DIRECT Care for the Homeless Act of 2023

The terms eligible city or county and eligible cities and counties refer to cities and counties, as applicable, in the United States that, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, have a homeless population of 150 or more per 100,000 residents.

The terms homeless and homeless individual have the meanings given to such terms in section 103 of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 11302).

The term street medicine refers to health professionals providing preventive, screening, diagnostic, and/or treatment services to unsheltered homeless individuals where said individuals live in a non-permanent location on the street or found environment.

The term unsheltered means not residing in a permanent residence or shelter.

the number of patients who moved into temporary or permanent housing;

the number of patients who have established within their respective Continuum of Care awaiting housing placement;

patients diagnosed with a substance use disorder and number who received treatment;

the number of health care professionals providing care to unsheltered homeless individuals;

how efficient and sufficient reimbursements were for provided care, including any difficulties health care professionals experienced in being reimbursed;

the number of unique people receiving street medicine services;

the number of total patient visits provided by street medicine teams;

a report from street medicine providers detailing barriers to accessing non-street medicine primary care healthcare services such as specialty care, medications, and diagnostic studies; and

an analysis of participating street medicine providers’ ability to sustain a sufficient amount of street medicine providers to provide adequate care to its unsheltered homeless population,