TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 A Tampa resource center serving people experiencing homelessness is expanding its services through a new partnership with Pioneer Medical Foundation.<\/p>\n
The foundation has opened a free medical and dental clinic at The Drop, a community resource hub at 6220 N. Nebraska Ave. The center already provides services including showers, food, clothing, mail and computer access.<\/p>\n
The new clinic is intended to serve people experiencing homelessness, along with uninsured and underinsured adults facing barriers to health care.<\/p>\n
For Kathy, a volunteer at The Drop who said she once experienced homelessness herself, the expansion is personal.<\/p>\n
\u201cYears ago, I was. I had no place to go. I went from house to house,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Kathy said her health also suffered during that period.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d become sick and lost my residence,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She called the new clinic \u201ca blessing for persons who need services and help.\u201d<\/p>\n
The clinic is staffed in part by health care professionals volunteering their time, according to Ano Kashumba, APRN and executive director of Pioneer Medical Foundation.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo all the providers that work here are providers that are donating their time. And so it\u2019s individuals like dentists, hygienists, cardiologists, surgeons who just want to give back,\u201d Kashumba said.<\/p>\n
The need for care extends beyond people experiencing homelessness.<\/p>\n
U.S. Census Bureau data shows 12.1% of Tampa residents under age 65 do not have health insurance.<\/p>\n
Kashumba said she has worked with underserved populations for about nine years and understands personally what it means to live without coverage.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s something that\u2019s near and dear to me because I was at some point one of those people without health insurance, and I had people that helped me,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd so it is my duty also as a health care provider to give back to my community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pioneer Medical Foundation has provided free health care to uninsured, underserved and homeless adults in Hillsborough and Pasco counties since 2015. The nonprofit says its work has included free clinics, medication assistance and community outreach.<\/p>\n
Dr. S. Irfan Ali, president and CEO of Pioneer Medical Group, said he hopes bringing those services into The Drop will allow the center\u2019s impact to grow.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I think that as drop is invisible, just like the homeless people. Right. But the drop itself can become, you know, a river and an ocean,\u201d Ali said.<\/p>\n
Pioneer Medical Foundation marked the opening of the clinic Thursday with a ribbon-cutting attended by health care providers, community partners and other local leaders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 A Tampa resource center serving people experiencing homelessness is expanding its services through a new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":398186,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[767,3948,6466,274,770,2375,571,276,2200,115,135,137,136,278,2032,835],"class_list":["post-398185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-app-community","tag-app-health","tag-app-latest-health-stories","tag-app-top-stories","tag-community-news","tag-fadia-patterson","tag-health","tag-hillsborough-county","tag-instagram-bn9","tag-news","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-top-stories","tag-trending-topics","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=398185"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398185\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/398186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=398185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=398185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=398185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}