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GREENSBORO — In three housing complexes run by the city, you’ll see residents as old as your grandmother with all kinds of ailments.

They live in medical limbo. They’re not sick enough for long-term care. Yet they have chronic problems — diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity, you name it — that need monitoring so they won’t end up in the back of an ambulance.

Some don’t have decent transportation to see a doctor. Others don’t see a doctor at all. They’re too poor, too scared, too stubborn and too worried about money.

Yet, they’ll walk down a hall at Gateway Plaza or Alonzo Hall Tower. Or stop by the community center at Hampton Homes. Or answer a knock at their door.

When they do, they see someone like Jacqueline DeBrew .

She teaches at UNCG, and for 13 years , she has brought her student nurses to volunteer every week at Gateway Plaza. There, they practice preventive medicine, give referrals and work to interpret the human nature of health care.

For a quarter of a century, UNCG’s School of Nursing has teamed up with the Greensboro Housing Authority to run wellness clinics at three housing complexes to help the elderly poor, one of the most vulnerable populations.

But recently, it had gotten tough. It was all about money. Funds dwindled, and questions arose about whether the clinics could continue.

Last year, WellSpring stepped in. The nonprofit retirement community gave UNCG a five-year, $500,000 grant to renovate the clinics, buy equipment, start programs and hire someone to coordinate the entire deal.

Last week, WellSpring was recognized by the North Carolina Nurses Association for its partnership designed to help the elderly who make less than $11,000 a year.

Meanwhile, UNCG is using another grant to continue a wellness clinic at Morehead/Simkins Independent Living Center, a privately run 40-apartment complex for the elderly poor.

Since then, at all four housing complexes, UNCG has had more contact with residents. It’s tripled, from 500 contacts a year to more than 1,670 contacts from August 2008 to August 2009 .

“Regulations coming out of Washington and Raleigh will affect what we do here,” says Steve Fleming, president and CEO of WellSpring. “So, partnerships like this help create the health care system we want as we age in America.’’

Do the math. By 2026, the population of Americans 65 and older will double. That’s 71.5 million people, or 20 percent of the population .

Then consider what’s happening in Washington, where the debate over health care reform feels faceless, distant and complicated. In this partisan rage of debate, patients feel forgotten.

But visit Gateway Plaza. There, you’ll find Lavetta Harris.

She’s 64 and blind since birth. She doesn’t get out of her apartment much. So, the other day, DeBrew and one of the student nurses, Byron Haddock, came to her.

Haddock checked Harris’ blood pressure and medicine, then offered what he had bought for her at a local grocery store: bananas, apples and oranges. He felt she needed to eat more fresh fruit and vegetables.

DeBrew simply held her hand.

“You doing OK?’’ she asked.

On another floor, in an apartment-turned-clinic, student nurse Sarah Crowell checked resident Andrew Black . He’s 59 , a former cross-country truck driver. He doesn’t drive any more. Diabetes took both his legs below the knee.

So, he wears prosthetics, gets around in a motorized wheelchair and plays spirituals on his electric guitar two doors down from the clinic. He comes every week to keep his diabetes in check.

Horace Underwood , another resident, comes every week, too. A few days ago, he got his first hearing aid. It’s in his right ear. And it was free. For the first time in forever, he says he can hear the wind.

“It sounds like I’m at the beach,’’ Underwood says. “It’s a beautiful sound.’’

He’s had two heart attacks and one heart surgery. He says he’s almost died three times. He lost his wife Patsy 18 years ago . She thought she had a cold. Three weeks later, she died. Cancer.

So, he’s no fan of doctors. But he’s a fan of Apt. 203 — the clinic.

“The ladies are real nice, and I like the ladies because they show compassion for you,’’ says Underwood, 68, a former gas station owner. “And with me, I’m hard-headed. They get on me all the time about going to the doctor. And no one likes going to the doctor.

“But these ladies, they’re friends.’’

And the nurses are learning. They have all kinds of stories, plucked from the Old South wisdom of residents.

About drinking apple-cider vinegar to lower blood pressure. About sleeping with a bar of soap to cure leg pain. About slipping an onion under your bed so it’ll soak in diseases when it turns brown.

But mostly, they remember faces and names. Like Mrs. M , the 84-year-old at Hall Tower who comes in and says, “I’m here for your students to practice on me! I want to be your guinea pig!’’

Or Byrd, a quiet man in his 70s at Gateway, who came in with a lot of pain and told the student nurses: “I feel so bad. I can’t leave here and get food!’’ He ended up in the hospital — with the student nurses from Gateway taking care of him there.

Another lesson learned.

“Nursing is more than just giving a shot,’’ says DeBrew, a clinical associate professor at UNCG. “It’s really getting to know people. It’s that old-fashioned approach. Just one on one.’’

Contact Jeri Rowe at 373-7374 or jeri.rowe@news-record.com