How housing and health are connected

Homelessness is a circumstance, not a character flaw. Rejecting stigma is the first step toward justice and compassion. Every person deserves respect, safety and opportunity regardless of their housing status. 

Individuals living without housing are often in survival mode, trying to meet basic needs that can turn into real life-or death outcomes. This includes securing food to eat, finding a safe place to sleep and trying to stay out of the elements. 

Health and Housing Backgrounder and Case Study, 2019

Hidden homelessness describes a situation where a person lacks a stable or secure place to live but they’re not necessarily sleeping on the streets or in shelters. Instead, they may be living in their car or couch surfing. Both situations are considered unstable accommodations.

This form of homelessness is often "hidden" because these people don't always access housing supports, making them statistically invisible and undercounted.

Not only do people experiencing homelessness and hidden homelessness often have poorer physical outcomes, such as higher rates of infection, but they also can have mental health challenges or outcomes that can all lead to premature death.

As resident Jill says in the BC Housing video: “I don’t know that I’d ever be able to be who I am, and who I want to be if I wouldn’t have had a place to live.”

Healthy housing contributes to a sense of safety, greater social well-being and improved quality of life.

Upstream factors that can influence someone’s housing circumstances include social, political, economic and environmental factors. These factors can affect everything downstream: from whether someone has a safe home, stable job or healthy food, to whether they can access care or avoid stressors that harm health. 

Introduction to upstream thinking 

By focusing on upstream factors, we can prevent harm and suffering and improve health and quality of life for everyone. These might include health public policies, housing policy and transportation.

People can become trapped in cycles of homelessness, facing barriers that ripple across health, employment and social support systems. 

These challenges do not affect everyone equally. Indigenous peoples, racialized communities, and other marginalized groups bear a disproportionate share of the burden. Homelessness isn’t a personal problem; it’s a systemic challenge demanding fair, lasting solutions.

In the Interior Region, Indigenous Peoples make up nearly one in 10 residents yet face housing insecurity at much higher rates. These inequities are rooted in colonialism — from intergenerational trauma and forced displacement to systemic discrimination that continues today.

Addressing Indigenous homelessness requires more than housing units; it means including Indigenous partners to support Indigenous rights, to lead Indigenous-specific discussions to present Indigenous-led solutions and ensure culturally safe practices.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action, the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act, and the In Plain Sight report all point toward this path. Culturally sensitive health, mental health, and addiction supports are key to understanding the traumas linked to addressing homelessness within First Nations, Mètis, and urban and away from home Indigenous Peoples living in the B.C. interior.

IH’s Health and Housing Program is working with First Nations, Métis communities, and Indigenous organizations to strengthen Indigenous voices in planning which includes: hospital discharge supports, creating Patient Navigator roles, and advancing Indigenous-led initiatives. These steps move us closer to housing solutions that restore dignity, improve health, and support reconciliation.

Ending Indigenous homelessness means facing hard truths. For Indigenous Peoples, homelessness is not just about a lack of housing—it is a legacy of the effects of institutionalized governance, forced displacement, and intergenerational trauma. Solutions must be holistic, rights-based, and led by Indigenous communities themselves, centering their voices, sovereignty, and healing.

The importance of proper housing is recognized and protected under the International Covenant of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966) and expressed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948). The right to adequate housing means the right to housing that is affordable, habitable, accessible and culturally adequate and in a location that allows for access to services, infrastructure, education and employment.

In 2019, the Federal Government recognized housing as a right when it released the National Housing Strategy, which declared housing "essential to the inherent dignity and well-being of the person."

Since then, major shifts have been creating momentum for more action from governing bodies regarding housing insecurities.

IH’s Health & Housing Program Plan aims to improve health-care access and services for individuals using shelters, experiencing housing insecurity or precarious housing, and those living outdoors.

The plan focuses on key determinants of health: influencing public policy with data, community and partner capacity building, reducing stigma, and enhancing health equity and access to care.

Through focussing on the key priorities, IH’s Health & Housing team expects to increase awareness of how housing affordability and health outcomes are interconnected.

Ensuring housing as a human right is more than a policy goal; it is a commitment to health, dignity and equity to build a future where everyone has a safe place to call home.

• Health & Housing Infographic _Page 1 (interiorhealth.ca)
• Substance Use & Addiction Services | Health & Wellness | IH (interiorhealth.ca)
• BC Housing video – My Place Supportive Housing in Vernon BC
• BC Housing Podcast
• Health & Housing background and case study
• Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC)
• Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA)
• In Plain Sight Report

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