Wellness Wagon

A counseling team aboard the Homeless Service Center Mobile Unit cruises the San Fernando Valley every day offering a hand to the needy and homeless.

The converted mobile home is a wealth of resources. Computers spit out social service referral information. Cabinets contain medical supplies, toiletries, blankets and food.

But the unit’s greatest assets are the counselors, who have a vast knowledge of the often overlapping--and sometimes conflicting--network of public and nonprofit social service providers.

“We try to develop a relationship with the homeless individual so that at some point when they are ready to work on their real issues--like drug, alcohol and work problems--we are there to give them resources,” said John Horn, program coordinator for L.A. Family Housing Corp., the nonprofit group that runs the mobile unit.

On a recent day, counselors Cliff Bailer, Laura Mejia and Miriam Quintero boarded the mobile unit at its home base in Pacoima for the short ride to Hansen Dam, where homeless people gather daily for a noon meal served by members of local churches.

About 35 men and women formed a ragged line in front of a splintered picnic table laden with soul-food dishes. After lunch, Bailer encouraged the men and women to go into the mobile unit to get referrals for help.

On another day, a medical team from Valley Community Clinic joined the counselors when they visited the San Fernando Gardens housing project in Pacoima.

Through the mobile unit, impoverished patients unable to pay for routine doctor’s visits can get free health care. Homeless and needy people are most at-risk for hypertension, diabetes, HIV and the effects of drug and alcohol abuse, team members said.

“We can’t help everybody; it’s a sad fact,” Bailer said. “But that can’t stop you from providing the information. There’s always that hope that someone will use it” to better their lives.