Margot Kushel MD

nytimes.comHow a Generation’s Struggle Led to a Record Surge in Homelessness

29 May 2025

📣Older adults are the fastest growing group of people experiencing homelessness. This @nytimes.com makes the crisis vivid. Proposed cuts & policy changes will make this problem so much worse. @ucsfbhhi.bsky.social Proud to have contributed 🧵 1/x www.nytimes.com/2025/05/27/u...

npr.orgHomelessness is more common than you think. : It's Been a MinuteWho counts as homeless in America?If you ask the Department of Housing and Urban Development, around 750,000 people are homeless in America. If you ask the Department of Education, that number shoots ...

16 July

I can talk about homelessness anywhere, anytime. But, I never thought I would get to talk about it on NPR inspired by a conversation from the RHRI. 🎧 great conversation with host Brittany Luse & Molly Richard PhD (& I still haven’t seen RHORI) @ucsfbhhi.bsky.social www.npr.org/2026/07/15/n...

2 Apr

It is possible to resolve encampments in a way that listens & responds to the needs & desires of people who live there. This is true for people who live in oversized vehicles. Read our interim report on a Berkeley City encampment resolution. 🧵⬇️⬇️⬇️

UCSF Benioff Homelessness & Housing Initiative@ucsfbhhi.bsky.social

🚨 New BHHI Report: Our interim evaluation of Berkeley’s Encampment Resolution and RV Buyback Program finds that pairing low-barrier non-congregate shelter with vehicle buyback brought most eligible residents indoors and helped close the encampment. 🧵 (1/5) Read: buff.ly/Fm4EHhH

journals.plos.orgLatino/a experiences of homelessness in California: Qualitative findings from the California Statewide Study of People Experiencing Homelessness (CASPEH)The number of Latino/a people experiencing homelessness in the United States is increasing due to increased housing costs, economic disruption from the COVID-19 pandemic, and increased homelessness am...

5 Mar

As anti-immigrant & anti-homeless oppression hit all time highs, it is important to reflect on the experiences of Latine ppl who experience homelessness. Proud of this piece in @plosone.org @ucsfbhhi.bsky.social #CAHomelessStudy journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...

Margot Kushel MD reposted

Brian Goldstone

@brian-goldstone.bsky.social

28 Dec 2025

A Hampton Inn in Asheville just canceled my family's reservation because our address (incorrectly) showed Asheville—and the hotel bars locals within 50 miles. When I asked why, they said, "because of our homeless population," adding that most hotels here have similar policies. This is outrageous.

jamanetwork.comPotential Changes in US Homelessness by Ending Federal Support for Housing First ProgramsThis decision analytical model estimates the change in the number of people experiencing homelessness in a year following termination of federal support for Housing First programs.

19 Dec 2025

What would be the real world impacts of the loss of federal funding for Housing First programs? We modeled it: an additional 44,590 ppl beyond anticipated growth due to economic factors. @jabarocas.bsky.social @kirkfetters.bsky.social @ucsfbhhi.bsky.social url: jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

18 Dec 2025

“There is no place for us” by @brian-goldstone.bsky.social IS one of the must reads of the year. @nytimes.com & President Obama and many others agree too! If you haven’t read it yet, please do!

Brian Goldstone@brian-goldstone.bsky.social

Truly, genuinely floored by this.

Margot Kushel MD reposted

homelessness.ucsf.eduWebinar: Understanding Health & Homelessness | Benioff Homelessness and Housing InitiativePeople experiencing homelessness in California face high rates of chronic illness and disability, and numerous barriers to care. These health challenges make it harder for people to obtain and retain ...

4 Dec 2025

Interested in the overlap between poor health & homelessness-- and how to improve health among people experiencing homelessness> Interested in how health &housing systems should collaborate to end homelessness? Join us today! Noon PT! @ucsfbhhi.bsky.social homelessness.ucsf.edu/calendar/web...

📢 New paper alert: We examined long-term housing results among a cohort of older homeless adults. Full article: Factors Associated With Exits From and Returns to Homelessness Among Older Homeless Adults: Results From the HOPE HOME Study www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... 1/5

tandfonline.comFactors Associated With Exits From and Returns to Homelessness Among Older Homeless Adults: Results From the HOPE HOME StudyHomelessness is dynamic; some individuals cycle between homelessness and housing. In a longitudinal study of 411 adults aged 50 and older who were homeless at study enrollment, we examined the prev...

☑️ The irony: Last week, the Trump administration announced their new policy to dismantle long-term housing supports---which will send many seniors, people with disabilities--back into the streets. 4/5

20 Nov 2025

The caveats: We recruited older adults who were homeless at any point in their journey, which biases toward those with long-term homelessness. (Had we found people right as they became homeless for the first time, perhaps housing outcomes would be better). @ucsfbhhi.bsky.social 5/fin

✅ The good news: 80% returned to housing (returning to housing with family or friends was the most common) ✅ The bad news: Half of them returned to homelessness! ✅ What kept people housed: HOUSING VOUCHERS 2/5

@helenrottier.bsky.social

20 Nov 2025

✅ The take-home: Homelessness is dynamic. People move in and out of housing. Housing Vouchers (for some, PSH, for others, simply a housing voucher) keep people housed. 3/5

Margot Kushel MD reposted

Helen Rottier

15 Nov 2025

I’m heartsick to hear that the incomparable Alice Wong has passed. Her loss will be felt keenly, by many, and for a long time. She is a force, a generous leader and storyteller, and an oracle for disabled futures. Much love to Alice and to all our crip kin and comrades. ❤️‍🩹

nytimes.comIn Utah, Trump’s Vision for Homelessness Begins to Take Shape

This @nytimes.com piece on the "Vision for Homelessness" in Utah should horrify all people. This NYTimes piece on the "Vision for Homelessness" in Utah should horrify all people. 1/x 🧵 www.nytimes.com/2025/10/29/u...

Don't let this cruel up is down administration trick you into thinking that internment camps are compassionate. Don't let them hijack your frustration into a total abdication of rights. Don't leave those with the least power in internment camps. 7/x

First, they came for....We all know how this ends. /fin

nytimes.comIn Utah, Trump’s Vision for Homelessness Begins to Take Shape

So why are they cutting the funding for treatment? The irony of cutting funds for housing---that is actually at the heart of homelessness and replacing it with a camp on the outskirts of town. Out of site, out of mind. There is NO way to end homelessness without housing. 5/x

Yes--we are all frustrated with people left to die on the streets. You know how to fix that? Provide people with the services they need to thrive in the housing they need to end their homelessness. 6/x

nytimes.comIn Utah, Trump’s Vision for Homelessness Begins to Take Shape

The conflation of homelessness with mental health & substance use problems is a ploy to exploit your frustration and fear. (And yes, there is an enormous overlap, but it is bidirectional). We do KNOW how to treat these disabilities. 3/x

The irony of cutting Medicaid--which pays for actual treatment that people need (mental health and substance use services) to drag people out of site, beyond the legal system, with no due process. What "treatment" will they get? YES--people need treatment. 4/x

nytimes.comIn Utah, Trump’s Vision for Homelessness Begins to Take Shape

Couched in the language of compassion, the proposal for relocating people who experience unsheltered homelessness is no different than internment camps of yesteryear. No civil liberties, no choice, no due process. Locked away in a place out of site. To what end? 2/x

11 Oct 2025

Community safety comes from ensuring that everyone has a safe and secure place to live. Community safety comes from ensuring that we have well-funded, high functioning schools. Community safety comes from ensuring everyone has access to the healthcare that they need.

Community safety comes from ensuring that everyone can pray to the whomever they want, whenever they want (or not)---and not fear being shot. Community safety comes from allowing everyone to live as their authentic self, loving who they want, how they want.

11 Oct 2025

Community safety comes from having a healthy democracy, held in check by a free press...

Community safety comes from ensuring that we prevent and control infectious disease. Community safety comes from ensuring that have agency over their reproductive choices. Community safety comes from ensuring that children can go to school without fearing being shot.

4 Oct 2025

Always good to spend time with @lisahalverstadt.bsky.social — one of the best journalists working on homelessness. #Politifest2025

26 Sept 2025

Thrilled to spend a few days in Ireland with @simoncommunity.bsky.social bringing the American perspective—homelessness is solvable. (Don’t fall into the mistakes of the US)!

Simon Communities of Ireland@simoncommunity.bsky.social

Today's first speaker @mkushel.bsky.social, University of California, discussed Ageing, Health, and Homelessness. Margot's message was clear, homelessness is solvable! Thank you to Margot for contributing your vast knowledge to our dicussion. #SimonWeek2025 #SimonCares

Margot Kushel MD reposted

In the last day, a Fox news reporter responded to his on air colleague advocating for mass internment of people experiencing homelessness by suggesting instead that someone (the government? Bystanders?) pursue lethal injection of them. (He is, as far as I can tell, still employed).

No one wants there to be homelessness. Least of all the people who experience it. No one wants people to struggle with the devastating health and social effects of addiction (which is different than just using drugs which many people do, of course). Least of all the people who are suffering from it.

Let’s fight for a society that actually values people and provides them with the safety and security they need. And let’s call out those who use dehumanizing rhetoric. Even those whose rhetoric and actions fall short of these truly horrific examples.

These were people weaponizing an important treatment to torture people they don’t like and view as disposable). We are in a truly terrible moment in our country in so many ways.

But pay attention. These comments and actions are the (perhaps logical?) result of the constant dehumanization of people who experience homelessness & people who use drugs by so many in our…mainstream culture and politics. Including those who otherwise might oppose what Fox News stands for.

And the SF Standard did some great reporting on the uptick of people giving Narcan (intentionally) to people who are homeless to cause incredible pain and get them to move. This should be, but has not yet been, considered and treated as assault.

(These were not people misunderstanding how to use this lifesaving medicine—which should only be used after making sure someone doesn’t respond to other stimuli and has very slowed or no breathing.

tandfonline.com“Everybody out there in the real world is one paycheck away from being homeless”: job loss and housing precarity among people experiencing homelessnessThe United States has fewer labor protections and wage guarantees than most wealthy industrialized nations; thus, workers can fall into economic hardship by the loss of employment, reduction in wor...

19 Aug 2025

📣Homelessness is caused by the disconnect btw housing costs & incomes. In addition to the ⬆️cost of housing-- the lack of labor protections in the US contribute to homelessness. Our new paper using #CAHomelessnessStudy examines this @ucsfbhhi.bsky.social www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

nytimes.comFor D.C.’s Homeless, Strained Lives Become More Unstable

18 Aug 2025

Human beings are not “blight.” And cutting resources while throwing away people’s worldly possessions does not solve homelessness. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/18/u...

15 Aug 2025

Veteran homelessness has ⬇️by > 1/2, because of Housing First and FUNDING. In @ucsfbhhi.bsky.social @hannahdeckermd.bsky.social study, Vets who gained housing were >2 as likely to catch up on colon and breast ca screening. Housing = Health www.annfammed.org/content/23/4... @annfammed.bsky.social

Margot Kushel MD reposted

Jesse Rabinowitz

@jesserbnwtz.bsky.social

8 Aug 2025

URGENT: DC to clear many homeless encampments tonight (Thur, Aug 7th). Please spread widely and share with media. My hunch is that this is @MayorBowser working with @realDonaldTrump , but I cannot confirm that yet.

Margot Kushel MD reposted

kqed.orgWorking Yet Homeless in America | KQEDWe talk to journalist Brian Goldstone and Dr. Margot Kushel, Director of the Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative, about the experience of having a job but not housing.

25 July 2025

Today’s EO on homelessness is shocking in its cruelty (even for this administration). Cutting funding for housing and health while criminalizing homelessness & mental health and substance use problems will lead to endless suffering and worsen homelessness.

Join us at 9am PT today!

Brian Goldstone@brian-goldstone.bsky.social

Bay Area friends: I’ll be joining KQED Forum live tomorrow (7/22) at 9am PST, along with @mkushel.bsky.social. The conversation will be hosted by @alexis-madrigal.bsky.social.

Margot Kushel MD reposted

Brian Goldstone

@brian-goldstone.bsky.social

22 July 2025

Bay Area friends: I’ll be joining KQED Forum live tomorrow (7/22) at 9am PST, along with @mkushel.bsky.social. The conversation will be hosted by @alexis-madrigal.bsky.social.