The proposed study, entitled """"""""Housing Status/Stability and HIV Risk among Drug Users,"""""""" will use qualitative methods to study the links between housing policies, drug users' access to housing, variations in housing status and housing options of drug users, and HIV risk. The study has the following aims: 1. To identify and examine housing policies that impact upon active drug users' access to housing; 2. To explore the relation between the housing status/stability and HIV risk of drug users; 3. To explore personal factors related to homelessness and housing stability among active drug users over time; 4. To explore the impact of housing policies on the context of HIV risk at the neighborhood-level, such as housing availability for drug users in relation to neighborhood development, risks (drug use/sales) and resources; 5. To develop a survey instrument based on findings from the qualitative data, which provides quantitative measures of structural and personal factors that affect drug users' access to housing, variations in drug users living situations and levels of stability. In the first phase of the study, we will conduct ethnographic mapping of the city of Hartford to assess available low-income and subsidized housing in relation to areas of neighborhood development, high drug use/sales, social and housing services and other neighborhood characteristics that affect drug users' housing options and HIV risk. We will also conduct 35 key informant interviews with landlords and service providers to explore barriers and facilitators that drug users' face in accessing housing. In the second phase, we will conduct longitudinal in-depth interviews with 65 drug users at three points ill time (intake, 3 month and 6 month) to explore retrospectively and prospectively the personal factors related to their housing status and housing stability over time, the relation between housing policy and drug users' housing stability, and the relation between housing status/stability and H1V risk. Qualitative data will be analyzed to understand the relationship between policy, neighborhood characteristics and personal factors that affect drug users' housing status and stability, and the relationship between housing status and stability and HIV risk. In the third phase, we will develop a survey instrument based on findings from the qualitative data, which provides quantitative measures of factors in the research model. This survey will then be available for testing and use in a larger research project studying the structural and personal factors that affect drug users' access to housing, and the effects of drug users' housing status and stability on HIV risk.
| Dickson-Gomez, Julia B; Cromley, Ellen; Convey, Mark et al. (2009) How much choice is there in housing choice vouchers? Neighborhood risk and free market rental housing accessibility for active drug users in Hartford, Connecticut. Subst Abuse Treat Prev Policy 4:5 |
| Dickson-Gomez, Julia; Hilario, Helena; Convey, Mark et al. (2009) The relationship between housing status and HIV risk among active drug users: a qualitative analysis. Subst Use Misuse 44:139-62 |
