Seattle One Health clinic shows pets can open the door to care: full analysis

A Seattle One Health clinic serving young people experiencing homelessness is offering a strong signal for veterinary and human healthcare alike: when pets can be seen first, people are more likely to accept care for themselves. The model, profiled by Vet Candy and backed by a UW-led study, pairs veterinary services for pets with same-site human medical care at New Horizons Youth Shelter. The results are notable. Nearly 80% of clinic visits from 2019 to 2022 led to clients receiving human health services, even though many initially came only for their animals. (myvetcandy.com)

The clinic didn’t appear overnight. UW and WSU launched the Seattle One Health Clinic in October 2018 in response to a familiar barrier in homeless services: many people won’t seek care, or can’t easily seek care, if it means leaving a pet behind or entering a system that doesn’t feel safe. An earlier 2022 article in Annals of Family Medicine described the model as concurrent primary care and veterinary care for people experiencing homelessness and their animals, explicitly designed to leverage the human-animal bond to improve access. Neighborcare Health’s New Horizons youth clinic now lists twice-monthly veterinary care through the One Health clinic alongside its medical and social services. (annfammed.org)

The newer data adds weight to that concept. UW reported that among 88 human clients seen between 2019 and 2022, 75 saw a healthcare provider at least once, and 40 established care for the first time in at least two years. Most significantly, 69% of visits in which the client intended to seek care only for a pet still resulted in human medical care. The clinic also addresses needs that sit at the intersection of animal and human wellbeing, including environmental exposures, zoonotic risk, and documentation for emotional support animals that may help clients access housing and services. (washington.edu)

That makes the veterinary role more than supportive. In the Vet Candy account, WSU’s veterinary team, led by Dr. Katie Kuehl, provides wellness care, vaccines, deworming, and referrals for spay/neuter, while the interaction itself helps lower the temperature of the visit. The premise is simple: if a pet parent sees their animal treated gently and without judgment, trust can transfer to the human side of care. Vet observations can also surface shared risks, from parasite exposure to environmental stressors. (myvetcandy.com)

Researchers and program leaders are framing that trust-building as the central finding. In UW’s release, lead author Natalie Rejto said the data shows the model is “building trust,” while co-founder Dr. Peter Rabinowitz said adding veterinary care creates an atmosphere that is very different from a typical medical facility and encourages clients to seek care for themselves as well as their animals. The Seattle program has also moved beyond a single site. The One Health Clinic website now offers a toolkit for providers interested in replication, signaling that the team sees this as a scalable service model, not just a local innovation. (washington.edu)

For veterinary professionals, the bigger takeaway is that this is evidence for veterinary medicine as infrastructure in community health. Shelter medicine, access-to-care work, and nonprofit veterinary outreach are often discussed as adjacent to public health. This model argues they are part of public health. It also broadens the frame for case management: a vaccine visit, a skin complaint, or a behavior concern may be the opening for conversations about housing instability, mental health, substance use, transportation, food insecurity, or continuity of care. In that sense, the veterinary exam is both clinical service and engagement strategy. (myvetcandy.com)

The wider policy environment supports that interpretation. In California, a 2026 USC evaluation of the state’s Pet Assistance and Support program found that $15.75 million in funding helped 37 organizations create pet-friendly shelter spaces, provide veterinary services and pet supplies, and serve 4,407 unhoused people with pets. Of those participants, 886 exited to permanent housing, roughly 20%—above the 13% statewide permanent housing placement rate cited by USC from a 2024 California auditor estimate. Separate coverage of the pilot noted that the share of unhoused people with pets in Los Angeles rose from about one in eight before the pandemic to one in five by 2025, suggesting demand for pet-inclusive sheltering may be growing even as these models show better engagement and housing outcomes. Researchers also cautioned that pet-friendly services alone will not reverse homelessness without more affordable housing and continued investment. While that program is different from Seattle’s clinic-based model, both point to the same operational lesson: pet-inclusive services can reduce friction in care and housing systems for people who might otherwise stay disconnected from both. (dworakpeck.usc.edu; wmnf.org)

Why it matters: For clinics, shelters, and veterinary schools, this story is a reminder that access-to-care models don’t have to start with a full new hospital buildout. They can start with partnerships, a recurring clinic schedule, student involvement, clear referral pathways, and a willingness to treat the pet parent and pet as linked, not separate, patients in separate systems. That has relevance for homeless services, street medicine, community outreach, and veterinary education. It also reinforces a practical policy point: as more unhoused people hold onto pets, systems that are not pet-inclusive may miss opportunities for engagement altogether. (washington.edu; wmnf.org)

What to watch: The next question is scale: whether more communities adopt co-located veterinary-human care, whether more outcome data is published beyond Seattle, and whether state homelessness programs begin funding pet-inclusive services as a standard access strategy rather than a niche add-on. Also worth watching is whether capacity keeps pace with need in places like Los Angeles, where the proportion of unhoused people with pets appears to be rising. (onehealthclinic.org; wmnf.org)