Allegheny Health Network has opened the first of three Community Outreach Hubs designed to provide services to people experiencing homelessness or dealing with substance abuse or mental health issues.
AHN team members along with Mayor Bill Peduto and various community leaders cut the ribbon to the first hub which is located at 538 Smithfield St., Downtown, Tuesday afternoon.
As early as Wednesday at 8:30 a.m., the center will be open and ready for people to use, according to Dan Palka, the administrative director for AHN’s Urban Health & Street Medicine program.
In working with community members who have faced issues with housing, healthcare or the criminal legal system, Mr. Palka and the Urban Health & Street Medicine team saw a need for a space “free of discrimination and stigma” where people can receive care, Mr. Palka said.
“When proactive, we can ensure that our community members receive the care that they are entitled as human beings, but also that they are aware of the care that exists for them,” he said at the ceremony.
At these centers, people in need will have a streamlined connection to healthcare services outside the facility, like social services, housing resources and community health workers.
“Our collective focus is jurisdictional equity, that people should not have to come to the service, but the service should come to them,” said Laura Drogowski, the manager of the Office of Community Health and Safety.
The hubs will allow people “to get what they need, when they need it, in their communities,” Ms. Drogowski said.
One aspect of the hubs is that they will be able to refer people to the homeless shelter that is currently being built on Second Avenue near the Municipal Courts Building. Original estimations have the shelter opening in early 2022.
Professionals at the outreach hubs will be able to contact the shelter on behalf of the individual in need and arrange transportation for them to get there. Plans for that shelter include a clinic that will address medical and mental health issues for those staying there.
On site at the outreach hub’s, the AHN Street Medicine team will have a doctor and a psychiatrist for people to see, however they also provide referrals to other partners like the Federally Qualified Health Centers and community behavioral health organizations for follow-up visits.
In addition to having walk-up services, police officers can transfer people suffering a mental health crisis or facing low-level offenses to one of these outreach hubs for a referral to a behavioral health service, rather than incarceration.
“For so many decades, the only way we treated our neighbors who needed help is through law enforcement,” Mr. Peduto said during the ribbon cutting ceremony. “And the only place that we would send them for help was the Allegheny County Jail, and instead of providing them the help they needed, we made their problems worse.”
The other two locations will be on the North Side and in East Liberty, Mr. Palka said.
Those two should be opening in the “coming weeks or months,” he said.
The hubs were a joint effort between the AHN Urban Health & Street Medicine, the city’s Office of Community Health and Safety and various local leaders.
“This is what we know is the beginning of a long commitment and partnership by the city of Pittsburgh and Allegheny Health Network to expanding access to the continuum of supportive services for people in our community with unmet needs and ensuring that we are focused on public health and public safety,” said Ms.Drogowski.
The program is funded by a portion of the city’s CARES Act money and will be open on weekdays between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m.
Hallie Lauer: hlauer@post-gazette.com
First Published: November 23, 2021, 10:31 p.m.