Migration, Housing Insecurity, and HIV among Sexual Minority Men in the U.S.

Susan Cassels, University Of California, Santa Barbara

The proportion of individuals who self-identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender in the U.S. has increased significantly over the past ten years, and is now at 7.2%. Sexual and gender minority (SGM) individuals encounter substantial health disparities, but foundational research on queer demography, especially in regards to migration and geo-social determinants of health has been limited. We focus on housing insecurity, as housing insecurity is predictive of poor self-rated health among SGM, the severity and consequences of housing insecurity on poor health varies by space and place, and sexual minority populations experience housing insecurity at rates higher than heterosexual populations. Using data from multiple years of the American Men’s Internet Survey (n = 40, 893), we assess whether HIV and migration status predict housing insecurity among sexual minority men (SMM), and whether the relationships varies across space in U.S. Housing insecurity was high among SMM – over 8% of the AMIS sample reported unstable housing – and this rate varied by state. Migrant men were less likely to experience housing insecurity, but this relationship was explained by education differences. HIV status, on the other hand, was strongly associated with higher rates of housing insecurity and varied over space.

Keywords: Health and Morbidity, Inequality, Disadvantage and Discrimination, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Internal Migration and Urbanization

See extended abstract.