Starting Friday, October 14, Health Care for the Homeless will begin offering dental services in a two-chair dental clinic, just up the road at Our Daily Bread Employment Center.

The clinic will start off as part-time, with Dr. Stack seeing clients 8 a.m.-12 p.m. on Mondays, and Dr. Dheer seeing clients on Fridays, 1-5 p.m. There is currently—and has been for many years—a volunteer dentist who provides services to residents of Christopher Place Employment Academy in the Our Daily Bread dental space on Wednesday afternoons; he will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. And once we hire a new full-time dentist and two dental assistants, the clinic will be fully operational, with operating hours Monday-Friday, 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m., for both scheduled and walk-in clients.

Initially, the Health Care for the Homeless dental team will generate clients through referrals from the Weinberg Housing and Resource Center (WHRC) across the street from Our Daily Bread. Fostering this relationship will create the opportunity to engage individuals staying at WHRC who may not already be receiving care at Health Care for the Homeless.

“Our goal with dental expansion is to address some of the access barriers that we face in our Fallsway and West Baltimore clinics,” says Katie League, Director of Community Services. “By having a site that provides dental care exclusively, we hope to be able to serve clients experiencing homelessness whose primary identified need is dental services. This is another way in which we can engage clients in comprehensive care. Starting with a person’s self-identified goal and need is key to long-term engagement.”

Congratulations, Katie, Tom, Nisha, Andrew—and all who have worked around the clock in recent weeks to make our latest expansion site happen. And here’s to a successful launch!