Central Florida’s Favorite Local Health Care Facility
Health Care Center for the Homeless is a nonprofit committed to meeting the health care needs of homeless and housed but uninsured and under-insured residents in Central Florida in an atmosphere of dignity and respect.
It was founded in 1993 as a program by Dr. Rick Baxley, who saw the need to provide quality health care for persons experiencing homelessness in the Orlando area.
In 2003, HCCH was designated a federally qualified health center and its services expanded to also include providing care for those who are uninsured and under-insured. That is also when Bakari F. Burns came on as the organization’s president and CEO.
“Our mission is to ensure that every member of our community has access to quality health care services, regardless of their ability to pay,” Burns says. “We do that in a compassionate manner, ensuring that everyone feels welcome when they come into either one of our facilities.”
HCCH operates through Orange Blossom Family Health in both Orange and Osceola Counties, offering primary and preventive medical care, integrated oral health and behavioral health, substance use disorder counseling services, HIV testing, mobile health services and more.
“We have far too many individuals who experience homelessness, so being able to bring these health care services to them, hopefully we can build their health up to help them move from a life of homelessness to one of self-sufficiency,” Burns says. “Also by helping those who are uninsured or underinsured, we can help to limit people inappropriately utilizing emergency departments.”
This commitment to care for everyone led our readers to pick HCCH as Central Florida’s favorite health care facility.
“We really appreciate the recognition,” he says. “We have amazing outreach workers who are focused on getting out into the community, spreading the work, doing HIV testing, doing linkages to care and providing a lot of health education.”
