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. 2025 May-Jun;19(3):15579883251343966.
doi: 10.1177/15579883251343966. Epub 2025 Jun 23.

Violent Firearm Injury and Homelessness: Examining the Experiences of Black Men Participating in Hospital-Based Violence Intervention Programs

William Wical  1 , Lea Marineau  2 , Nazsa Baker  3 , Bethany Strong  4 , Nakita Lovelady  5 , Joseph B Richardson Jr  6
Affiliations

Violent Firearm Injury and Homelessness: Examining the Experiences of Black Men Participating in Hospital-Based Violence Intervention Programs

William Wical et al. Am J Mens Health. 2025 May-Jun.

Abstract

Both experiencing homelessness and having survived a violent firearm injury are well-known risk factors for being a victim of violence. Despite there being significant racial disparities in these factors, there is no qualitative research examining the experiences of Black men who survive a gunshot wound and were homeless after their injury. Drawing on over a year of ethnographic research at the two busiest hospital-based violence intervention programs in the state of Maryland, this research centers the experiences of violently injured homeless Black men to understand how to best support their health, healing, and social goals. Emergent themes from the research included the significant need for housing after injury, challenges with healing while homeless, and difficult experiences with housing institutions. The findings suggest that additional supportive care services for Black men who survive gunshot wounds are needed to increase access to safe and stable housing.

Keywords: access to care; gun violence; homeless; qualitative research; social determinants of health.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Conflicting InterestsThe author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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