She has nowhere to go, and ninety days changes everything.
Housing and coordinated care for pregnant women who are unhoused and facing syphilis, a substance use disorder, or both. One phone call places her.
Opening 1 October 2026. Referrals are being accepted now so that placements can begin on the first day. Call to discuss a woman whose dates fall on or after that date, or to be told when beds become available.
Program location: 3200 66th Street North, St. Petersburg, FL
Why this exists
Screening has reached everyone screening can reach. What is left has to be found.
Syphilis is falling across both counties, faster than in Florida as a whole. That is the reason for this program rather than an argument against it. As overall incidence drops, the cases that remain concentrate among the women the system reaches last: no prenatal care, no stable address, no way to be located after delivery.
The pattern at delivery is always the same. She is discharged before her infant. By the time your team is planning the infant's discharge, nobody can find her, and the placement decision gets made by default rather than on the merits.
We hold that gap. She stays housed, in treatment, reachable and engaged for the whole of her infant's stay.
Who qualifies
Syphilis, or a substance use disorder, or both. Either one alone qualifies her.
Nearly every pregnancy we serve meets an obstetric definition of high risk. That alone is never an exclusion.
- AcceptPregnant, or her infant is still in hospital after delivery
- AcceptUnhoused, in shelter, or nowhere safe to return to
- AcceptSyphilis alone, with the pregnancy at risk of congenital syphilis
- AcceptUncomplicated substance use alone, on buprenorphine, methadone, or nothing yet
- AcceptNo prenatal care at all, which is the usual presentation
- AcceptChild welfare involvement, current or anticipated
- Refer onNeeds continuous medical supervision or an inpatient level of care
- Refer onMedically managed withdrawal, or inpatient psychiatric care. We take her afterwards
- Refer onComplicated syphilis, neurosyphilis, or a case needing penicillin desensitization
The ninety days
Two phases, and the residence never has to hold an infant.
Prenatal
Housed and in weekly clinical contact. The full penicillin series, aimed at finishing more than thirty days before delivery, which is the threshold that protects the infant. A prenatal appointment within seven days of placement.
Postpartum
From her own discharge until her infant is released. Two to three weeks, longer with neonatal withdrawal. She is present, reachable and part of the conversation while the infant's discharge is planned.
Both exits are agreed before the placement begins, not on the eightieth day. Follow up continues at thirty, sixty and ninety days after she leaves.
Who does what
A collaboration, not a referral chain.
The medical, mental health, case management and testing offered at the residence are provided through this collaboration by UNIFY. One coordinator holds the whole case, so the resident has a single point of contact rather than a list of agencies.
UNIFY Health & Wellness
- Care coordination across every service she receives
- Primary care visits at the residence
- Psychiatric care and counseling on site
- Buprenorphine prescribed by our physicians
- Methadone continuity through a certified program
- Syphilis staging, treatment and follow up serology
- Testing for HIV, hepatitis B and hepatitis C
- Prenatal care coordinated with a contracted obstetric provider
- Pharmacy, benefits enrollment and care coordination
A New Direction for Women and Men
- Certified recovery residence, program 2887
- Room, board, structure and house rules
- Twenty four hour on site staff
- Peer support and recovery programming
- Two certified residence administrators
- Hosts UNIFY clinical services on site
- Holds no treatment license and bills no payer
Refer someone
One telephone call is all it takes.
No form is required before a bed is held. We call you back the same day with an acceptance, a decline with reasons, or a hold.
Call us
Tell us her gestational age or delivery date, where she is, and whether she has a penicillin allergy. We ask that on the first call because it decides her treatment route.
We screen within a day
Eligibility, acuity and whether the ninety days fit her dates. You hear back the same day either way.
She is placed
Treatment, medication and prenatal care start in the first week. We report back to you on placement, treatment and where she goes next.
UNIFY Health & Wellness
Care coordination and clinical services
Toll free (855) 864-3935
Main office (727) 826-0958
info@helpushelpuinc.org
Rachel Gay, CRRA
Assistant Director
A New Direction for Women and Men
2365 5th Avenue North, St. Petersburg, FL 33713
727-253-7503 · office 727-494-0203