SF Gate, By Bay City New Service, August 29th
SAN FRANCISCO (BCN)
A new health clinic opened in the heart of San Francisco today offering one-stop services for homeless and low-income residents ranging from medical and dental care to help with jobs, housing and education.
The nonprofit Healthright 360 opened its new five-story, 50,000 square foot Integrated Care Center at the corner of Mission Street and South Van Ness Avenue today at an event attended by Mayor Ed Lee and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.
The new center offers primary medical care, dental care, a pharmacy, mental health and substance abuse treatment and access to job and housing counseling. The facility will even offer chiropractic medicine and acupuncture, Healthright officials said.
And while the center accepts Medi-Cal and Medicare, all of its services are available to anyone with or without insurance, regardless of ability to pay.
“Health care is a basic right, not a privilege,” Lee said. “The opening of this center will provide critical, coordinated service to our most vulnerable residents, offering them much-needed opportunities to lead lives that are healthy and supported.”
Healthright 360 CEO Vitka Eisen said she was particularly excited about the dental clinic, which would help residents who have been held back or shamed by bad teeth.
“We see it as an investment in individual and human dignity,” Eisen said. “As we say, it’s hard to get a job if you’ve got no grill.”
The center also houses a Five Keys Charter School facility that allows adults to complete their GED. Five Keys also operates a facility in the San Francisco jail and those who start their work there can complete it at the center or at other community sites.
The center was paid for in part with a $51 million New Markets Tax Credit and donor contributions.
Healthright 360 is a nonprofit that brings together many of San Francisco’s most prominent nonprofit healthcare and drug treatment providers, including the Haight Ashbury Free Clinic, Lyon-Martin Health Services and Walden House.
