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The purpose of this paper is to report the findings of a scoping review on the health challenges of families experiencing homelessness. There is a bi-directional relationship between health and homelessness in that poor health can increase the risk of housing loss, and experiencing homelessness is bad for one’s health. The experience of homelessness differs between populations and this review focuses on families as one of the fastest growing segments of the homeless population. While research has been integrated on the causes of homelessness for families, this same integration has not been conducted looking at health challenges of families experiencing homelessness.

A scoping review methodology is utilized in the paper. As the goal of this work is to ultimately develop interventions for a Canadian context, primacy is given to Canadian sources, but other relevant literature is also included.

A clear distinction is seen in the literature between health challenges of children of homeless families and health challenges of parents. These themes are explored separately, and preliminary recommendations are made for potential points of intervention as personal, program and policy levels.

This review of current evidence is an important first step in building a foundation for interventions to improve health outcomes for those experiencing housing loss.

People experiencing homelessness are uniquely vulnerable to the impacts of a pandemic, such as COVID-19. Therefore, governments across Canada have been implementing a patchwork of responses to address the needs of those who are homeless at this time. The purpose of this study is to both compile and assess the varying responses by exploring the breadth of actions presented in print and social media.

Rapid review methodology is a means of compiling a breadth of information to compare and contrast policy implementations. Herein, the authors provide a comprehensive rapid review of responses to homelessness considered through a health equity lens.

Based on policy implementations to date, the authors offer eight recommendations of potentially promising practices among these responses. Situated within a capabilities approach, the authors call upon governments to provide a full breadth of responses to ensure that both health and housing are better protected and obtained during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This paper presents the first comprehensive review of local government responses to homelessness in the context of COVID-19.