Santa Ana officials say they’re meeting people where they are with the city’s first street medicine program, which recently began delivering mobile medical and social services to roughly 500 unhoused residents.
Joining Garden Grove, Anaheim and Costa Mesa, Santa Ana is the fourth city to offer the CalOptima Health Street Medicine Program, working in partnership with the community health network AltaMed Services. CalOptima administers public health insurance in Orange County.
Nurse practitioner McKenzie Hinshaw is part of Santa Ana’s Street Medicine team, a program run by CalOptima Health with partner AltaMed Health Services. McKenzie and a team of mobile health care professionals will deliver care and social services directly to the unhoused community. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
OC Supervisor and CalOptima Health Board Chair Vicente Sarmiento speaks during a press conference announcing Santa Ana’s new Street Medicine Program on Wednesday, April 22, 2026. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
A team of health care workers on the Street Medicine team take part in a press conference introducing a new medical van to Santa Ana on Wednesday, April 22, 2026. The outreach program is run by CalOptima Health and its partner AltaMed. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Dr. Richard Lam, medical director of AltaMed’s high risk visits, shows four-year-old Zoe Layne the inside of a newly introduced medical van in Santa Ana on Wednesday, April 22, 2026. The truck will be part of CalOptima Health’s Street Medicine Program with partner AltaMed, offering outreach services to the unhoused community. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
CalOptima Health just added Santa Ana to its Street Medicine Program making it the third Orange County city, including Costa Mesa and Anaheim, to have an outreach van. The program helps deliver care directly to its members, especially the unhoused. The van was showcased during a press conference on Wednesday, April 22, 2026. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
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Nurse practitioner McKenzie Hinshaw is part of Santa Ana’s Street Medicine team, a program run by CalOptima Health with partner AltaMed Health Services. McKenzie and a team of mobile health care professionals will deliver care and social services directly to the unhoused community. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
The program will aim to connect people living on the street or without permanent shelter to a primary care provider and ensure they have access to routine medical care.
“I’m really excited about this program,” Santa Ana Mayor Valerie Amezcua said at a press conference on Wednesday, April 22, celebrating the program’s launch last month. “I think it’s going to make a meaningful difference.”
The program allows eligible CalOptima members experiencing homelessness to receive proactive care to support their health and stability, including primary care, behavioral health services and case management.
“You see people in very difficult conditions: individuals in wheelchairs, with swollen legs, infections, serious untreated medical needs,” Amezcua said, describing encounters with residents on the street.
Amezcua recalled meeting a paraplegic woman with significant health issues who declined hospital care because, in her experience, she was treated briefly and then discharged back to the street.
“That’s exactly why this program matters,” Amezcua said. “Street medicine can build a relationship with her, provide consistent care and connect her to something more stable and comprehensive.”
AltaMed Street Medicine Nurse Practitioner McKenzie Hinshaw described street medicine as a hybrid of clinical care and intensive case management. She works as part of a mobile medical team that includes a physician assistant, registered nurse, mental health specialist and peer navigators.
Hinshaw said the population served so far in Santa Ana is older than expected, with many in their 50s, 60s and 70s who may have faced eviction or lost a partner and their income. Many still receive Social Security or pensions, but live with chronic conditions that are not well managed.
“These are people who worked their whole lives and still can’t afford housing,” Hinshaw said. “Sometimes the only thing they have left is their car, and you can’t really live in a car long-term. Not everyone has a substance use disorder or severe mental illness. Mental health can mean depression from losing housing, not just acute psychosis
” A lot of what we see,” she said, “is people who simply can’t manage their health under these conditions.”
“Even when you’re healthy, it’s hard. When your health is poor, it’s much harder,” she added. “You need ID, documentation, transportation … it’s overwhelming.”
Hinshaw recalled a recent hospital visit where staff gave a client paperwork with phone numbers for follow-up care, despite the client not having a phone.
“How is she supposed to follow up?” Hinshaw asked.
“That’s where we step in and help navigate those systems,” she said of the street team that can circle back and keep visiting people where they are at to help. “Otherwise, people are doing it alone, and they already feel alone.”