A closet for all: Local nonprofit on a mission to clothe San Diegans
Sharia’s Closet provides free, quality clothing for people in need
Written by Brittany Cruz-Fejeran, Edited by Kate Morrissey
A volunteer in a room filled with shelves, bins and racks of women's clothes on a recent Friday glanced at the Emergency Clothing Request Form in her hand — among its requests, casual dresses.
She sifted through a container, looking for the right match.
The nonprofit Sharia’s Closet, where the volunteer was working, partners with over 200 organizations including Episcopal Community Services, Family Justice Center and Survivors of Torture International to provide emergency clothing to people across San Diego County.
Partnered organizations or individuals can request clothes.
Preparing orders is like having a conversation with a friend, according to Shamine Linton, founder of the organization. The volunteers take into account the requester's style and even favorite color in making their selections.
The closet aims to receive and fulfill 100 orders a day from people who need free, quality clothes, according to Rebecca Alvarez, office manager at the El Cajon location. Volunteers put each order — a week’s worth of clothes, socks, shoes, undergarments, blankets and toiletries based on availability — in a purple Bag of Hope.
“The people we serve deserve to be treated with compassion, dignity, integrity and respect,” Linton said.
It was her childhood dream to create a service that helps people in need, but it wasn’t until her daughter Sharia was hospitalized in 2013 that she felt the push to make her dream a reality, she said.
“We almost lost her when she was 5,” Linton said. “I wasn’t going to make any more excuses to not be of service.”
She began the closet on her patio, she said. She told people that she was taking clothing donations, and if they knew anyone who needed clothes, to send them her way.
A family displaced by a house fire was among the first people Linton helped. She gathered clothes for every member of that family, furnished their new home and collected Christmas presents for the children through community donations.
“It’s something I’ll never forget,” she said. “We don’t expect to have everything you own engulfed in flames and to lose it all.”
Linton called the project a family endeavor. Her kids would wash shoes in their backyard while Linton and her husband folded and sorted clothes. Running a donation center in her own home was at times overwhelming for her family, she said, but she felt it was a good learning opportunity for her children.
“(Helping others) was teaching them kindness, compassion and empathy for those that are less fortunate in bringing exposure to them so they can see we’re surrounded by it within our community,” she said.
The nonprofit has helped 64,000 people since its opening, partnering with over 200 community groups, according to the organization.
Linton said she invites every person who makes a donation to see what the closet does with it. She said when a community is invited to be a part of the solution, it creates a connection between the person and the issue.
Linton said donations to Sharia's Closet are treated like a gift from one friend to another. All of the clothing the organization receives goes directly to someone in need, she said.
On that Friday, at the main office, volunteers sorted clothes, checked the quality of each piece and folded the items to bring into rooms designated for infants and toddlers, children, women and men’s clothing. In each room, a volunteer or stylist read client requests in clothing size and style and created outfits based on those preferences. Later, Sharia’s Closet staff would call to inform the client or organization that the order was ready for pickup.
Maya Nunez, now volunteer supervisor, started as a volunteer in 2023 before getting hired to her current position. Before finding Sharia’s Closet, she battled homelessness and substance abuse for eight years, she said, and lost her daughter to Child Protective Services as a result.
“I know what it feels not to have anything,” Nunez said. “So the day I came (to Sharia’s Closet), that's why I just fell in love.”
She said she is dedicated to the closet’s cause because the demand for help is seemingly endless. Bags of Hope line almost every wall at the El Cajon donation center and cover the floors because of the amount of orders the organization gets every day.
Since working with the organization, Nunez said she was able to get her life back together. She said she is proud of her new apartment and car and, especially, getting her daughter back.
“Everything is so expensive,” she said. “I've seen the stories of our clients, that a lot of clients are homeless, families living in cars, and if it wasn't for Sharia’s closet, a lot of people couldn't have clothes.”
Sharia’s Closet has locations in San Marcos, downtown San Diego, Chula Vista and its headquarters in the College Area.
Linton said because of the high demand for free, quality clothing, the closet's inventory often lacks the most requested items, especially boys’ and mens’ clothing.
Alvarez agreed. She said she has pending orders from January for mens’ sizes 4x, 5x and 6x.
“I haven’t canceled it because I’m in hope,” Alvarez said. “So it’s very sad, and we try to do the best we can with what we have, but we wish we could provide a little bit more for the men, too.”
Instead of donating clothes to thrift stores to be sold for profit, San Diegans can give the items to Sharia's Closet, she said.
“We're just here to help the people in need with the resources we have,” she said.
Sharia’s Closet also needs clothes for infants sizes 2T to 5T, boys’ and girls’ attire, backpacks, toys, casual shoes for women, underwear and products for hygiene kits, including deodorant, shampoo, conditioner, bodywash, lotion, hand sanitizer, toothbrushes and toothpaste.
But, what the organization needs most is a forever home, Linton said.
She envisioned what a space for the organization would look like since she started giving away clothes from her patio.
She said she imagined a house with multiple bedrooms to use as a walk-in closet for the community. The house would also have a donation center, a hygiene station, makeup area and a salon — all provided for free.
Alvarez said that sometimes the organization doesn’t have enough volunteers or donations to complete its daily goal of 100 orders.
“But today, we’ve had a full day, thankfully, from a couple organizations who came in, and I think we’ll get our 100 bags today,” Alvarez said on that recent Friday.
People needing emergency clothing can use the organization's Emergency Clothing Request Form. Interested volunteers can apply online.
The organization maintains a list of most needed items as well as items it does not accept. Sharia’s Closet requests clothes that are gently loved and separated by size and gender for more efficient sorting. The organization also accepts monetary donations.
