NEW Community Clinic helps homeless get medical care with mobile clinic

GREEN BAY, WI – (WGBW) – The NEW Community Clinic in Green Bay is bringing medical and dental care to residents who may not have access to care. CEO Kim Franzen says a federal ARPA grant spurred them into action to help more people within the community.

“We decided we’re going to really up our game and bring our services out to those who have barriers for transportation,” said Franzen. “So, we decided to build a mobile unit.”

The 40-foot-long mobile medical unit has two bays and can provide complete dental services, medical care, mental health care, and WIC benefits. 

Before purchasing the mobile unit, Franzen says that the clinic would provide healthcare to the homeless by going to area homeless shelters. The mobile unit makes doing so now much easier.

“We have refrigerators. So we can bring vaccinations out,” said Franzen. “We have a full network, so we can get onto the electronic medical records. We have portable X-rays for our dentists. They can take X-rays when we’re out and about.”

An example of one of the places the NEW Community Clinic can bring the mobile unit is area churches that serve homeless populations.

“On March 26th, we’re going to go out to Samaritan Church,” said Franzen. “The pastor is going to go out and walk the neighborhoods and tell people that we’re going to be there.

She said that they are also looking at bringing the mobile unit to the tiny house veterans community that is being built, to Habitat for Humanity builds, and other locations. They provide care to people regardless of their ability to pay. 

“Our pocket of people we focus on is people who are living at 200% of the federal poverty level or below. You can be uninsured or on Medicaid. If you are uninsured we have a sliding fee discount. We will look at your income and the number of people in your household. We’ll apply a fee according to that. We’re not going to turn you away if you can’t pay for your healthcare,” said Franzen.

The NEW Community Clinic’s mobile unit currently serves Brown County. 

“We’re actually looking at what is the vision of the N.E.W. Community Clinic. Are we just Brown County? Are we Northeast Wisconsin?” said Franzen. “So those are some things that we are really working on with our Board of Directors. How far should our reach really go?”

Franzen says in addition to the 70 people who are employed by the NEW Community Clinic, many medical professionals also volunteer their time to the nonprofit organization. They have three brick-and-mortar locations, one at 610 North Broadway,  424 South Monroe, and in the NWTC campus in addition to the mobile unit. There is also a fourth location where the administrative services are housed.