On the plus side, the Urban Institute researchers found that health-related services accounted for 20 percent of all services for the homeless in 1996. That s a big change from earlier years in the crisis, when well-meaning providers offered little more than cots and warm meals. That improvement is due in large part to HRSA s Health Care for the Homeless program, the only HRSA program that specifically targets services to people who are homeless. This is a valuable program. Every effort is made to deliver those services where the homeless congregate in shelters, on the street, at soup kitchens, at community-based health centers, in mobile vans.
Grantees arrange health care and other services at regular locations on a regular schedule.
That way the homeless clients know where to go and when to go for the care they need. Records of each service encounter are kept, of course, for reporting purposes and to enhance the continuity of clients care with other service providers. Because providers of all types of services to people who are homeless have learned through the years that special approaches are required to serve this special population. Well, you have to take it to them. That s why we put such an emphasis on community outreach in the Health Care for the Homeless program.