Volume 33, May 2015, Pages 125–131
The Cedar Project: Residential transience and HIV vulnerability among young Aboriginal people who use drugs
Abstract
Aboriginal
homelessness is considered to be a result of historic dispossession of
traditional territories and forced displacement from community
structures. Using data collected from 2005–2010 from the Cedar Project, a
cohort of young Aboriginal people who use drugs in two Canadian cities,
we examined how residential transience shapes HIV vulnerability. At
baseline, 48 of 260 participants (18.5%) reported sleeping in six or
more places (‘highly transient’) in the past six months. Generalized
linear mixed models identified associations between high transience and
sex and drug related HIV vulnerabilities. Transience was independently
associated with sex work (AOR:3.52, 95%CI:2.06, 6.05); sexual assault
(AOR:2.48, 95%CI:1.26, 4.86); injection drug use (AOR:4.54, 95%CI:2.71,
7.61); daily cocaine injection (AOR:2.16, 95%CI:1.26, 3.72); and public
injection (AOR:2.87, 95%CI:1.65, 5.00). After stratification, transience
and sexual vulnerability remained significantly associated among women
but not men. Ensuring that young Aboriginal people have access to safe
spaces to live, work, and inject must include policies addressing
residential transience as well as the absence of a roof and walls.
Keywords
- Aboriginal peoples;
- HIV risk;
- Housing stability;
- Drug use;
- Residential transience
- Corresponding author. Tel.:
+1 604 806 8779; fax: +1 604 806 9044.
- 1
- Elders Violet Bozoki (Lheidli T׳enneh) and Earl Henderson (Cree, Metis), Prince George Native Friendship Centre, Carrier Sekani Family Services, Positive Living North, Red Road Aboriginal HIV/AIDS Network, Central Interior Native Health, Vancouver Native Health Society, Canadian Aboriginal AIDS Network, All Nations Hope, Splatsin Secwepemc Nation, Neskonlith Indian Band, and Adams Lake Indian Band.
Copyright © 2015 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
