KOMO 4 News ran a great story about our Community Resource Exchange, which featured Rick Mascarenas, a man who lost his job, became homeless and is working to get back on his feet. Click here to watch the clip.

You may notice a guy in an orange shirt with glasses who seems to be helping out Rick. That’s Michael Benneke, our communications director at United Way of King County. Here’s more about Rick, as told by Michael.

I had the privilege of guiding a man named Rick around the event. Mid-40’s and soft-spoken, he told me that he’s the son of mother who’s a proud Chippewa, and an Hispanic father who was a surgeon in the Air Force until alcohol destroyed him.

A mason with a specialty in decorative brickwork, Rick worked for a number of years on crews that built luxury homes, chiefly around Pomona, California. When the economy turned sour, and construction dried up, he made his way to Seattle in the hope that there would be work here. There wasn’t, and it wasn’t long before Rick lost his housing. For the last 18 months, he’s been living outdoors or occasionally finding a shelter bed. He says it was particularly rough in late December, when all the snow fell. He described sharing a blanket on New Year’s night with a 74-year-old man, both of them homeless under an overpass.

When he arrived at the CRE this morning, Rick had been staying for a couple of nights at the Union Gospel Mission. He hoped that coming to our event would help him find a more stable situation, and perhaps a work opportunity.

But first there was the matter of a painfully throbbing tooth. Since I knew that only about 25 people would be able to have dental procedures today, I guided Rick quickly to the intake area. It was fast determined that the tooth would need to be extracted. I left Rick with the Medical Teams International crew, and then circled back later.

Now housing was the top issue. We stopped and talked to one agency, and learned that their focus is families facing homelessness, not individuals who have already slipped. So we walked over to another agency — same thing. In the case of both agencies, we learned that they might have help if Rick were employed, and if he were trying to rent an apartment and needed first /last/security deposit. Nice to know, but not of much help here and now.

Rick grew irritated. “This is all just a big show. There’s not really help to be had here. I’m just getting the runaround. This is just politicians trying to making themselves look like they care.”

Enter the day’s heroine, Dora, at the adjacent table of Pioneer Human Services. She’d overheard this, and piped up with a question to one of her colleagues: “There’s a respite stay available, am I right?”

Yes there was, and it feels sorta like (really, too much like) a miracle. I guess there are only four of these respite beds that Pioneer has at any time — statewide. If you get one, you can remain for thirty days, provided you stay clean and sober. You can use the time to regroup.

With the help of a shy, earnest, bear-sized man named Chris, we got Rick signed up, and discovered then that Pioneer has a sizable and successful job-placement program. Chris related that he had himself benefited from Pioneer’s help long ago. He said to Rick: “here’s an opportunity; it’s up to you to do something with it.”

Rick’s posture shifted; an almost visible weight had been lifted. He had some breathing room.

As the day continued, we secured a number of other services. A voicemail account. A haircut. A hot meal. A savings account with a new credit union. A portrait.

Maybe it’s obvious that I became determined to take full advantage of all that was amassed in this one place on this one day. The experience with the housing providers had made vivid how valuable it is to have many providers clustered — and how frustrating and demoralizing it could be if you had to make your own way from place to place on the bus, or — in Rick’s case — on foot. (He hadn’t even a dollar when he walked through the door this morning.)

Over lunch, I asked Rick if he felt like he was a victim of the harsh economy. He bristled. “I’m not a victim,” he said.” “I have my setbacks. I’ve made some mistakes. But I’ve got a lot of blessings. Look around.”