News

Californians Without Shelter continue to be Served by California Street Medicine Collaborative Thanks to Over $130,000 Grant from Health Net

Date: 10/31/23

California is home to the largest number of people experiencing unsheltered homelessness in the United States. Street medicine practice has grown rapidly in the state with existing street medicine programs expanding their scope of practice and reach, and many new programs starting. Health Net has been taking major steps to provide care for California’s unhoused population.

Our latest initiative included a $136,000 grant for the CA Street Medicine Collaborative (the Collaborative). The initiative was formed in September of 2022 by The Keck School of Medicine of USC Street Medicine. The Collaborative is free to join and aims to connect health plans to local street medicine providers.

Over the past eight months, the Collaborative has grown rapidly and is seen as the

state-wide body representing street medicine. To date, they have over 80 organizational members across California and hold monthly meetings to convene member programs to learn from each other. The grant from Health Net will be critical in helping sustain and expand the work of the Collaborative.

Other recent Health Net partnerships include:

1. A partnership with L.A. Care Health Plan and Los Angeles County to invest $114 million over multiple years to address the homelessness crisis throughout the county.
2. More than $46 million in grants awarded across 26 California counties to support the state’s unhoused Medi-Cal members through housing and other supportive services.
3. A $1.5 million grant awarded to Keck School of Medicine of USC's Street Medicine program to enable street medicine workforces across the state to better serve people who are unsheltered.
4. Offering housing transition navigation services, housing deposits and housing tenancy and sustaining services as a key partner in the state’s implementation of its California Advancing and Innovating Medi-Cal (CalAIM) initiative and Community Supports.

Health Net is committed to improving the health of the communities we serve. We will continue to partner with organizations at the state, county and local level to transform our communities, one person at a time.