Another store has shuttered at Sunrise Mall, but there’s a glimmer of hope

By Sara Beth Williams–
The latest closure at Sunrise Mall is a volunteer-operated store that sought to provide clothing for those experiencing homeless and housing instability, but the store’s former manage says there’s a chance it could still re-open.

A sign posted on the door of the Underground Clothing Connection notifies the public that the store has permanently closed, and the closure was also confirmed by Citrus Heights Homeless Assistance Resource Team board member Kaylon McBride, who was the store’s former manager.

In an interview, McBride said the store had been experiencing difficulty in finding consistent volunteers for the past year, even with only being open for limited hours two days a week. McBride had reached out to multiple local nonprofit organizations for help in gaining more consistent volunteers for several months, but said at times, she operated the store all alone for several weekends in a row.

McBride said that Citrus Heights HART’s goal is to reopen the store with changes to make it a more sustainable operation, but more information regarding what kind of changes, and any timeline was not immediately available. McBride could not be reached a second time for comment before press time.

The idea for a clothing closet was a collaboration between Citrus Heights HART and the San Juan Unified School district McKinny-Vento liaison. The initial vision was to create a mobile clothing closet, but after two years of collecting clothing, the amount of donations became too great for McBride to bear alone. At one point McBride rented a trailer to house all of the donations that poured in from the community.

Finally, she approached other HART members to ask for help in finding a fixed location to establish the clothing closet. The Underground Clothing Connection opened in November of 2020 in the Sunrise Mall next to the former United Artist Theater.

All clothing to the store was donated by members of the community. Clothing from the Underground was given to referred SJUSD families and local families who are in financial need and receive some form of social services, families who are unhoused or in unstable housing, foster youth and families escaping violence.