Developing a system response to health and homelessness: The important role of health leaders

This article examines the role of health leaders in the early stages of a community response to address health and homelessness in London, Ontario. Specifically, we explore how leaders from large healthcare-providing organizations have influenced the dynamics of the entire community response.

We argue that the high level of engagement from health leaders has been a key ingredient in the early successes of the new approach in London, in part because it validated the reframing of homelessness as a healthcare issue—importantly, changing perceptions about who shares the responsibility to address it.