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Partners HealthCare provides funding to improve services for homeless adults in Downtown Boston.

On June 5, Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino joined Pine Street Inn and Partners HealthCare to announce a new daytime mobile outreach van designed to improve access to healthcare, substance abuse treatment and housing options for homeless adults in Boston. The new outreach van is based in Downtown Crossing and Boston Common.

“This is Boston at it’s best: two of our leading non-profit agencies, Pine Street Inn and Partners HealthCare, teaming up to provide daytime outreach van service that will help homeless people access treatment, healthcare and housing so they can break the cycle of homelessness,” Mayor Menino said. “I want to thank Pine Street Inn and Partners HealthCare for their generosity and their commitment to ending homelessness.”

The new mobile outreach van is funded with a $100,000 gift from Partners HealthCare. Van staff will work closely with existing outreach programs to improve access to substance abuse, healthcare and housing services for homeless people in Downtown Crossing. The van will provide a critical link to services that will help people break the cycle of homelessness. Hours of operation will be 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. daily.

“Partners HealthCare and its founding hospitals, Massachusetts General and Brigham and Women's share the Mayor's commitment to improving the health and well-being of homeless people in Boston, and, fortunately, we have a long history of working closely with this City's visionary sheltering community, including Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program, New England Shelter for Homeless Veterans, and Project Hope family shelter. Improving daytime services for homeless adults is a natural next step toward helping people move from emergency health care to routine health care, and from the streets to permanent housing," Matt Fishman, Partners HealthCare Vice President for Community Health, said.

The Pine Street Inn, Boston’s largest provider of shelter, transitional services and supportive housing for the homeless, has provided overnight outreach van services for more than 20 years. Pine Street also provides daytime outreach services with a grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development through the City of Boston Department of Neighborhood Development.

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