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t m c » p u l s e | d e c e m b e r 2 0 1 5 26 Taking Medicine to the Streets S et against the monolithic back- drop of downtown Houston, on a Thursday afternoon, Tranquility Park hums with activity. Congregating around park benches, groups of people chat animatedly while others doze on the grass or wedged against the park's concrete walls. Kneeling down in front of one young woman, Arina Chesnokova, a medical student at Baylor College of Medicine, gently reaches out and puts a hand on her shoulder. "How long have you been on the streets?" If the statistics are any indication, the old adage, "It could happen to any of us," certainly rings true. According to the most recent report from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, more than 6,300 people in Houston are without a home on any given night. Compounding the issue, it's estimated that more than a quarter to a third of the adult homeless popula- tion suffers from severe and persistent mental illness, preventing them from carrying out essential daily activities— even when it comes to addressing their own medical needs. "Homelessness is a complex problem," said David S. Buck, M.D., professor in the department of family and community medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, as well as presi- dent and founder of Healthcare for the Homeless-Houston (HHH). "It's not strictly a medical problem, and stems from a combination of biological and psycho-social factors, but it can have real medical repercussions. Because of the challenges that those individuals face, we've learned that many of them are still being excluded from the health care system." In 1999, when Buck met with a group of medical students from Baylor College of Medicine and The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth), along with social worker student George Bement from UH Graduate College of Social Work, they recognized the urgent need to provide services that benefited the city's homeless population. Responding swiftly, the group established the HOMES (Houston Outreach Medicine, Education and Social Services) Clinic, the only student-managed medical clinic in Houston that seeks to provide both quality health care for patients and B y A l e x O r l a n d o AT THE HOMES CLINIC, MEDICAL STUDENTS, ATTENDINGS AND VOLUNTEERS PROVIDE QUALITY HEALTH CARE TO THE CITY'S UNDERSERVED. a meaningful educational opportunity for students. "The students wanted a place where they could, first and foremost, provide services that were needed to homeless people," Buck said. "My interest in this was really to build a cohort of leaders in underserved health care and expose them to some of the challenges while providing a nurturing environment early in their training." A joint collaboration between Baylor, UTHealth and the University of Houston College of Pharmacy, the HOMES Clinic is entirely student-man- aged, with oversight courtesy of both attending physicians and HHH, which continues to provide administrative and logistical support. Since its incep- tion, the HOMES Clinic has engaged