Street Medicine and Street Outreach: Understanding Efforts in Supporting People Experiencing Homelessness through Collaboration

After decades of balkanization, there is a nascent trend toward collaborative approaches to unsheltered homelessness, specifically between street medicine and street outreach efforts. Drawing on participant observation and semi-structured interviews with two nonprofit organizations in a city in the Midwest, this project examines how collaboration between street medicine and street outreach operates on the ground. The study focuses on the extent to which existing partnerships are (un)successful in their approach and how the collaboration can support PEH’s health. Street medicine and street outreach may collaborate to alleviate the circumstances for PEH in the present and future – through medical care and housing assistance – and help reduce health inequities. I argue that the partnership is beneficial due to its ability to provide more services to PEH and the learning experience it offers. Despite these benefits, organizational and systemic factors that influence collaboration at the interpersonal level hinder the partnership. Challenges in the partnership can result in costly consequences, such as increased safety risks and damages to collaboration between organizations and rapport established with PEH.