Joe, wearing a Sentinel High School T-shirt and a ball cap, works for Wal-Mart, John for the city. John's clothes are considerably nicer, a fact that embarrasses him a little on this day.
Joe has some lunch meat, a bowl of soup and some bread. John passes on lunch.
Joe tells John about his life, a touching, proud story that is resilient and hopeful and hard to hear because it doesn't make sense that a man works 40 hours a week and has to come down to an event for the “homeless” to get free food and clothing.
“I just can't make the ends meet up,” Joe tells John.
Joe's story is particularly hard on John, whose job as mayor of Missoula makes him feel more than a little responsibility for the welfare of its citizens.
“It's hard to hear that,” John says later. “It's hard to see all these people here today. I think we've got a caring community, and it's nice to see people helping out. But fundamentally, it's tough when you realize the depth of the problem.”
Thursday was Missoula's second annual “Project Homeless Connect,” a program born in San Francisco and spirited by the disaster that was Hurricane Katrina.
“The community response to this is fantastic,” said Melissa Gordon of the At-Risk Housing Coalition, which sponsored the event. “It's a tough problem, but seeing the community address it like this is heartening.”
For what's being offered on this one day, nobody needs money. Everything - the food, the clothes, a haircut, some legal advice, a bike helmet, some health care, a chat with a social worker - is free.
Each person is paired with a volunteer who helps him negotiate the maze of services and goods available.
A woman who says her name is Janine needs many of the services offered at the one-stop center that is the First United Methodist Church on Thursday.
“I guess I need to talk to people who are normal more than anything,” she said. “I wasn't always homeless, and the thing that is really hard for me is dealing with all the other homeless people who have mental issues.”
That's not a surprise, the link between mental illness and homelessness, but the face-to-face nature of the problem hit volunteers hard.
“I guess I never realized how closely they're linked,” said volunteer Ellie Larsen. “It's very difficult to see.”
It's also difficult to resolve, even in Missoula, which has a decent mental-health care system.
“Even though we provide pretty good services, the fact is we can never really do enough,” said Jean Curtiss, Missoula County commissioner and a volunteer at Thursday's event. “This is really enough to break your heart.”
But the homeless don't have time for heartbreak. They have real needs. James, in fact, needs everything, but what he really wants is a haircut.
“It's just one of the things that goes when you're living outside,” he said with a smile as he waited in line for a trim. “I'm pretty good at getting the important stuff like food. But sometimes I forget I even have hair.”
A few seconds later he's washing his hair in the sink, fluffing it dry with a sparkling white towel and waiting for a trim.
“I will be styling after this, my friend,” he says. “Be sure to come back and get my picture.”
Others are not nearly so happy. They are fighting unseen demons of the mind, conspiracies that intrude on their every moment. It's hard to order soup when everybody is watching your every move.
“I don't have a volunteer,” said a man who wouldn't give his name. “I'm not telling them everything about myself. You don't know who they work for.”
“We've seen a lot of people today and they've generally got a story to tell you,” said Laura Smrcka, a social worker who staffed the mental health services room. “Mental health is so closely tied to the reasons they're in these situations.”
By lunch, more than 200 people have come through the doors. Gordon has had to call in more volunteers to deal with the crush, and volunteers have finished with their first clients and are waiting for others.
Joe is gone, but another man named Joe has arrived. James has a haircut. Jean Curtiss is a bit stunned by the magnitude of the problem, but heartened by her community's response.
John, the mayor, is still taking in his lunch with Joe, the reality of Joe's hard work, the torment of him not having enough to get by.
“This is pretty sobering,” he said. “Seeing people who are working and still struggling to get by.”
He pauses, looks up and says: “We could probably use something like this every day.”
Reporter Michael Moore can be reached at 523-5252 or at mmoore@missoulian.com
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