On a noisy street corner in downtown Spokane.

Providence Health Clinic is quietly celebrating its 50th anniversary.

It was the first free clinic in the state of Washington.

That's a big legacy that I think needs to be celebrated and and be shouted across the community.

The doctors and nurses inside providing a service that often goes unnoticed by the general public.

We see a lot of frostbite.

Trench foot.

We see a lot of sun exposure in the summertime.

Heat stroke and things like that.

We see a lot of chronic disease.

We see a lot of folks who, because of their lack of, having a home to stay in have very, great difficulty in managing chronic conditions.

Anyone can use the clinic.

Medical director, doctor Sima Issen has been practicing medicine for 40 years and has been with the clinic almost ten years.

I always say in internal medicine, you think you've seen everything until you see something new.

She says the vast majority of people being treated right now have vastly different issues than 10 to 20 years ago.

And a lot of our patients have both drug issues and mental health issues, which become real challenge, especially if they come here and their schizophrenia is out of control.

So they may be thinking, someone I'm not, or hearing voices or that or the drug use, they come in here and they're intoxicated or high.

The health clinic strives to meet patients where they are addressing their unique health issues.

If we get sick, we get a cold.

What do we do?

We go to bed.

Let's say you live on the street and you get just the mildest of illness.

You have no place to heal.

And to me, that was very profound.

There's also a large need for people experiencing homelessness, leaving the hospital to find a safe space to recover.

Because the folks coming out of the hospital cannot go directly from the hospital to the shelter system.

Julie Garcia is the executive director of Jewels Helping Hands, which has been operating the Healing Hearts Respite Center at Westminster Church for a year now.

And then they come in, they see doctors, they see nurses, they get on a care plan, and we, the doctor and Providence, decide how long somebody needs the space for.

And then we we work towards that goal.

The respite center is operated in partnership with Providence and works closely with the Community Health Clinic.

The hospital can no longer keep them there.

They just go out to the street.

And that is it's an inappropriate place for people in this condition to go to people who have just had legs amputated or have pneumonia.

People with dementia who don't know how to manage their care.

This is how we get people dying super easy on our streets.

Mental health and addiction are a common factor shared by the people experiencing homelessness that filter through the respite center.

Another growing population needing this type of care.

It's absolutely growing because the biggest population flowing into homelessness now is our elderly population.

The respite center is oftentimes the only option for patients leaving hospitals, because homeless shelters don't have the tools and services these patients need for a successful recovery.

There's no pathway from the hospital to a shelter that doesn't stop at a place like this.

The work is not easy, and the need changes with the community's health issues.

Along with the challenges come successes.

Sometimes the smallest ones making the largest impact.

And he came back probably 4 or 6 months later, and I just happened to be in the clinic, and he came and he hugged all of us because not only did his frostbite got cured, but he stopped drinking and he got housing, and he apologized for how mean he was to all of us.

Like, he's like, I'm better now.

I'm housed because I was able to get my medical taken care of.

I never had to go to a shelter.

I was able to move from integrated medical respite into a nursing home, and I could finish my treatment there.

And he said, now I have my own apartment.

I love this population.

I really, They are.

When you are able to help somebody who is, has been so traumatized in the past from a number of different things, it's just so wonderful to hear from someone.

Thank you for treating me like a human being.