Last year, over 44 million Americans lacked access to health care, leaving those without homes particularly vulnerable. The National Council continues to advocate a universal health care system to ensure equal access to care, both for those with and without homes. The organization has assumed a leadership role in a nationwide campaign for universal health care in the year 2000. Involve your clients in U2K advocacy through the People Like Me campaign. Attend all three universal health care Policy Symposium workshops.
Homelessness is fundamentally a problem of poverty and a lack of affordable housing.
As the gap widens between housing costs and incomes, millions of Americans lose their homes and face life on the streets or in emergency shelters. At the same time, the availability of housing affordable for those with very low incomes has declined in virtually every community. And yet, evidence from HCH projects demonstrates that housing is health care . Once housed, formerly homeless clients recover more quickly from acute illness and are better able to manage the treatment of chronic conditions. Help foster renewed federal and local commitment to restore public housing preferences for homeless people and to increase the production and availability of affordable housing.