Since the inception of the
city’s Project Homeless Connect (PHC), SFCCC’s Street Outreach Services (SOS)
mobile medical van that provides urgent and preventive medical care for the
homeless and its VET SOS program that provides medical care for companion
animals of the homeless have been collaborating partners. SOS and VET SOS
attend the monthly Project Homeless day long events and provide health
information, referrals and veterinary services. This year the November PHC event
is targeting services to veterans and in December the event will target
families and children.
PHC began in October 2004,
under the direction of Mayor Gavin Newsom, with fewer than 300 volunteers
surveying the homeless in downtown San
Francisco. Since its inception, 31,911 clients have
accessed services through PHC, and were assisted by 20,644 volunteers. San
Francisco’s PHC is a proven and effective best practices national model that
has been duplicated in similar programs in more than 221 cities across the
country.