With our free press under threat and federal funding for public media gone, your support matters more than ever. Help keep the LAist newsroom strong, become a monthly member or increase your support today.
Costa Mesa launches street medicine program
The Costa Mesa Civic Center skyline.
(
MattGush/iStock
/
iStockphoto
)
Topline:
Costa Mesa is launching its first street medicine program, which aims to treat the medical needs of unhoused people by meeting them where they are.
Why it matters: Officials said they had identified 150 unhoused people living in Costa Mesa who could benefit from the street medicine program, which will be run by CalOptima Health and local nonprofit Celebrating Life.
“The goal is to get people housed, but along the way, to take care of their significant health needs,” Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley said at a news conference this week.
Sponsored message
The context: Orange County’s latest homelessness count found the unhoused population rose 28% since the last count in 2022.
The backstory: A representative with CalOptima Health said a similar program that launched about a year-and-a-half ago in nearby Garden Grove had served some 315 unhoused people, with 12 finding permanent housing.
The Costa Mesa street medicine program, which launches this month, will be the second such program offering medical care to unhoused people in Orange County.
In a report published last year, researchers from the Keck School of Medicine identified 25 street medicine programs across California. The majority of those programs were located in Los Angeles County and the San Francisco Bay Area.
Go deeper: Homelessness In OC
Trending on LAist
-
A new study finds promising early results from a program that tries to find and assist those most at risk of becoming unhoused. -
The L.A. Fire Department said the tunnel workers had been isolated by a "collapse" in an industrial tunnel for a wastewater treatment facility in the Harbor-area neighborhood of Wilmington. -
An analysis of videos capturing ICE enforcement across L.A. -
The program started last year. It's one of the only treatment options available for unhoused Angelenos addicted to stimulants, including methamphetamine, experts say. -
People living in the West L.A. community requested the cameras because of recent home burglaries and calls for more safety measures. -
Local officials say the display was an overreach by the federal government.
Best of LAist
