Pastor Mary Overstreet Smith opens the door to the North by Northeast Community Health Center, which she co-founded with Dr. Jill Ginsberg in 2006. Photo by Mark Washington.

Jake Thomas
jthomas@portlandobserver.com

Jill Ginsberg, a family physician, remembers reading a newspaper article about a local pastor who was clothing, feeding, and housing Hurricane Katrina evacuees shortly after the storm ravaged parts of Louisiana and Texas in 2005.

Ginsberg called up the pastor, Mary Overstreet Smith of Power House Temple Church, and asked if she could lend a hand

But Smith, who is known affectionately as “Pastor Mary,” had an ambitious and unexpected proposal for Ginsberg: a health clinic that would serve the uninsured residents of north and northeast Portland free of charge.

“I’ll see what I can do,” replied Ginsberg, who wasn’t expecting such a bold proposal, and didn’t know where to start.

But about a year later, Ginsberg and Smith opened up the doors to the North by Northeast Community Health Center just off of North Williams Avenue to help out uninsured residents with chronic problems that, if untreated, could develop into a costly trip to the emergency room.

Since then, the clinic has steadily grown, and offers even more services to those that need it the most at a new location.

Martin Luther King Jr. believed that a society should be judged by the condition of its least-well-off members. Ginsberg explained that the clinic applies the same principle to community health.

“The community is only as healthy as those who have the least,” she said.

Dr. Jill Ginsberg, volunteers at the North by Northeast Community Health Center on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, a community clinic for low income residents that she helped found in 2006. Photo by Jake Thomas

Smith said that she routinely encountered people, including the Katrina evacuees, who had ailments that went untreated because they couldn’t afford a doctor. She knew diabetics who went with out insulin, and others who hadn’t seen a physician in over five years.

“I thought, if we had a free clinic this wouldn’t be a problem,” she said.

After Smith floated her proposal, Ginsberg asked her employer, Kaiser Permanente, if they would be willing to lend a hand. They were. They donated enough medical surplus supplies to get the clinic going. She also managed to snag a few grants and donations to keep it running.

“They don’t teach you how to do this in medical school,” said Ginsberg of the leg-work needed to get a non-profit clinic up and running. “We sort of put one foot in front in foot of the other.”

The first building that the clinic operated out of was humble annex next to Smith’s church. It was so cramped that people had to wait outside to get treatment, and was down-right frigid in the colder months.

“It was never meant to be used that way,” said Ginsberg of the building.
But the patients who relied on it were grateful to have prescriptions filled, get checkups on hypertension or diabetes, or have lab work done.

The clinic, which has about 20 volunteer doctors, provides basic services that prevent a perfectly treatable condition, like diabetes, from turning into a costly trip to the emergency room, said Ginsberg.

When Rita Moore lost her job working for an electrical equipment company, she began coming to the clinic to get her prescription for high blood pressure filled and to get treatment for acid reflux.

“I would be messed up,” said Moore, if she didn’t have the clinic. “I would be in the hospital right now.”

Moore said the staff, although volunteers, genuinely care about her well-being, and have helped connect her with specialists.

Late last summer, the clinic moved into a new facility next door to the Garlington Center on North Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. A fire had decimated the building in 2007, and has been newly refurbished. For the 30 patients who rely on it, the facility is a big upgrade with a cushy waiting room and new exam rooms.

Looking back, Smith recalls Ginsberg giving her a quizzical look when she pitched the idea of opening a clinic after having just met her. But Smith said she had no reservations about making such an audacious proposal because she knew that if it was meant to be God would enlist her.

“I thought if I could do what I could do, someone else would do what they could do,” said Smith.