1. characteristics of homeless people that increase risk of illness, and poor health care and social service utilization;
2. links between families in who have been homeless and the foster care system;
3. the needs of children who are homeless or at-risk for homelessness; and
4. service delivery systems and service utilization.

Our studies have demonstrated that homelessness and foster care are intertwined since many homeless adults have histories of childhood foster care, and that many children who are currently in foster care were removed from biological homeless mothers. Homeless mothers, many of whom have suffered long histories of childhood and adulthood trauma, are unstably housed for long periods of time.

Evidence suggests that case management services are a promising service addition to engage hard-to-reach clients and reduce poor pediatric service utilization. Current work is focusing on identifying characteristics in homeless mothers and their children that either increase or decrease risk of trauma, and identifying services to shorten family instability.