What began as one-van operation with a small staff has grown into an expansion healthcare program with 11 community health centers and 465 employees serving the District’s homeless and low-income residents.
The vision of Unity Health Care Inc. is to “increase access to quality, culturally competent and compassionate health care for all,” according to a statement from its chief executive officer, Vincent A. Keane.
Once a service exclusively for the homeless, Unity’s programs now include all residents of the District who are underinsured or underserved. According to Unity’s figures, nearly 56,000 people – working poor, uninsured, immigrants, and formerly incarcerated – benefited from its services in 2002.
Unity began in 1985 as Health Care for the Homeless Project, which started operations working completely out of a mobile unit called the Health Care to the Homeless Van. The van served as a health unit on wheels delivering medical services at parks, streets corners, and various areas in the District where the homeless congregated.
In the mid 1990s, the organization acquired its current location, the Upper Cardozo Health Center on 14th Street NW, and then greatly expanded when the federal government designated it as a grantee for its Community Health Care Program. In 1998 Unity acquired its name, and in 2001 it joined the D.C. HealthCare Alliance, a collaboration of local health and human services providers that work with the District’s underserved residents.
Unity still operates the original mobile unit that started it all. The van still makes its nightly service stops, Monday through Thursday at designated parks and street locations, and daytime stops on Fridays.
When the medical van goes on its routes, it is staffed with a driver, a physician or a physician’s assistant, and social worker/ outreach worker to provide the clients comprehensive care. The physician examines homeless patients and refers them when treatment exceeds what can be done on the van. The social worker also does assessment of patients and can refer them to temporary shelters or, if necessary, mental health facilities.
By providing continuous medical services at the same locations over the years, the mobile staff has created an environment of stability. This is important for individuals who are “disconnected from society,” according to Jose Aponte, Unity’ chief operating officer. Aponte said that in order for homeless patients to develop “confidence in our medical services, there must be consistency” of service.
For this reason, the physicians that staff the van and the healthcare centers are not volunteers, but permanent paid employees. Volunteers, however, do serve in Unity’s mission.
Each year the number of homeless that receives services has increased, Aponte said, and no longer can one organization address all of the issues surrounding homelessness. He said that collaboration
is necessary “to make effective use of resources” between providers that serve the homeless. For example the 10 shelters that house Unity medical clinics are not owned or operated by Unity, but simply provide space for Unity to offer its medical services to the homeless.
Unity Health Care Inc. is the largest nonprofit health and social services organization in Washington Its network includes 11 community health centers – six of which were brought under Unity’s management with the closing of D.C. General, three specialized health centers, including one at a high school location, and 12 sites serving homeless people. And newest addition is a mobile unit, the Project Orion Van, which is an outreach van for individuals in Wards 7 and 8 who abuse drugs. The unit was funded through a grant from the District.
