Homeless and at-risk veterans in central Florida will soon have easier access to medical care through a new program that brings a clinic to them.
The Department of Veterans Affairs announced last week that it will deploy mobile medical units to 25 cities across the country in the next six months to provide services to unhoused veterans and others who face difficulties getting to a VA medical center or clinic.
The first, a Ford F-550 unit, arrived in Orlando, Florida, last week, while the second, a Sprinter unit, will go to Oklahoma City on Sept. 1. Los Angeles, the city with the largest population of unhoused veterans in the U.S. -- an estimated 1,500 -- is expected to get the third unit.
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The remaining mobile units will roll to their destinations through February 2024, according to the VA.
The clinics are designed to move to different locations to provide medical care and services to unhoused and at-risk veterans, including primary care, women's health, mental health, laboratory tests and audiology.
More than 33,000 veterans are homeless in the U.S., and thousands more are at risk for losing their homes or being on the streets as the result of financial difficulties or unstable living conditions, such as residing temporarily with friends or family.
The mobile medical units, provided as part of the department's Homeless Patient Aligned Care Teams program, help ease the challenges these veterans face when needing health care.
"Veterans experiencing homelessness face a variety of barriers to accessing health care, including a lack of transportation," VA Secretary Denis McDonough said in a statement released Thursday. "With these new mobile medical units, homeless and at-risk veterans don't have to visit VA hospitals -- we come right to them."
According to results of the 2022 "Point-In-Time," or PIT, count, roughly 33,136 of the nation's estimated 582,000 homeless persons are veterans. The estimate is based on a count conducted by volunteers on a single day in January and is not considered a full accounting of the nation's homeless, given that it does not include those living in hotels or temporarily staying in someone else's house. However, the count is considered the primary source of nationwide data on homelessness.
The VA has made abolishing homelessness among veterans a priority. In 2022, it housed 40,401 veterans, exceeding a goal it set for the year by more than 2,000 veterans.
The department also helped keep 17,700 veterans in their homes last year and prevented 191,700 veteran families from losing their homes as the result of financial difficulties.
According to the Homeless Services Network of Central Florida, homelessness among veterans in the counties surrounding Orlando increased by 27% during the 2023 PIT count to 189 individuals.
The new mobile medical van will help these former service members and soon others in 18 states.
-- Patricia Kime can be reached at Patricia.Kime@Military.com.
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