Southern Nevada medic group bridges gaps in homeless community with ‘Sidewalk Sundays’

Down in the Historic Westside, behind a mosque, stand two tents and an RV that operate a medical clinic for unhoused individuals every week. With limited equipment and a volunteer system, The People’s Medic supplies medical care to Las Vegas’ most vulnerable communities. 

Tomi Love and her wife, Jasmine Lazaro, are both registered nurses who created The People’s Medic to provide free first-aid education, health screenings, street medicine, food, and resources to unhoused individuals. After working in hospitals for over five years, they both decided to take health care into their own hands. 

Following the No Kings protests in June 2025, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department officers dispersed tear gas on protesters; Love and Lazaro prepared themselves and others the next day while protesting. They brought supplies to the protests and started classes teaching people how to protect themselves from tear gas.

Love said she wanted to provide the public with the skills and education she learned as a registered nurse to prepare them for medical emergencies. 

“I would do a lot of research, and I would just be out [at protests] with all my flyers,” Love said. 

From there, Love and Lazaro attended more protests, including anti-ICE protests in January where they carried medical kits, N95 masks, and milk of magnesia to administer if needed. 

Lazaro says her own experience of growing up in the Philippines also inspired the birth of The People’s Medic.

“When I was 17 years old in the Philippines, I obtained my Bachelor of Science in Nursing, and we did a lot of community health work,” Lazaro said. “We would visit people’s houses and communities, and we would do health fairs. I was the president of the nursing organization, Southville International Organization for Nursing Students, and we would organize helpers such as this, and that was really my inspiration.” 

The People’s Medic slowly grew, and Love filed for a business license in February. Love said the name came to her in the middle of the night, reflecting the organization’s purpose. 

The birth of Sidewalk Sundays

In March, the day after the third “No Kings” nationwide protests, The People’s Medic was invited by the Las Vegas chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) to join their Sunday Solidarity event to distribute resources to the local unhoused community. 

Love said DSA “knew that there was some people out there who hadn’t had health checks.” During their visit, they noticed people suffering from heat illness, insufficient hydration, wounds on their feet, and several other health issues. 

DSA’s Sunday Solidarity occurs every month, but Love and Lazaro saw the need for someone to be out there every week to check on the health of the unhoused community. 

“We went back the next Sunday just by ourselves with another friend,” Love said. “It kinda spiraled from there. People would want to stay in the shade because anywhere there’s a ‘no trespassing’ sign, they can’t hang out in the shade; they’ll get arrested.” 

The People’s Medic named their own operation “Sidewalk Sundays” and has consistently shown up at the same location DSA first invited them to in the Historic Westside at the intersection of W McWilliams Ave. and G St. The location is on a street behind a mosque, which Love said had no problem with their operation. 

The organization is currently seeing 50-75 people every Sunday. 

Sidewalk Sundays occur in the early morning for three hours to avoid the blazing Southern Nevadan sun. The People’s Medic has a table full of various foods and resources for visitors to grab. 

Volunteers assist in health check-ins and distributing the free goods, some even providing the supplies themselves. 

While they do not administer or prescribe medication, Love and Lazaro also operate Releaf PLLC, a separate entity created to treat non-emergency primary care needs. Through Releaf PLLC, Lazaro can prescribe medication to individuals regardless of insurance or documentation status. 

Love and Lazaro said when they began, the people who came to see them were “walking heart attacks.” Love recalled a story of having to restore an unhoused man’s breathing with six doses of Narcan. 

“This guy, I was watching his chest to see if he [was] breathing,” Love said. “But I could tell he was pretty zonked on something. So towards the end of the day, we tried to wake him up and we couldn’t. And, so, I mean, I knew right away because I’ve been teaching it, fentanyl was probably in his drugs.” 

Love said that the man’s friends tried to dissuade her from administering Narcan as it was “bad for his heart.” Love said she then taught the crowd surrounding the man that Narcan does not cause or worsen heart problems. After administering the doses of Narcan, the man woke up with a smile, and he now comes to visit them every Sunday. 

“He has not had access to healthcare for two years, and he doesn’t have insurance,” Love said. “His main source of income was donating blood; he couldn’t donate blood anymore because his blood pressure was too high.” 

The man came to The People’s Medic after the incident seeking help to lower his blood pressure and secure his source of income once again. Lazaro was able to get his blood work done and prescribe him medication. 

“Within three days of him picking up those meds, his blood went from 210 over 108, which is a walking heart attack, to 140 over 70, which is almost perfect,” Love said. “That’s just a night-and-day difference (for) someone who just needed access.”

The connections formed between the unhoused individuals and The People’s Medic create a system of trust. Individuals return every week, knowing they can find refuge within that small section of the sidewalk. 

The People’s Medic receives donations through visibility on social media and partnerships with other organizations. DSA members donate medical kits and supplies, and Shine a Light Foundation, which provides assistance to people living in the Las Vegas tunnels, donates Narcan. Love and Lazaro said they have also personally contributed to cover costs

But as is the case with most public assistance organizations, whether public or private, the challenges are greater than the resources.

“We wanted to do sugar checks …just to see if their sugar was high,” Love said. “And then when their sugars were high, my first question was, ‘Hey, do you have your insulin?’ And they don’t. They can’t afford their insulin.” 

Because Lazaro can only prescribe the medication, and not provide it, Love said it almost feels like their hands are tied.

“I can check their sugars for diabetes, but unless we have the equipment, we have the tools, there’s not much else we can bring forward,” Love said.  

Love said a pharmacist volunteer recently joined their organization and is working towards registering them as a pharmacy entity to start accepting donated medication for those who need it. 

Bridging the gap

On top of running The People’s Medic and Releaf PLLC, as well as The Pet’s Medic, a branch of The People’s Medic which also appears on Sidewalk Sunday to give out food and resources for the pets of unhoused individuals, Love and Lazaro also work at a local outpatient healthcare clinic. 

Disillusioned by the health care system, the couple say they sought to make a difference on their own. 

After moving from California to Las Vegas, the two saw the desperate need for accessible healthcare for all individuals. 

“When you go on the streets like this, you see that they are in and out [of the healthcare system], pump and dump,” Love said. “They don’t have access to their meds; they can’t afford their meds. There’s just so many gaps that we are even still learning about and trying to work around.” 

Along with Love and Lazaro, their volunteers also help in any way they can. David Roman protested during the No Kings rally and saw how he could use his expertise as a health insurance agent to aid The People’s Medic. 

“I’m certified for Medicare, so I have resources where if they’re not sure if their benefits are active, if they have Medicaid, if they’re disabled and eligible for Medicare, they can fill out a scope of appointment, and then I can look into that stuff for them and report back to them,” Roman said. “I think a lot of us use our careers and see where it fits into this project.” 

Roman also brings water, food, clothes, and even socks gifted to him during Christmas to give out to the community. Since volunteering with The People’s Medic, he has seen the impact in the local community. 

“It’s been just a massive outpouring of support, especially in this neighborhood,” Roman said. “I mean, what you see here is probably a good five, six times [what] they started. So more people coming out, and more people bringing food and supplies. It’s absolutely grown.” 

The People’s Medic has also expanded to Reno, hosting a medic preparedness class in partnership with DSA and Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada (PLAN). As the organization grows, Roman said they’re continuing to make the experience better for the community. 

“We’re talking and texting, ‘How can we make it better?’” Roman said. “We want to add stations to make this kind of like a full experience for people to figure out if they have their benefits, get a checkup, sit down, have something to eat, maybe talk to each other with a little less survival mode in the back of their mind.” 

Love and Lazaro say what started as Sidewalk Sundays became a way for the pair to help make a mark on the world. 

“We were getting so frustrated with what’s happening in our society… if you want to see the change in the world, you gotta start with yourself,” Lazaro said. “And that’s what we did.”