Leon Harris, 61 days at the Miami Rescue Mission, nursing a sore jaw and a deep and nasty chest cough, slouches on the examining table, rarely losing eye contact with the floor.

Dr. Pete Gutierrez, director of the mission's brand new medical clinic for the homeless and needy, asks Harris about his drug-use history, but assures him that he will not be judged. Then he waits patiently and looks away -- a technique Gutierrez learned on the streets 20 years ago as a high-stakes, undercover cop.

Finally, the words trickle out. Harris, 56, started smoking marijuana in 1988, then he quickly graduated to heroin and crack cocaine. He has Hepatitis C. And the sore jaw? The result of a street fight months ago.

''The doctor convinced me that you have to be honest with them about your situation if you want help,'' Harris softly says after his examination, his first in years. ``It ain't easy telling stuff.''

But Gutierrez, 61, knows the Leons of this tough neighborhood, stretched between downtown Miami and the Design District. He knows the no-talk, no-tell culture of its streets. He knows the fear faced by those struggling with addiction or homelessness, or those who are simply lost -- in need of much more than shelter and a hot shower.

They are who inspired the Miami Rescue Mission to open this five-room clinic six weeks ago. Since then, about 60 patients have walked or wandered in looking for healthcare, advice, and sometimes just someone to listen to their stories.

'So much of our clients' pasts has brought them here,'' Gutierrez says. ``They have lived tough lives that have taken a toll on their minds, souls and bodies. We are here to help them get as healthy as possible. Because someone is poor does not mean they have to deal with below-standard healthcare.''

`WANTS TO GIVE BACK'

Gutierrez, a Pedro Pan child, now husband and father of three, was a decorated City of Miami police officer for 11 years before he quit to pursue his dream of becoming a doctor. But those blended experiences -- the science of medicine, the street savvy of police work -- make him a natural choice to head up the clinic at Northwest First Avenue and 20th Street, just across the street from the mission.

''This is someone who came here with nothing . . . and served our community as a police officer and a doctor,'' says Ron Brummitt, president of the mission. ``And now, with all this passion, he simply wants to give back and make a difference.''

The clinic, a partnership with Miami Dade College's Medical Center Campus, has been in development for almost 10 years. It evolved from the joint health fairs at the mission, which serves about 1,000 men, women and children monthly. The surrounding neighborhoods of Overtown, Wynwood and downtown have been designated by the state as medically underserved.

Brummitt says the clinic will complement services offered at the Camillus House clinic and Jackson Memorial Hospital.

''We have people in our program and in the neighborhood that will never go see a doctor until it becomes a 911 situation, and they are picked up by an ambulance,'' he says. ``We have had people literally die on our sidewalks -- not from a gunshot but from untreated medical conditions.''

EARLY DAYS IN MIAMI

Pete Gutierrez arrived from Havana on July 15, 1962, after his parents placed him on a Miami-bound jet as part of the Pedro Pan operation. He was 13. ''I came here by myself and grew up in foster care, so I had to quickly learn how to fend for myself,'' he says, shifting the 34 red client folders stacked on an otherwise barren desk in his office. ``Only one of the four homes I stayed in was good. I don't want to remember the others.''

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