Dr. Tod Mijanovich is part of two NIH funded grants (subawards from the NYU Grossman School of Medicine) investigating novel interventions to support people experiencing homelessness and substance abuse. Both projects are funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Crisis Response, Durable Lessons: 

A Mixed Methods Examination of a Large-Scale Hoteling Intervention for People Experiencing Homelessness During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The Crisis Response, Durable Lessons project uses community-partnered, mixed-methods research to analyze the health and substance use impacts of moving homeless individuals into hotel rooms—a large natural experiment prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The research aims to leverage these findings to inform future local and national policy and programmatic interventions addressing the critical, and rising, issues of homelessness and substance use. 

As a co-investigator, Dr. Tod Mijanovich oversees all the statistical analyses of Medicaid claims data on the project. 

Community-based evaluation...

of a novel, systemwide harm reduction strategic plan for people experiencing homelessness in New York City

Drug overdose (OD) is the leading cause of death among people experiencing homelessness (PEH). They face OD rates 30–40 times higher than the general population, yet tailored prevention strategies remain underdeveloped. This study will rigorously evaluate the implementation and impact of the New York City Department of Homeless Services' (DHS) Harm Reduction Strategic Plan (HRSP), the first large-scale, shelter-based intervention of its kind in the U.S. 

A multidisciplinary team, including co-investigator Dr. Tod Mijanovich, uses a mixed-methods approach, integrating epidemiological methods, data science, and qualitative research to estimate the HRSP's effect on client OD risk. The key goals of the project include using machine learning to identify which combinations of interventions are most effective and how impacts vary across different racial, ethnic, and sociodemographic subgroups. Ultimately, this research aims to provide actionable, evidence-based data to inform and improve local and national public health and policy interventions for this high-risk population.