A Tallahassee emergency shelter for people experiencing homelessness is now providing medical care to clients for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic.
The nonprofit Doctors United has a full clinic at the Kearney Center. Practitioners will provide primary care to patients 13 and older in the Big Bend region.
The center's CEO, Sonya Wilson, says getting access to treatment will help give clients more stability.
"We've got to go and treat those things first before they can go and function on a job and become self-sufficient," Wilson said. "And in doing so, it lets our community know and our clients know that we care about them. They're important to us."
Wilson says that will help many of the shelter's clients get jobs and hold them.
"Your health, your mental health, your physical health and dentistry are critical to being able to go out and gain employment and be self-sustainable," she said.
The shelter's medical facility has been reoutfitted and now includes a lab.
What's more, Wilson says, Doctors United will be leasing the space, helping the shelter address its tight budget.
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