What is the HOME study?

The HOME Study uses existing data to explore how homeless accommodation impacts on the health of people experiencing homelessness.

Better quality accommodation is likely to improve people’s health, but we have limited evidence to bring about change.

Health data is used to plan health services. However, as housing status is not routinely collected, this makes people experiencing homelessness “invisible”, so this data cannot currently be used to provide evidence of the impact of accommodation on health.

This project will link existing homeless accommodation and NHS health data to provide evidence for improvements in accommodation and health services.

Who is doing the research?

The study is being run by a group of organisations whose logos are shown in the image. This includes UKHSA, University College London, Homeless Link and Expert Focus.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) is the organisation who will be linking the data. UKHSA is a national Government agency responsible for protecting the health of the population. They prepare for, prevent and respond to health threats, save lives and protect livelihoods. It does so through research, data collection, and providing advice to local health teams to deal with any outbreaks or health incidents.

Your information that is used through this project will not be shared with any other government department or agency.

We are also working with academic partners on the wider project including University of Salford, Bradford Institute for Health Research, London School of Economics and Kings College London.

HOME logos Dec 2025

How will your data be used?

  • If you have been in contact with any homelessness services your personal information (name, date of birth) may be used to undertake this linkage. As soon as UKHSA has linked the data, anything that identifies you will be destroyed so that no person can be identified. Only at that point will this anonymised housing and health data (such as hospital admissions) be analysed.
  • The use of your data in this way is legally covered by a Confidentiality Advisory Group (CAG) approval in accordance with section 251 of the NHS Act 2006.
  • Your data will not be used for anything other than this research and only a small group of researchers from UKHSA and Homeless Link will be able to see the data. You can view UKHSA's privacy notice to read more about how they use and handle data.
  • There are strong measures in place to make sure your data is kept safely and held securely.
  • Even though your data will be safe we understand that some people will not want their data to be used in this research. If you do not want us to use your data, you can choose to opt out.

More about your data

This short video series explains more about how this study will use your data.

Video 1: project overview, data use and opt-out options

Video 2: the data used by the study

Video 3: protecting people's data and identity

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The HOME study

Do you have questions about this research?

Please contact our research team.