The El Rio Community Health Center building.El Rio Community Health Center started in Tucson around 50 years ago – alongside a number of other small clinics around the country – with a major declaration by the Johnson administration in 1964.
At his inauguration speech, the president announced: “This administration today, here and now, declares unconditional war on poverty in America.”
That war on poverty made millions of federal dollars available to American cities to build neighborhood health clinics.
Twelve mostly Latino neighborhood organizations on Tucson’s west and south sides, along with the newly created University of Arizona Medical School, went to work to apply for a grant.
The original clinic was located in a county-donated building called Mother Higgins, a detention facility for juveniles. Each holding cell was coincidentally the exact size needed for examining rooms.
El Rio has grown from a few patients in 1970 to almost 100,000 visits every year. For uninsured or Medicaid populations, El Rio is the largest medical and dental provider in the county.
There are now 17 clinics in Tucson and more than 1,000 employees. The annual budget is more than a $100 million – a far cry from a few holding cells at the Mother Higgins building.
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