Need for a tool to assess the health and care needs of persons experiencing homelessness in the United States

Introduction: The health needs of persons experiencing homelessness (PEH) are complex and challenging to address. We currently lack a comprehensive understanding of the health of PEH across the United States given that this information is not routinely collected, in part due to lack of an objective measure. We combined robust community advisory board member input and findings from an extensive literature review to identify existing assessment tools, definitions of health and care needs, and items that assess health and care needs among PEH. Current assessment tools focus on prioritizing PEH for housing and shelter, support clinical planning, measure health vulnerability, or are topically relevant, but not designed for use with PEH. Moreover, available tools have undergone minimal psychometric testing with PEH. To overcome this gap, we propose the development of a reliable and validated tool that measures the health and care needs of PEH. Having a standardized tool will enable the comparison of needs data among PEH across studies, as well as over time. Thorough measurement of the health and care needs of PEH will allow for the evaluation of interventions that aim to improve health outcomes and reduce health disparities in this population.