A little after 11 a.m. on the last day of September in the parking lot of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store in Lincoln Heights:

The big cardboard boxes were overflowing with used shirts, blouses, blue jeans, baby outfits and other clothes. The price certainly seemed right - $30 for everything you could stuff into a 44-gallon blue plastic bag. But only a dozen mostly Hispanic women, men and children were doing any serious shopping in this low-income neighborhood below Dodger Stadium.

Salvador Jacobo, wearing a straw hat, green T-shirt and jeans, was one of them. In fact, the 38-year-old man had brought along three of his kids, who were out of school because of the Jewish holiday, Rosh Hashanah, to help load up the van with clothes. He readily confessed this was his sole means of livelihood in these hard times. He purchased clothes and other items at St. Vincent's, and sometimes turned a small profit by reselling them at swap meets.

"They have very good prices and good stuff," Jacobo said. "And this is my business. Right now the economy is too down, and there are no jobs, no nothing. That is why I come - to buy and sell."

Older daughter Solmayra, 14, who translated her father's words, was nodding. "It's helped our family," she agreed, "and then we help other families by selling things they need."

After loading up bulging bags of clothing, the Jacobos planned on checking out the bargains inside the cavernous 46,300 square-foot store, too, which was selling every piece of furniture for half price until 2 p.m. on this hot Tuesday.

50-percent sale
When Tony Terrazas, director of operations for the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, Council of Los Angeles was asked about the half-price sale, he grinned before saying, "One, we need the money," with a deep laugh. "We need the revenue right now. This is the last day of our fiscal year.

"Also, it's a good thing for the community," he added. "Most of the people who shop here are local, and they get a chance to do a little treasure hunting. But it's been a little bit slow in terms of people coming into the store to buy things, compared to years prior."

Terrazas believes he knows why it's been an off year at the Society's L.A. and Oxnard stores. With the financial market crisis and economic downturn, which quickly trickled down to the poor, people living on the margins can no longer even afford to shop at thrift stores. The two locales are finishing the fiscal year some $175,000 in the red, which Terrazas says is bad for any nonprofit organization. Major cuts will have to be made, although, hopefully, not in programs.

"We're doing the 50-percent sale today, but the need is even going beyond that," he pointed out. "So we've been seeing a lot more free distribution of our stuff and expect that to be pretty high next year, too. Things are bad. If we were giving away the clothes for free, we'd have tons of people here today. I'm sure. And we might have to do that.

"I'm crossing my fingers," Terrazas said. "We're delaying building and other projects a lot, waiting to see how we come out of this downturn."

Middle class affected
For 14 years Catalina Miller has worked for the local Society of St. Vincent de Paul, and currently directs its 106 parish-based "conferences." Last year 1,800 Vincentian volunteers in these grass-roots groups gave more than 182,000 hours serving more than 260,000 individuals in need in Los Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. And about six months ago, Miller became aware of a distressing trend - a whole different category of people were asking for emergency assistance.

"We're so used to dealing with low-income, no-income families," the supervisor said. "But now the housing crunch and foreclosures and everything has affected middle class people. And I'm sure it's very, very difficult for them because these are people who have never asked for help. It's very humbling to ask for help.

"But now we're seeing them show up at the conferences, from Beverly Hills to San Pedro to the San Gabriel and San Fernando valleys, and even here at our headquarters," she reported. "And it's surprising. They say, 'You know, I've never had to do this before.'"

All during 2008, conference leaders have been telling Miller they're giving away more food to more families. In addition, conferences are getting urgent requests of up to $1,000 from families who have fallen far behind paying their utility bills.

And skyrocketing rents - fueled by homeowners who have lost their homes because of the subprime mortgage crisis and U.S. housing bubble bust - have placed a special burden on conferences to come up with rent payments. (In the first quarter of this year alone, the number of California homes in foreclosure jumped 327 percent, with an average of more than 500 per day, pushing families into the tight rental market.)

Miller talked about a young mother and her seven-year-old son who showed up at her office yesterday pleading for help in finding a place to stay. The disheveled pair had been living in a car. The single mom said, "I've never done this before, but I can't make it anymore. I need help."

After calling full-up shelters to no avail and giving the woman money for food, she sent the destitute urban wayfarers to a conference she hoped could help them to get at least partially back on their feet.

"It just breaks your heart, because you can only do so much," Miller said. "Our conferences are overloaded trying to help people. A month ago we went over budget as far as helping people with rent and mortgages.

"People who lose their homes need to go out and find a place to rent," she noted. "So we're seeing so many more people coming for rent. I've got so many more people asking for help. In 14 years, I've never seen it like this."

'Car visits'
Neither has Claire Padama, a member of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul for two decades. For six years she was president of the Mother of Good Counsel conference in the Los Feliz area. Currently the 66-year-old woman is president of Our Lady of the Angels District, one of the busiest of the L.A. Council's six districts under which the conferences fall.

"It used to be that conferences only helped people in their parish," she explained. "But now a lot of people are coming from other parishes seeking help. People who are out of jobs, families being evicted. All kinds of people are being affected."

Padama says it's always been a Society requirement that Vincentians make a home visit for any rental assistance request. "But now we have people living in their cars," she observed. "So we have to do the interview in their cars."

Donations can be sent to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, Council of L.A., 210 N. Avenue 21, Los Angeles, CA 90031. For information on the Society, call (323) 224-6287 or e-mail: olreyes@svdpla.org.