Redwoods Rural Health Center

Redwoods Rural Health Center Cuts Its Community Supports Program in Southern Humboldt as Federal and State Funding Reductions Bite

Redwoods Rural Health Center — the FQHC serving Southern Humboldt County, with a second site in Fortuna — announced 'strategic organizational adjustments' in a social-media post, stepping back from its Community Supports program (case management; help accessing transportation, housing, and food; and navigation support for people experiencing homelessness). Patient Services Manager Kim Petersen said the clinic is 'refocusing resources on primary medical and dental services and stepping back from programs that are no longer sustainable in the current funding environment,' and that the organization is feeling the impacts of H.R. 1; the reductions affect services across the organization, including Fortuna. The cut lands alongside a broader crisis reported June 29 by Redheaded Blackbelt: the Southern Humboldt Community Healthcare District — whose nine-bed 1961 Critical Access Hospital serves roughly 1,000 square miles including a 125-mile stretch of Highway 101 with no other hospital — says program cuts of as much as 35% now jeopardize its planned replacement hospital ('we just can't sustain that,' CEO Matt Rees said), underscoring how thin North Coast safety-net capacity has become.