Venice Family Clinic Distributes Vaccine Doses To Unhoused Locals

VENICE, CA — Venice Family Clinic has a doctor's office on wheels to support and provide health care for people in need. It's also administering COVID-19 vaccines for people experiencing homelessness and has given out 99 doses so far, mostly Moderna, according to the clinic.

The nonprofit community health center serves more than 27,000 patients in need and this spring launched a new component of its street medicine program, a mobile clinic van providing care to families and unhoused people or those at risk of losing their homes.

In the past, Venice Family Clinic's nine street medicine teams relied on backpacks filled with medical supplies and equipment to provide on-site care to people experiencing homelessness.

A generous donation from the Barry and Wendy Meyer Foundation changed that. And now the street medicine teams have a clinic on wheels that gives patients privacy and a medical office.

"With the mobile clinic van, we can bring our comprehensive model of care to more people in need at our partners’ shelters, transitional living programs and access centers," Coley M. King, DO, director of homeless services, said in a statement.

"We will be able to treat a wider range of medical needs immediately and in the field, saving some patients a visit at the Clinic, and they will have the safety and dignity of meeting with us privately," King said.

Venice Family Clinic has also expanded its services to families by partnering with local agencies that serve parents and their children who are unhoused or at risk of homelessness. The providers can offer more extensive on-site health care services, including drawing blood and obtaining other samples for tests. These providers can give vaccines, rapid HIV and Hepatitis C testing on-scene, as well as medically assisted drug and alcohol treatments.

The Barry and Wendy Meyer Foundation, which provided the funding for the mobile clinic van, has given generously to organizations helping families and children, and Barry Meyer and Wendy Smith Meyer, PhD, said the gift to Venice Family Clinic reflects the passion they have for families.

"We are concerned about the ongoing crisis of homelessness in our city, especially among families, and we want to help find new ways to tackle this complex and urgent challenge," said Dr. Smith Meyer, a member of the Venice Family Clinic Foundation Board of Trustees.

"This van is a shining example of how Venice Family Clinic pioneers innovations to help people in need—in this instance, helping to create a new way of delivering health care directly to people experiencing homelessness or at risk of homelessness," Smith Meyer said.

Venice Family Clinic was the first clinic in Los Angeles in 1985 to send health care providers into the community to provide street medicine to people experiencing homelessness, and its health care providers have trained many of the street medicine teams working in Los Angeles.

To learn more about the clinic, visit the website.

For more news and information about the vaccine rollout in California, visit Patch's information hub. Also, be sure to check out How To Get The Coronavirus Vaccine In California.

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