Maria X Martinez Health Resource Center

The Health Resource Center, which houses the Open Access Clinic and Urgent Care is named in honor of the late Maria X Martinez, who was serving as the SF DPH director of Whole Person Care before she passed away from a brief illness in July 2020. Ms. Martinez devoted her 20 plus-year career at SF DPH to better coordinate care for people experiencing homelessness.

Ms. Martinez championed integrated services for vulnerable populations to improve their care experience and ultimately their overall health and wellness. Years before the Health Resource Center opened its doors, she envisioned a hub where co-located cross-departmental teams could work side-by-side to create low barrier access for people experiencing homelessness.

In 2018, through an iterative design process involving staff from DPH, Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing, Human Services Agency, the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development and members of the community, Ms. Martinez’s team developed a framework for a state-of-the-art health resource center. They envisioned a single location where clients could get healthcare, assistance with benefits enrollment, and assessed for housing through Coordinated Entry so that they didn’t have to go to many different locations for these services.

Today, the health resource center is co-located with the Street Medicine team, SF HOT (Homeless Outreach Team) and permanent supportive housing for seniors.