Street Health Teams

Bringing field-based street medicine services to unsheltered people living in homeless encampments, vehicles, and RVs.

Street Health Teams

Program Information

Street Health (also known as street medicine) is critical to responding to the homeless crisis in our community. Outreach “brings the front door” of health care to unsheltered residents.

Alameda County Health Care for the Homeless supports 14 Street Health teams that conduct regularly outreach to people who are unhoused in Alameda County. Each team generally includes a part-time medical provider, and a full-time nurse, social worker/case manager, and community health worker. Services are scheduled and consistent, with the goal of building the trust that can allow individuals to consider coming inside for services.

Street Health Teams and Geographic Areas Covered:

Health Care for the Homeless and our partners provide street medicine services throughout Alameda County:

Bay Area Community Health

  • Zone 1: East County: Tri-Vally cities and unincorporated
  • Zone 2: South County: Fremont and Newark

Tiburcio Vasquez Health Center

  • Zone 3: Hayward, Union City, and parts of unincorporated County
  • Zone 4: Unincorporated county/parts of Hayward
  • Zone 5: Alameda and San Leandro

Roots Community Health

  • Zone 6: Deep East Oakland – 82nd Ave to San Leandro border
  • Zone 7: East Oakland 880 Corridor, and from Seminary Ave to 81st Ave

Health Care for the Homeless – County Team

  • Zone 8: Oakland – Eastlake to Seminary Ave.

LifeLong Medical Care

  • Zone 9: Downtown Oakland
  • Zone 10: West Oakland
  • Zone 11: North Oakland
  • Zone 12: Emeryville and West Oakland
  • Zone 13: Downtown and South Berkeley,  and part of North Oakland
  • Zone 14: North and West Berkeley, and Albany

Each Street Health team provides the following services:

  • Diagnosis and treatment of conditions commonly associated with experiencing homelessness, e.g., respiratory infections, heat and cold related illness, wound care, skin and foot problems, nutritional deficiencies.
  • Chronic disease care, e.g., cardiovascular disease, diabetes, asthma
  • Point-of-Care Testing (POCT) for infectious disease (e.g., HIV, Hepatitis C, syphilis).
  • Lab draws/testing for HIV, Hepatitis C, diabetes, etc.
  • Vaccinations (e.g., flu, Hepatitis A, B, Tdap)
  • Troubleshooting pharmacy related barriers, such as travel to pharmacies, discrimination by pharmacies, re-fills for lost medications during abatements, lost IDs required to pick up medications.
  • Behavioral health crisis assistance and solution-focused interventions (e.g., Motivational Interviewing, Problem-Solving Therapy).
  • Substance use disorder services: field/street-based Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) for opioid and alcohol use disorders, linkage to outpatient SUD services, naloxone distribution for overdose prevention
  • Problem-solving primary care provider assignment, wait times, navigating paperwork, and transitional transportation assistance with appointments
  • Triage, referral, and linkage (e.g., brick-and-mortar primary care, urgent care, specialty care, dental care, emergency departments)
  • Medi-Cal and HealthPAC enrollment assistance, and assistance with other public benefits for which patients may be eligible
  • Housing assistance, e.g., housing assessments, documentation gathering, applying for housing using Alameda County’s Coordinated Entry System

Health Care for the Homeless Street Health teams are not crisis response teams.