The association between the drug users’ housing status and their drug use, health, well-being and motivation to change

There is a high prevalence of drug use among homeless individuals, which is associated with a broad range of negative outcomes. Existing studies on drug use and homelessness do not provide a comprehensive understanding of factors that may be relevant to drug users. Importantly, none of these studies investigate the needs and problems of drug users who may be at risk of homelessness or in unstable housing conditions. In order to address the gap in literature, the current research utilised a cross-sectional research design, utilising structured interviews and questionnaires to compare illicit drug users who were stably housed, unstably housed or homeless. Studies 1 and 2 compared drug use behaviour, quality of life and health in 109 drug users and Study 3 compared motivation to change and self-efficacy in 91 drug users. The findings revealed that homeless drug users reported higher levels of drug dependency, greater frequency and amount of drug use, lower quality of life, and worse physical and psychological health as compared to stably housed counterparts. Additionally, homeless drug users despite recognising their drug problems, experienced greater uncertainty and doubted their ability to change the problem behaviour. The overall results indicated that unstably housed drug users were mostly similar to stably housed drug users on drug use behaviour and motivation to change, except for psychological health, where they were similar to homeless drug users on severity of depression, anxiety and stress. Understanding these differences can assist in identifying some of the specific challenges faced by drug users in variable housing conditions. The findings of the research underscore the need for targeted motivational and psychological interventions that take into account the heterogeneity of drug users living in variable housing circumstances.