Flu Medicine and a Friendly Ear

On an unseasonably cold and windy night in Hollywood, no one seemed to take much notice as about a dozen college students emerged from a white and blue van and unloaded a tarp, cots, tables, chairs and plastic file boxes. There, on a desolate city street corner, they opened up shop for the night.

A few feet away, their prospective clients, a large group of homeless people, stood in line waiting for a free meal and some medical help.

Kevin Riley, 27, a UCLA doctoral student, walked up and down the line with a pen and clipboard.

“Does anyone need to see the doctor tonight?” he asked.

The doctors that night were UCLA medical students, public health students and undergraduates who volunteer three or four times a month to provide basic medical care to the city’s homeless. Officially known as the UCLA/Greater West Hollywood Food Coalition Mobile Clinic Project, the group has been caring for the homeless at the intersection of Sycamore Avenue and Romaine Street in Hollywood since October 2000.

As Riley worked his way along the line, one by one, people told him what bothered them.

Most, like Jonathan Morales, 32, were suffering from cold symptoms.

“I just need some medicine for my throat and cough,” said Morales, a former janitor who makes his home on nearby Santa Monica Boulevard with his girlfriend, Cecilia.

Some wanted hygiene products and blankets. The rest just looked forward to talking to a friendly, nonjudgmental person.

Like a receptionist at your primary care physician’s office, Riley wrote down their names and complaints, and told them the doctor would see them soon. The mobile clinic is a few feet from where the Greater West Hollywood Food Coalition has provided food every night for more than a decade. The group, like the people it serves, has had its share of unfortunate times.

In 1990, the group was driven out of its first gathering spot in Plummer Park, and in 1999, was evicted from its kitchen behind the historic Farmers Market. It is currently cooking meals in a donated space on nearby La Brea Avenue. Now the volunteers are joined every Wednesday by the UCLA students, who usually see clients after they have finished eating.

It’s a perfect place for a mobile medical facility, said Ted Landreth, a Food Coalition volunteer. About two years ago, the organization approached UCLA’s school of public health looking for young, energetic volunteers. The students served the food but suggested that maybe there was more they could do.

“We discovered there was a tremendous need for medical services,” said Koy Parada, 31, a doctoral student and one of the mobile clinic’s founders.

They formed a steering committee and recruited medical students, undergraduates and faculty advisors. With some modest funding from the school, they were able to lease their van and buy basic medical supplies, such as plastic gloves and anti-fungal medication.

Most nights, the volunteers see 10 to 15 patients.

The students have provided medical services to about 200 people in the last year and a half, Parada said. More than 400 homeless have received referrals, hygiene items or clothing from the students.

Their clients suffer from respiratory problems and colds and flu. The students treat a lot of cuts and bruises, foot fungus and general foot problems. The clients also ask for condoms and contraception and for information on how to prevent sexually transmitted diseases. The majority of the volunteers’ time is spent referring patients to social service agencies and free clinics and hospitals.

On this cold night, the students saw all types of cases.

There was the HIV-positive woman, known as Ms. Candy, who was suffering from diarrhea and a swollen middle finger. They gave her some pills for the diarrhea, which they think might be a symptom of withdrawal from drugs, and told her that her finger needs to be examined in a medical office.

“Is there anything else we can do for you?” asked medical student Janine Roach, 24.

“I wish you had some naked men for me,” the woman joked. With that, she and her shopping cart made their way down Romaine.

Emerging from another examining room was Paul Knobbe, 38, who needed Tylenol to ease pain in his knees caused when he was hit by a car two weeks ago. He’s been on the streets only five months, but you learn pretty quickly where to go for help, he said, shivering in the night’s unrelenting wind.

“If it wasn’t for this, there really wouldn’t be a place where I could or want to go,” Knobbe said. “Some places are hard to find or they treat you differently because you’re homeless. These guys don’t care if you’re homeless or not, because they know that underneath it all you’re still a human being.”

With no running water or electricity, the students can provide only limited services. But most days, all their clients ask for is time and attention.

“More than anything we offer an ear,” said medical student Walter Coppenrath, 25. “Being out there is especially lonely. Sometimes we might not be able to give them anything more than vitamins and shampoo, but we’re able to provide them company without judgment.”

It’s one of the reasons Jeffrey Castillo, 35, keeps coming back. He’s been to the mobile clinic 13 times. In one of two examining rooms, volunteer Jo Marie Janco, a UCLA undergrad, listened patiently as Castillo chatted about nothing in particular. As if at an old friend’s home, he kicked off his shoes and socks and ate his dinner.

“It’s too ... hard to be without stuff, you know?” Castillo said. The conversation turned to his feet, which had been overrun by fungus when he came to the clinic a few weeks ago.

“So have you been doing a lot of walking?” Janco asked. “Your feet look a lot better than they did two weeks ago.”

“I got new shoes.”

A few minutes later, as the heavy winds threatened to send the tarp flying, Janco rubbed Castillo’s feet with anti-fungal powder as he ate his dinner of pasta and vegetables.

“I love these guys,” he said.