Mobile Clinic Project at UCLA holds thrift shop event for the homeless

Clothes laid neatly stacked on tables as students lined the hallway outside the Kerckhoff Art Gallery, trying to peep a look at the goods they might be bringing home with them Monday night.

The Mobile Clinic Project at UCLA organized its first-ever thrift shop event to collect clothing and other items for homeless individuals in West Hollywood. For every three items that students brought to the shop, including clothes and books, they would receive a ticket in exchange to choose one item to bring back home.

Mobile Clinic Project members now plan to deliver the remaining clothing to West Hollywood, said Ariana Gobaud, co-chair of the Outreach Committee at the Mobile Clinic Project, who helped at the event. The books donated will be put into a library collection for the homeless population, said Gobaud, a fourth-year human biology and society student.

About 300 students attended the event, and the Mobile Clinic Project had collected 30 trash bags of clothes by the end of it.

The Mobile Clinic Project, a UCLA student-run streetside clinic, has provided free medical, social and legal services to homeless people in West Hollywood since 2002, said Jimmy Zheng, a third-year biology student and co-chair of the Outreach Committee. To put on the clinic, students in the group must regularly apply for grants and hold fundraisers.

Every Wednesday night, roughly 10 to 15 of the group’s undergraduate caseworkers arrive at the corner of Romaine Street and North Sycamore Avenue to partner with UCLA medical students to help their clients receive shelter, food and medical services. Another smaller group goes to the Ocean Park Community Center in Santa Monica every Saturday to provide the same service to the local homeless population, according to the group’s website.

“(The street clinic) is a gateway for the homeless people to get more consistent health care,” said Melissa Sun, a fourth-year biology student and a main organizer of the clinic.

Carly Kawanishi, one of the main organizers of the event and a caseworker for the Outreach Committee, said she came up with the idea for the event after watching The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and seeing individuals on the show swap clothes among themselves to keep up-to-date with the latest fashions.

“It’s like taking an idea that serves the upperclass to serve the underclass,” said Kawanishi, who graduated from UCLA last year.

Sierra Wiley, a second-year undeclared student, brought 21 pieces of clothing to the thrift shop and left with a pile of new clothes. She said she found out about the event through Facebook and wanted to expand her wardrobe.

Many volunteers at the event said they find their work at the project rewarding.

Elias Saba, a fourth-year physiological science student and a caseworker for the group, said he enjoys listening to what each person he helps has to share because he gets to hear about some eye-opening experiences.

“Everyone has his or her stories,” Saba said.

Saba said homelessness concerns him because he strongly believes that everyone has the right to health care, and he sees the Mobile Clinic Project as crucial in helping the homeless get the aid and assistance they need.

Justine Angeles, a fourth-year microbiology, immunology, and molecular genetics student who works on the project’s grant-writing committee, said she and other members spend long hours writing applications to request grants from the Associated Students UCLA.

She said events like the thrift shop are important to the group’s efforts because the clinic needs consistent funding, and grant-writing is not always enough.

Group members plan to deliver the clothing and books over the next months as they visit the clinic site each week, Gobaud said.