After serving stateside through the Vietnam War, Sidney Patterson found himself sleeping in cars, abandoned buildings and other sites he wasn’t proud to call home.

Homeless on and off for 14 years, he finally found stability in 1990 with the assistance of a church and the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs Medical Center, which instructed him as to the sorts of VA services he would qualify for, from housing aid to mental health supports.

Getting regular medical check-ups and securing medical health insurance were the last things on his mind during his time on the streets, said Patterson on Monday, standing in front of a VA Medical Center van outfitted to do exactly those things.

Staffed by a nurse or nurse practitioner and clinical social employee, the brand new Minneapolis VA Mobile Medical Unit — or MMU, for brief — might be stationed from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesdays outside the Catholic Charities Opportunity Center, previously the positioning of the Dorothy Day shelter, just off Seventh Street in downtown St. Paul.

The goal, said Jonelle Glubke, director of Homeless Programs the for Minneapolis VA, is to bring the van to more sites across the metro that partner with the Minneapolis VA, answering questions, conducting basic health assessments and referring homeless veterans to needed social services, including housing supports.

The van, which comes wrapped in patriotic logo and imagery of a veteran in salute, goals to entice homeless veterans who might otherwise not prioritize healthcare.

The “MMU” is one in all the primary of some 25 such mobile medical units to be deployed nationally by the federal VA Administration, and organizers expect the van to be an entry-point of sorts for military veterans experiencing homelessness to access a wide selection of state and federal advantages they could be unaware they qualify for.

Roughly one in every 10 long-term residents of the Opportunity Center’s everlasting housing is a military veteran, said Jen Kissling, program manager with the St. Paul Opportunity Center.

Catholic Charities’ Richard M. Schulze Family Foundation St. Paul Opportunity Center and the adjoining Higher Ground St. Paul homeless shelter serve some 1,000 meals per day to individuals in need.