Healthy hostels, healthy lifestyles for hostel residents

Housing LIN Report - A guide to improve the health and well-being of homeless and vulnerable people. This guide describes the health problems faced by homeless people and how to improve their health, especially people living in hostels. Details are provided of services in England that have made progress in improving the health of homeless people with whom they are in contact, through partnership working.

It is written for health, housing and social care commissioners and for providers of services (including day centres) for people who are homeless or living in a hostel. It was jointly commissioned by the Department of Health and the Housing Learning & Improvement Network at the Care Services Improvement Partnership and sets out to answer these questions:

• How can we encourage healthy lifestyles amongst people living in hostels homeless single people and couples without children?
• What are the barriers and drivers to developing healthy lifestyles for this group?
• What examples already exist of holistic packages of activities and approaches within hostels and day centres?
• What further information is available to support service development?