They organized mutual aid in the same place for nearly a decade. Now they're being forced to move.

After nearly ten years, organizers at Bernie's coffee shop and their organization, Community Solidarity Project, are saying goodbye to the community hub that sustained their organizing. As they prepare to leave, Words About Work caught up with one organizer who reflected on their time in the neighborhood, the work they've done together, and what's next for the organization.

The organizing at Bernie's Coffee Shop began in the heady days of 2016 during the height of the first Bernie campaign. Volunteers with Bernie Sanders's LA campaign team were looking for a place to make their base of operations; the owners of the old Johnnie's Coffee Shop at Wilshire and Fairfax agreed to let them use the space.

From the beginning, the organizers at Bernies focused much of their energy on the logistics of organizing. "When it comes to organizing in our communities, there's a lot of protests, right? A lot of events, but some of those events and protests [are] not well organized," said organizer Karla Estrada, who has been working with Community Solidarity Project for the last three years. "Everybody focuses on 'who's the speaker, how many speakers? Are there banners? The front-facing of what it means to organize something of that scale. But sometimes they forget about, 'okay, do we have toilet paper? Do we have medical assistance? Do we have water if it's a hot day? This is where we came in."

Focusing on the logistics of organizing—receiving and distributing donations, helping groups plan the nuts and bolds of events and marches, etc.,—became good practice for a series of crises that hit Los Angeles since 2020. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, volunteers worked together to provide PPE and other items to families in need.

In January 2025, as the wildfires raged at opposite ends of Los Angeles, organizers sprung into the action. I reported on the astonishing amount of mutual aid happening in the city at the time—Community Solidarity Project was amongst those groups working to support affected families. Their mostly-dormant COVID-era networks sprung back into life to try and organize help for the hundreds of families who were suddenly without a home or a stable place to stay.

Organizers drove carloads full of supplies all over the county, dropping off needed essentials to families wherever they were staying. Bernie's Coffee Shop became a hub for receiving donations. "We created a system [and] gathered over 250 contact information of [community] members affected by the fires, and instead of them coming to us to obtain resources like shampoo or toothpaste, we instead would deliver directly to them," Estrada said. Eventually, Bernie's Coffee Shop couldn't hold the sheer amount of donations they were receiving, and they sought out additional storage premises nearby. Enter the 99cent store on Fairfax and Wilshire.

As the wildfires were contained and the acute crisis fell away, another one was right on its heels: the Trump administration's anti-trans agenda sent some in the LGBTQIA+ community into hiding, and then in June 2025, the city of LA was besieged by hundreds of Border Patrol and ICE officers conducting large-scale immigration raids all over the city. Mixed status families, LGBT siblings, and others who were affected by the influx in violent policing on the streets were struggling to make ends meet.

What began as a place to hold the donation overflow eventually became what was known in the neighborhood as Free99: a place for anyone to come and 'shop' for needed essentials without needing to jump through any number of intrusive hoops to access aid.

Mutual Aid, Not Charity

The organizers of Community Solidarity Project insist on engaging in the practice of mutual aid. They are members of the communities that they serve, and volunteer their time for free: they are not paid and most hold full-time jobs outside of their organizing.

Estrada, who worked as an immigrant rights organizer for over a decade before joining CoSoP, was adamant on this fact. "We don't consider ourselves charity. We don't consider ourselves philanthropy. We hate that word, actually," she said. "We're community members helping other community members, and we wanted to give them the dignity of doing so without any of the strings that many other organizations ask for" like tax returns or personal information. Estrada estimates that Free99 regularly serviced over 100 families in need each week that it was in operation.

Given the severity of the ICE raids, organizers were keen to ensure the safety of the families who might make use of Free99. "We wanted to also protect our immigrant community members, and so there's not record of them and they can shop in our store without the work that ICE might come in," Estrada said.

She characterizes much of this work as "unsexy," and happening in the background. "With [Community Solidarity Project], it's down and dirty in the background," Estrada said. "We do so much work with zero recognition most of the time." For Estrada, who worked in public-facing roles in her previous organizing, this is exactly what impressed her about the organization as she considered joining it. "[It's] something that I really wanted to be part of because after being in public for so long, I was really searching for a home for my organizing skills that I can be myself and still help my community."

An eviction, a fundraiser, and a new chapter

The free store was in operation for a little over a year before the building owners tendered an eviction notice earlier this year: the group was operating in the building completely rent-free and the owners were keen to rent the premises to paying tenants. A couple weeks later, the owners, who also owned Bernie's Coffee Shop, sent the same notice to the group and asked them to vacate the cafe. (Disclaimer: I volunteered my time organizing shelves at the Free99 store in the weeks before its closure.)

Their last day in the cafe is Sunday, April 19, 2026.

For Estrada, the suddenly notice to vacate was devastating after so many years of good work in the space, though not entirely unexpected. "We always knew it was temporary," she said. While expressing a deep thankfulness to the owners for the time they were given in the space, the short time-to-vacate meant that the organization couldn't properly notify the families who were making regular use of Free99 and the resources at Bernies. "To this day, our families still go to Saturday night in hopes that we open, and it's devastating."

This isn't the end, however. Organizers have been working diligently to find a more permanent space for their Really Really Free Store, and are looking forward to rebuilding their community hub elsewhere in the city. While they haven't yet found another space, they are fundraising for that eventuality.

To celebrate nearly 10 years of local grassroots organizing and mutual aid, and to help them prepare for what's next, CoSoP is holding a Goodbye Rager and Silent Auction Fundraiser on Saturday, August 18, "from 2pm to Late." They hope to raise enough funds to secure a new organizing and community space to ensure that they can continue serving the community that they love.

To support the organizers at Community Solidarity Project, the Silent Auction fundraiser is available online, as well as a general fundraiser. For locals, the goodbye party will run all day on April 18th, and organizers encourage people to come by, have a drink, and share in the solidarity for one last time.