Free and low cost health clinics on the Westside, in the South Bay, and in Long Beach
The coastal side of Los Angeles County is anchored by two organizations that both began as volunteer storefront free clinics in 1970: Venice Family Clinic, which has grown into the largest community health center on the county's coast, and the Harbor Free Clinic in San Pedro, now Harbor Community Health Centers. Long Beach adds something few California cities have, a public health department of its own that has served the city since 1906. This page covers free and low medical as well as dental cost care in Santa Monica, Venice, Mar Vista, Culver City, and the Westside; Inglewood, Hawthorne, Lawndale, Gardena, Torrance, Carson, and the beach cities; the harbor communities of San Pedro, Wilmington, and Harbor City; and Long Beach.
Most of the organizations below are nonprofit community health centers that treat patients with or without insurance on a sliding fee scale, with enrollment help for Medi-Cal and other coverage. This is one of four regional guides to LA County; the others cover Central and South Los Angeles, the San Fernando Valley and north county, and the San Gabriel Valley and southeast county. For additional resources, see the NHPB guide to medical care programs for the under or uninsured in California covers Medi-Cal, Covered California, non-profits and other options in detail.
County hospitals and health centers run by LA County
Harbor-UCLA Medical Center on West Carson Street near Torrance is the county's public teaching hospital for the South Bay and harbor area, with a 24/7 emergency department and outpatient primary and specialty clinics. The county Department of Health Services also runs the Long Beach Comprehensive Health Center on Chestnut Avenue, offering adult and pediatric primary care, specialty clinics, and pharmacy services, and the smaller Lomita Health Center in Harbor City at (310) 784-5800.
County financial screening programs reduce or eliminate costs for low income and uninsured patients, and the county states that it does not report patients to immigration authorities. Locations and details are at https://dhs.lacounty.gov/ confirm hours before going.
Public health clinics, Long Beach's health department, and help lines
The county Department of Public Health sites currently offering clinical services sit outside this immediate area, with the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Public Health in Willowbrook among the closest for South Bay residents. Check http://publichealth.lacounty.gov/ for the current list before traveling to any county public health clinic.
Long Beach residents have a resource of their own: the city has operated its own Department of Health and Human Services since 1906, separate from the county. Its main health center on Grand Avenue, reachable at (562) 570-4000, houses a sexual health clinic at (562) 570-4180 with sliding fees for STD testing and treatment, confidential services for teens, and no questions about immigration status, plus an immunization clinic at (562) 570-7912 that generally offers routine vaccines, including for uninsured adults. See https://longbeach.gov/health for programs.
Countywide, the Department of Mental Health's 24/7 help line for mental health and substance use services is (800) 854-7771, and dialing 2-1-1 or visiting 211la.org connects residents to health, housing, food, and utility assistance programs.
Westside clinics: Santa Monica, Venice, and Culver City
Venice Family Clinic — (310) 392-8636, https://venicefamilyclinic.org/. Founded in 1970 by volunteer physicians working after hours out of a borrowed storefront dental office, Venice Family Clinic merged with South Bay Family Health Care in late 2021 and now stretches from the Santa Monica Mountains through the South Bay as the coast's largest community health center. Its locations span Venice, Santa Monica, Mar Vista, Culver City, Inglewood, Hawthorne, Gardena, Redondo Beach, and Carson, alongside mobile clinics and a street medicine program for people experiencing homelessness.
Care includes primary care for all ages, dental, vision, mental health and substance use treatment, child development services, health education, and insurance enrollment, regardless of income, insurance, or immigration status. The appointment call center runs on weekdays, and current patients can reach an on-call provider seven days a week; readers in the South Bay should note that the former South Bay Family Health Care clinics now operate under the Venice Family Clinic name.
Westside Family Health Center — (310) 450-2191, https://www.wfhcenter.org/. WFHC began in 1974 as the Women's Health Care Project, started by Santa Monica clinicians as part of the era's women's health movement, and its main health center now sits on Sepulveda Boulevard in Culver City. The whole family can be seen for primary care, women's and men's health, prenatal care, pediatrics, immunizations, a teen clinic, and mammogram referrals, with fees on a sliding scale from free to low cost and enrollment help for Medi-Cal and Covered California.
Achievable Health — (424) 266-7474, https://achievablehealth.org. This Culver City nonprofit fills a gap almost nothing else in the county covers: founded in 1996 by parents and operating a federally qualified health center since 2013, it specializes in primary care for children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities such as autism and Down syndrome, along with their families and other community members. Patients get longer visit times, care coordination, and mental health services from clinicians trained in disability care, with Medi-Cal and other coverage accepted.
South Bay and harbor area clinics
Harbor Community Health Centers — (310) 547-0202, https://www.harborchc.org/. What started in 1970 as the storefront Harbor Free Clinic is now a federally qualified health center with two San Pedro locations, one for general care and one dedicated to pediatrics. Patients across San Pedro and the harbor area receive physicals, immunizations, chronic disease management, family planning and STD care, OB/GYN services, dental, and mental health counseling, regardless of ability to pay, with care in English and Spanish. Older directories still list the organization under its former name, Harbor Community Clinic.
Wilmington Community Clinic — (310) 549-5760, https://wilmingtoncc.org ]. Created in 1977 to meet Wilmington's need for women's and children's health care, this community clinic on Avalon Boulevard now serves the whole harbor area with primary care, prenatal and women's health, pediatrics, dental, and mental health services. Everyone is welcome regardless of financial situation or insurance, and hours generally extend into the evening several weekdays plus Saturday; confirm before going.
Venice Family Clinic, profiled above, operates the area's former South Bay Family Health Care sites in Inglewood, Gardena, Redondo Beach, and Carson. Northeast Community Clinic, profiled on the Central and South Los Angeles page, also runs South Bay health centers in Hawthorne, Harbor City, and Wilmington; see necccare.com for the nearest site. For reproductive care, Planned Parenthood Los Angeles operates health centers in the South Bay and Long Beach with sliding scale fees at (800) 576-5544.
Long Beach clinics
TCC Family Health — https://www.tccfamilyhealth.org/. Founded in 1939 by physicians and community leaders as The Children's Clinic, TCC has grown into a federally qualified health center serving all ages across greater Long Beach, with health centers around the city, school-based sites, and a mobile medical clinic that partners with shelters to reach people experiencing homelessness. Services include pediatrics, adult primary care, women's health and prenatal care, behavioral health, walk-in immunizations, and dental, and no one is denied care for inability to pay; use the locations page to find the nearest center and its direct number.
Tarzana Treatment Centers, the integrated health organization profiled on the San Fernando Valley guide, also runs Long Beach locations on Atlantic Avenue that combine low cost family medical care with mental health and substance use treatment; see http://tarzanatc.org/. The city's own health department clinics, covered above, round out Long Beach's public options.
Low cost dental on the Westside, South Bay, and Long Beach
The UCLA School of Dentistry runs the Westside's dental school clinics: at the Westwood clinics on Tiverton Drive, reachable at (310) 206-3904, supervised student dentists provide comprehensive care at fees significantly below private practice, with a free initial screening to see whether your needs fit the teaching clinic. The school's Venice Dental Center on Lincoln Boulevard, at (310) 392-4103, offers the same student-clinic model closer to the coast. Appointments run long, sometimes up to three hours, because treatment doubles as training, so plan for multiple visits.
In the South Bay, South Bay Children's Health Center, a Redondo Beach nonprofit serving families since 1947, runs the Lawndale Dental Clinic as a dental home for children and young adults from infancy through age 24, with exams, cleanings, sealants, fillings, sedation options, and emergency care at nominal charges, Medi-Cal accepted; the same organization provides children's mental health counseling at its offices and in local schools, at https://sbchc.com/ Sliding scale dental is also available through Venice Family Clinic, Harbor Community Health Centers, Wilmington Community Clinic, and TCC Family Health as part of their regular services.
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