On April 26, Helping Hands for Homelessness hosted a community wellness resource fair in the Student Union Courtyard to provide essential services to unhoused people in the community. 

Helping Hands, the student organization responsible for organizing the event, was founded by president Katarina Cedolin in 2024, inspired by her previous service work in her home town. As noted by Cedolin, this event was the first time SDSU or any public university has held a resource fair on its main campus that is fully run and led by students. 

“One thing that is not recognized enough is that we are all humans and we’re all a part of this community,” Cedolin said. “I know that if I was going through a time of need, I would definitely want someone to be there to support me and provide me with resources.” 

With a little over a year of planning for the event, Cedolin emphasized having to turn down volunteers due to the sheer volume of people wanting to get involved. Only about 130 volunteers were accommodated to help out with the event, with more than 300 students and faculty expressing interest. 

“It’s really nice, but it also makes me kind of sad we haven’t had something like this because clearly so many people in our community are incredibly supportive and passionate about it,” she said.

Local service-oriented organizations also partnered with Helping Hands to make the event possible, including Vituity Cares, Goodwill, the Lucky Duck Foundation, New Day Urban Ministries, California Barber and Beauty College and Crossroads San Diego.

Together, they helped provide guests with complimentary haircuts, clothing and food.

Faculty and student volunteers, with support from the Project for Sanitation Justice (PSJ) and SDSU’s Sociology Club, helped run each station and engaged with attendees, inviting them to receive the services they needed. Student nurses also helped facilitate health services and medical examinations to check on guests throughout the event. 

“The services that we offer at this event, like the medical examinations and haircuts, give dignity back to people and help them take back a piece of themselves that they probably lost,” said Nazia Tazin, Helping Hands’ director of research operations.

Tazin added that many people experiencing housing insecurity face negative stigma surrounding the topic of homelessness. She attributes the issue to systemic and inadequate policies that everyday people are indirectly affected by, noting that most people are closer to homelessness than they think. 

In San Diego County, roughly 4,191 people are unhoused, either sheltered or unsheltered, according to a 2025 point-in-time count conducted by the Regional Task Force on Homelessness. 

Megan Welsh Carroll, Ph.D., founding director of PSJ and faculty advisor for Helping Hands, added that in 2017, San Diego faced an outbreak of Hepatitis A that was directly related to a lack of bathroom access. 

Carroll and her multidisciplinary research team of students collect data aimed to provide equitable access to water, sanitation and hygiene. During the event, they supplied guests with hygiene and sanitation kits consisting of body wipes, menstrual products, hand sanitizers, and much more, along with a map to locate public restrooms. 

“Those of us who have housing take for granted the fact that we can use a toilet whenever we want or take a shower whenever we want,” Carroll said. “This is an immediate way that we can help another person feel human.”

Throughout the event, attendees and volunteers had the opportunity to connect as services were provided. 

Jimmy Ray Maseda, an unhoused community member who recently moved to California from Texas, shared that people experiencing homelessness are often cast aside. 

“You know how many people walk by us?” Maseda said. “They act like we don’t exist. We have a voice, we have flaws, but at the end of the day we are all human.” 

He added that a small gesture, as simple as waving your hand, makes him feel alive and acknowledged, as opposed to feeling invisible. The event allowed him a space to connect with others like Claudia Funes, who he bonded with over their similar ages and birthdates. 

“We’re 70’s babies,” Maseda said. “We barely met, but she’s already made me laugh and that’s rare for me.”

The pair also shared a sense of hope despite their current circumstances. Funes felt strongly that things were going to get better and Maseda, in agreement, was excited for a fresh start in California. 

Maseda, in regards to the volunteers at the event, said, “Good people like you all give me encouragement.”