University of California, Los Angeles Health receives $25.3 million

The UCLA Health Homeless Healthcare Collaborative, a team of doctors, nurses and social workers who provide free mobile medical and behavioral care to unhoused people in Los Angeles, has received a $25.3 million, two-year grant from the state.


The funds from the California Department of Health Care Services will cover new equipment and staff, including community health workers who will assess patients’ needs, identify barriers to care and expand access to a variety of services in collaboration with other caregivers, social service agencies, health plans and the state.


The grant will also be used for new records management and communication systems that will allow UCLA Health and other street medicine teams to coordinate care for people experiencing homelessness, providing greater continuity of treatment.


The collaborative, made possible by philanthropic support, launched in early 2022 with two specially equipped mobile health vans traveling to encampments, shelters and other locations to provide free preventive, primary and urgent medical care, medical screenings and referrals to social services. Last year, the vans recorded 6,000 encounters with unhoused patients and provided medications more than 1,500 times.