pamphlet

1.In the article Mortality Among People Experiencing Homelessness in San Francisco During the COVID-19 pandemic, research was done to see if homelessness and mortality rates were linked during the COVID-19 pandemic. In San Francisco researchers wondered if the nearly-double deaths of the homeless population from the prior years (2016-2019) was related to the pandemic. During the beginning of the pandemic, San Francisco moved some of their homeless population into shelter-in-place hotel rooms, shelters and supervised tent encampments to try and stop the spread of COVID-19. During the 12 month time period, from March 17, 2020 to March 16 , 2021, it was found that deaths had more than doubled since the pandemic, mostly related to overdose deaths. In 2019 deaths among people experiencing homlessness was 147. Although none of the reported deaths listed COVID-19 as the cause, many resources for the homeless were limited due to temporary closures and reduced hours to essential health care services. Although the findings show that COVID-19 did not have an effect on mortality in San Francisco, it sparks the question, did the effects COVID-19 had on health care services in San Francisco have direct consequences to the homeless population not being able to get the care they needed? And if there hadn’t been a shelter-in-place effect due to this pandemic, would there have been more people around to save those who died? The article suggests that having mortality data linked with other service use data would allow for the potential gaps and points of intervention to prevent death (Cawley, Kanzaria, et. al).

· This article is a timely, scholarly journal article that is a primary research article. It is written by multiple authoritative authors and is published by the American Medical Association, which is an authoritative publisher, and the article covers a portion of the topic it discusses. The purpose of this article is to find any relation between deaths of people experiencing homelessness in San Francisco and COVID-19. The point of view is from medical professionals, and this article has no bias.

· This article relates to my problem of homlessness in the San Francisco Bay Area and the health effects it can have on the community by effectively researching if the COVID-19 pandemic has an effect on the mortality rate of homeless individuals in San Francisco.

2. In the article Communicable Disease Among People Experiencing Homelessness in California, the authors discuss how homeless people in California have a greater chance of getting communicable diseases compared to people who are not experiencing homelessness. This article discusses how the overall health of people experiencing homelessness is worse compared to people that are housed. Table 1., shows major risk factors and communicable diseases identified among people experiencing homelessness. People of homelessness living in crowded conditions such as shelters have greater exposure to pathogens, such as Tuberculosis, diarrheal illnesses, Hepatitis A, and substance abuse disorders can lead to risky behavior that increase the risk of HIV, HCV or HAV (C.Y. Liu, et, al.). People experiencing homelessness are also at greater risk of contracting Syphilis, streptococcal infections and Hepatitis C. Preventing homelessness is one major step to try and drive down the risk factors of homeless people contracting diseases, some life threatening. Programs already exist to house those living with HIV, but still only 2% of the housed individuals died of infectious causes compared to 13% of unhoused individuals [69]. Getting better access to healthcare could help prevent illnesses in homeless people, and California legislation (SB1152) which mandates hospitals to offer appropriate vaccinations and coordination of care for homeless patients on hospital or emergency room discharge, could help stop the spread of pathogens that cause disease and virus ( C.Y. Liu, et, al.).

· This article is a timely, peer reviewed article that is a secondary research article. This is a scholarly article. It is written by multiple authoritative authors and is published by Cambridge University Press, which is an authoritative publisher. The purpose of this article is to find the association between communicable diseases and homelessness, especially in California. The point of view is from medical professionals and the bias is in support of providing homeless people adequate healthcare.

· This article relates to my issues of homelessness in the San Francisco Bay Area because it clearly describes the issue of disease in homeless people and how it can affect the community negatively by spreading disease and pathogens that could essentially cause a local outbreak of certain diseases.

3. In the article Water Pollution Resulting from Homeless Encampments in Creeks: Programs in Sacramento, Santa Cruz, and San Pablo, the authors discuss how the growing number of tent encampments in California pose many environmental issues, including the buildup of trash in the waterways, and in some cases water being contaminated with E. Coli (Doerschlag, I). This article also talks about how these three major cities have programs to combat the growing concern of water contamination. The main sources of pollutants from homeless encampments is plastic, debris, contaminated needles, human waste, shopping carts etc. Since COVID-19, the U.S. has seen a rise in homelessness, which will only make this issue worse if there aren't programs to combat this rising problem. Doerschlags findings show that there are programs dealing with the problem of water pollution due to tent encampments, and how environmentalists are working with homeless people to combat the water pollution, and also make sure that the homeless aren’t criminalized.

· This article is a timely, scholarly article, that is a primary research article that uses outside sources for statistical data. It is written by an authoritative author, and It is published by the University of California, which is an authoritative publisher. The purpose of this article is to find the relationship between pollution of water and homeless encampments, and to find out if there are any resources to combat this problem. The point of view is from a graduate student, and the bias is towards fixing the problem of contaminated water without criminalizing homeless people.

· This article relates to my issue of homelessness in the San Francisco Bay Area because it talks about how water contamination can cause health problems and disease, and how it could negatively affect the population, but also be taken care of by different agencies.

Works Cited

Cawley, Caroline, et al. “Mortality Among People Experiencing Homelessness in San Francisco During the COVID-19 Pandemic.” JAMA Network Open, vol. 5, no. 3, 2022, jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/article-abstract/2789907.

Isabelle, Doerschlag. “Water Pollution Resulting from Homeless Encampments in Creeks: Programs in Sacramento, Santa Cruz, and San Pablo.” eScholarship, 2021, escholarship.org/uc/item/5fr6w243#author.

Liu, C. Y., et al. “Communicable Disease among People Experiencing Homelessness in California.” Epidemiology and Infection, vol. 148, 2020, p. e85., https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/epidemiology-and-infection/article/communicable-disease-among-people-experiencing-homelessness-in-california/01D82460F7E8092791D0C5B1B94C8343