DC CFAR Social and Behavioral Sciences Director, Kim Blankenship, PhD, has recently been awarded an R01 from the National Institutes of Health entitled, "Social Determinants of HIV: The Intersecting Impacts of Mass Incarceration, Housing Stability, and Subsidized Housing Policies".
This project will analyze three key, interrelated social determinants of HIV/AIDS and STIs - mass incarceration, housing stability, and subsidized housing policies - and the mechanisms through which they intersect to shape HIV-related sexual risk behaviors and race disparities in these behaviors. The researchers will code housing policies across the US and analyze how variations in their degree of restrictiveness are associated with rates of HIV/AIDS/STIs, and race disparities in these rates. Additionally, using a case study in New Haven, CT, they will gather longitudinal survey and qualitative data to understand from the perspective of vulnerable populations how mass incarceration, housing stability, and experiences with subsidized housing policies intersect to impact HIV/AIDS/STI related sexual risks, and examine from the perspective of stakeholders (e.g. policymakers, program implementers, landlords, criminal justice personnel, and housing and legal service providers) how subsidized housing policies are interpreted and implemented locally and why they are interpreted and implemented in this way.
Click here to read the full abstract.