One of Canada’s largest hospital networks is launching a radical experiment in housing the homeless.
What happened: Dunn House, a housing complex run by University Health Network (UHN), had its grand opening in Toronto yesterday. It will house 51 homeless people who UHN has flagged as frequent emergency room visitors.
- The idea is Dunn House will reduce hospital stress by keeping its tenants out of the ER and improve their long-term health via housing and social services.
Big picture: As homelessness surges across the country, so does its impact on healthcare. In 2022-23, the average homeless patient spent 15.4 days in the hospital and cost $16,800 to treat, compared with housed patients who spent an average of eight days costing $7,800.
- For UHN, just 100 homeless patients accounted for 3% of all ER trips last year. One patient’s 249 visits and nine days of hospitalization cost the hospital about $120,000.
Why it matters: Academic researchers will be on-site to evaluate the program’s impact on resident health and the hospital’s finances. If it proves to be successful, it could act as a blueprint for other hospital networks contending with overtaxed ERs.
Zoom out: UHN claims this is a first-of-its-kind trial in Canada, but similar programs exist elsewhere. In Chicago, the University of Illinois Hospital has run a housing program since 2015. In 2021, it found that in-patient care utilization dropped 52% among participants.—QH