A Nurse Practitioner Expands Medical Care for Cortez’s Homeless Residents

In recent years, Cortez’s street medicine program has seen a significant demographic shift, with one-third of unhoused patients now being non-Native American. But the funding to support the program, which is provided by the Navajo Area Indian Health Service, is limited. Staff worried gaps in funding and medical care were putting more people at risk and reducing the quality of care, so they came up an idea: hire a medical provider to support the non-Indigenous unhoused population in Cortez. LOR’s funding helped Northern Navajo Indian Health Services contract a nurse practitioner to provide medical services specifically for non-Native American unhoused individuals, allowing the street medicine team to serve all community members regardless of their background.

This project is fiscally sponsored by Onward! A Legacy Foundation.