Health and Homelessness System Integration: Philanthropy’s Role

Heidi L Behforouz, M.D. Physician leader, consultant, and clinician has focused her career on the health issues of vulnerable populations. She is currently Medical Director of Housing for Health (HFH) at the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services (LAC DHS) - the second-largest safety net provider in the United States. Here, she oversees the county’s clinical initiatives to improve the health and wellness of the largest homeless population in the country.

At LAC DHS, she has also served as the Medical Director for the Care Connection Program, a primary care clinic-anchored complex care management program that connected community health workers to care management teams within the medical home. She also led the Primary Care Resource Center’s efforts to enhance complex care management team efforts in the medical homes and launch a shared care management platform to facilitate shared work plans and communication between PCMH staff.

She is a board-certified internist who trained at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. She is a past recipient of research grants from the National Institutes of Health, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Health Resources and Services Administration and Office of Minority Health and has used this funding to study the impact of community-based complex care interventions in improving the health and wellbeing of vulnerable individuals in urban settings. She currently practices primary care at the STAR clinic in Skid Row, Los Angeles.

She is Founder and past Executive Director of Partners In Health’s Prevention and Access to Care and Treatment (PACT) project in Boston, Massachusetts

Dr. Behforouz continues to provide consultation in complex care management to accountable care organizations, managed care organizations, health departments, and community-based organizations around the country. Dr. Behforouz is committed to the transformation of primary care to better serve the needs of the most vulnerable patients in our communities and has been privileged to champion the role of community health workers in effecting lasting change in our health care delivery system and health of our communities.

Jen joined UniHealth Foundation in 2015 and was appointed President and COO in 2018. She is responsible for overseeing all grantmaking and the day-to-day functions of the Foundation. In addition, she previously served as a Program Manager for The California Endowment’s Center for Healthy Communities, and has worked in clinic, hospital and social service settings. She is a native Angeleno, loves science fiction movies, and loves cooking homemade pasta with her family.

Cheryl Winter serves as a Senior Program Manager at CSH Los Angeles. Her technical assistance focuses on developing health and housing partnerships, conducting systems analyses and examining innovative funding models that grow the pipeline of supportive and affordable housing projects, build cross-system partnerships, and equip providers with the tools they need to deliver quality supportive housing services.