People's Community Clinic on Saturday opens its new North Austin health care facility, which the center's leaders say should boost their capacity to serve as a safety net for patients who are underserved and underinsured.

"It allows us to double the number of patients we can serve, and to nearly triple the number of patient appointments that we can have," said Joy Authur, the clinic's director of development.

The 59,000-square-foot facility is located at 1101 Camino La Costa, and will treat patients of all ages, according to a news release. The facility will also include a teaching kitchen, health education classrooms, behavioral health services and an adolescent resource center.

People's Community Clinic opened in 1970 in the basement of the Congregational Church of Austin near The University of Texas campus. It was initially called People's Free Clinic.

Today, the clinic serves more than 11,000 patients, many of whom are unable to afford adequate health insurance, Authur said. Recent expansion is driven by a growing demand for services, the news release states.

The clinic announced in 2014 that it would expand and build new headquarters with help from a $10 million grant from St. David's Foundation.

Authur said the opening of the North Austin facility will bring the clinic closer to many of its patients, almost half of whom live within two miles of the Camino La Costa location.

With more ability to handle increased demand, clinic directors expect the organization could serve more than 20,000 patients from the Austin and Central Texas area within the next several years.

The clinic's former location at 2909 N. IH 35 has been turned into the People's Community Clinic Center for Women's Health and offers reproductive health services, including prenatal care, cancer screening and family planning.