Farzaneh Vakili
Farzaneh Vakili is a PhD candidate in Biomedical Sciences in the Département de Médicine Familiale et Médecine d’Urgence at the Université de Montréal. She studies under the supervision of Dr. Sarah Larney and Dr. Julie Bruneau at the Centre de Recherche du Centre Hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal (CrCHUM). Farzaneh has a MSc in Midwifery from Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. She has seven years of research experience, including four years working on health among women living with HIV/AIDS. Farzaneh's current research aims to investigate the associations between gender, unstable housing, and hepatitis C in people who inject drugs through an epidemiological and biostatistical approach.
Session
Background:
Housing instability contributes to harm among people who inject drugs (PWID). Housing affordability has declined in Montreal, Canada since 2020; As a marginalized population with high rates of precarious housing, PWID may be particularly affected.
Objective:
To describe changes in the prevalence and spatial distribution of unstable housing among PWID in the context of reduced housing affordability.
Methods:
We analyzed data from the HEPCO longitudinal cohort of PWID in Montreal across three time frames: 2011-2014, 2015-2019, and 2020-2024. Participants were at least 18 years old, having injected drugs during the past six months. Housing was categorized as stable, precariously housed, or unsheltered based on the definition of the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness. Postal codes of primary residence (where the participant slept most frequently) over the past month were geocoded.
Results:
Among 1,607 PWID (2011-2014: 552, 2015-2019: 547, and 2020-2024: 508), the proportion unsheltered increased to 41.3% in 2020-2024, vs. 26.1% in 2015-2019 and 27.4% 2011-2015. In 2020-2024, 15.2% of PWID were precariously housed vs. 22.5% in 2015-2019 and 18.9% in 2011-2015. Unsheltered PWID were mostly centralized in the central downtown area, but precariously housed participants were more dispersed in their locations.
Implications:
In the context of declining housing affordability, more PWID are reporting being unsheltered. Further work is needed to examine transitions from precarious housing to being unsheltered and the role of services supporting people in precarious housing to prevent such transitions. These services need to be dispersed in their locations considering the spatial distribution of precariously housed PWID.