Homeless Youth Were Choosing Vet Care Over Their Own Healthcare—Until This Clinic Changed Everything

Nearly a quarter of homeless youth in the U.S. have pets — and some choose veterinary care over their own health care. The Seattle One Health Clinic offers both, side by side, for free. Jeremiah Pouncy shares why this One Health model is changing how we think about the human-animal bond and community care.

Every year in the United States, nearly two million young people experience homelessness. Up to a quarter of them have pets. For many of these young people, that animal is not just a companion — it is a lifeline. The bond between a young person experiencing housing instability and their pet can be one of the most stable, consistent relationships in their life.

But that bond comes with a painful trade-off. Accessing veterinary care when you have no income and no stable address is nearly impossible. And in a cruel irony, some young people are making the choice to seek veterinary care for their pet while going without medical care for themselves. Not because they do not value their own health. Because they cannot access the systems that are supposed to provide it — and because they will not leave their animal behind.

The Seattle One Health Clinic was built in direct response to that reality.

A partnership between the University of Washington and Washington State University's College of Veterinary Medicine, the clinic operates on a simple but radical premise: treat the person and the pet at the same time, in the same space, for free. A nurse practitioner and a veterinarian work together in a shared clinical environment, sometimes alongside veterinary students, while trained volunteers help clients navigate housing resources, social services, and healthcare access.

A new study published in the Journal of Primary Care and Community Health documented what this model actually produces in practice. Between 2019 and 2022, the clinic served 88 young clients, most of them 23 years old or younger. Nearly 80 percent of visits resulted in the young person receiving medical care for themselves — including 69 percent who had originally come in only for their pet. The clinic also helps clients document their animals as emotional support animals, which can open doors to housing that would otherwise be closed.

Researchers describe this as the One Health model in action — treating the person, the pet, and their environment as a single interconnected system rather than three separate problems. For many clients, it is the first consistent healthcare they have received in years. The trust the clinic builds through the animal is the bridge that connects young people back to the healthcare system at large.

For veterinary professionals, this story is both a validation and a challenge. The human-animal bond is not just a marketing concept. It is a clinical reality with measurable public health implications. Clinics like the Seattle One Health Clinic are showing us what it looks like when veterinary medicine steps into that reality fully — not as a secondary consideration, but as a primary driver of community health.

Watch Jeremiah Pouncy tell this story on In the Wild with Jeremiah Pouncy, streaming now on Vet Candy News. Follow us at myvetcandy.com and @myvetcandy.