Minnesota Community Care shut down its Downtown Clinic and St. Paul Wellness Hub in early July, eliminating the only walk-in medical care inside the Dorothy Day Place campus and forcing patients, many of them unhoused, to travel roughly two miles south to the organization’s West Side flagship, La Clinica. The closures came as the state’s largest Federally Qualified Health Center braces for a wave of anticipated Medicaid losses tied to federal policy changes, and as its own finances have grown increasingly shaky.
The Downtown Clinic operated inside Catholic Charities’ Dorothy Day Residence at 422 Dorothy Day Place, a campus that also houses the St. Paul Opportunity Center, according to MPR News. Both closed sites offered routine exams, urgent care, immunizations, preventive screenings, lab draws, X-rays, simple procedures and chronic disease management, and the Wellness Hub also housed a pharmacy. Minnesota Community Care has served the community for more than six decades and provides affordable healthcare regardless of a patient’s insurance status or ability to pay.
A Familiar Face, A Longer Commute
Cristina Flores worked as a medical case manager at La Clinica for nine years before leaving the organization in 2025, and for much of that time she traveled two miles from La Clinica to the downtown clinic each week to help patients there. She helped people resolve insurance issues, get tested for sexually transmitted infections and HIV, and obtain medications and contraceptives. Flores said the downtown presence was something that was very beneficial to the homeless community, according to the same MPR News report.
Jennifer Vickers, a nurse practitioner and director of healthcare for the homeless and substance use disorder clinic at La Clinica, said patients value the West Side site because they know its staff. But she also acknowledged the harder reality behind the consolidation: patients delay care because rising medical costs leave them without the funds to seek treatment, per the same account. After the closures were announced, the organization received about 500 MyChart messages from patients asking where staff would be after the move.
Financial Pressure Behind the Consolidation
Renee Leinbach, interim president and executive officer at Minnesota Community Care, said the organization is under increasing financial pressure as patient revenue becomes less reliable and expenses rise. Consolidating downtown services to La Clinica was intended to reduce overhead by eliminating rent for the two closed sites, the article notes. Personnel account for roughly 75 percent of the organization’s expenses, while federal subsidies make up only about 14 percent of total revenue — and state and county support is minimal, with Minnesota contributing less than 2 percent of Minnesota Community Care’s revenue and Ramsey County less than 1 percent…