Benjamin Henwood, PhD, LCSW is an Associate Professor and the Director of the Center for Homelessness, Housing and Health Equity Research at the University of Southern California Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work. Dr. Henwood is an expert in health and housing services research whose work connects clinical interventions with social policy. Specifically, Dr. Henwood’s research was among the first to investigate how permanent supportive housing can serve as a health home for homeless individuals with complex health and social needs. His work in supportive housing spans the lifespan with projects focused both on transition age youth and older adults, the former supported by the National Institute of Mental Health and the latter supported by the National Institute on Aging. He is a co-author of Housing First: Ending Homelessness, Transforming Systems, and Changing Lives published by Oxford University Press, and his proposal to end homelessness has been adopted by the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare as a grand challenge to orient the profession. Dr. Henwood has served as the methodological lead for the Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count since 2017, which is the largest unsheltered count in the United States. As a steering committee member of THRIVe, Dr. Henwood advises on social determinants of health and service implementation that impacts community integration among Veterans who have experienced homelessness.
