Housing, HIV and Health
Over the past three years a partnership was developed between community-based AIDS service organizations (ASOs) and researchers from York and McMaster Universities to study the housing needs of people living with HIV/AIDS (PHAs) as they relate to health and well-being.
This partnership first convened at the Ontario AIDS Network annual retreat for Executive Directors in 2002, when a provincial sub-committee was formed to look at the issues facing PHAs directly related to housing. All geographic regions in Ontario were represented in the partnership and participants included both housing and non-housing providers:
AIDS Thunder Bay; AIDS Niagara; Bruce House (Ottawa); Fife House (Toronto); Ontario AIDS Network; Ontario Aboriginal HIV/AIDS Strategy; Community-Linked Evaluation AIDS Resource (CLEAR), McMaster University; School of Social Work, York University; and the Ontario HIV Treatment Network (OHTN).
The partnership identified that housing may be the greatest unmet need among PHAs and that specific housing supports to ensure safety, health and dignity, varied among PHAs. It was also recognized that there was an overall lack of research in the area, particularly in Canada; and this lack of information was seen as a barrier to the adequate understanding of the current situation in Ontario and ability to plan for the future.
Since 2002, the partnership has met regularly to develop a community-based research strategy and to discuss opportunities for networking, information sharing, education and coalition building with local and provincial-level housing organizations. In addition, the Ontario AIDS Bureau’s
Proposed Strategy to Address HIV/AIDS in Ontario to 2008 has identified housing as a priority issue for PHAs and reports that increasing numbers of PHA clients are presenting to community-based organizations issues related to their housing.
Most recently, collaborative efforts of the partnership have resulted in the successful funding of a three year province wide community-based research (CBR) initiative, with the aim to examine housing and health in the context of HIV; and to assess the current and projected housing needs of PHAs in Ontario. This CBR initiative is being funded by Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), Ontario HIV Treatment Network (OHTN), Wellesley Central Health Corporation, the AIDS Bureau and the Ontario AIDS Network (OAN).