Stories of Impact: Shelter Health Services
This Story of Impact highlights Shelter Health Services, a Women’s Impact Fund grantee. Shelter Health Services’ mission is to remove health issues as barriers to self-sufficiency and upward mobility for homeless women, and as impediments to development and readiness to learn for homeless children, by providing free healthcare and health information that is easily accessible.
When a woman enters a shelter, she is often carrying far more than a suitcase. She carries untreated medical conditions, exhaustion, fear, and the quiet weight of having placed her own health last for far too long.
Shelter Health Services exists to meet that woman right there exactly where she is.
By providing on-site, integrated medical care within the shelter environment, we remove one of the greatest barriers women experiencing homelessness face: access. No bus rides across town. No choosing between food and a copay. Just compassionate, consistent healthcare delivered in a place where trust can begin to grow.
This past year, the organization has seen an increase in women managing complex chronic illnesses such as hypertension and diabetes — often without medication or regular monitoring. Through steady primary care, patient education, and thoughtful care coordination, women are stabilizing their health. That is a huge win, and it has positive impacts, including that they are also gain confidence in both their bodies and their futures.
One patient recently told Shelter Health Services that “this is the first time I feel like someone is walking with me.”
That is the heart of the organization’s work. They do not simply treat symptoms — they also build meaningful relationships that restore dignity and hope.
Those relationships have a positive impact not just on the patient but beyond. Executive Director Iris Smalls-Hubbard recently shared that they recently had a woman and her young son arrive at the shelter from a traumatic situation. The woman received care and with Shelter Health Service’s combination of education and treatment on sight was able to get both her diabetes and hypertension under control. It was only then that saw the little boy smile for the first time and that he took comfort in knowing that his mother was being cared for.
At Shelter Health Services, healthcare is more than an appointment. It is a bridge — from crisis to stability, from illness to wellness, and from surviving to truly moving forward.
To learn more about Shelter Health Services, please visit their website: https://www.shsclinic.org/
