical needs do not require immediate hospitalization. But the COVID-19 pandemic has made homelessness unignorable and brought the responsibility for housing squarely into the hands of health practitioners; patients experiencing homelessness who are diagnosed with or under investigation for COVID-19 may not meet inpatient or observation criteria, but they may spread the virus to others if discharged from the hospital.