A Place Of His Own Has Special Meaning To Formerly Homeless Man

PHOENIX, AZ — Michael Brinkman, 60, stepped into his own apartment on Aug. 20 after years of couch surfing and sleeping on the sidewalk.

With the help of Phoenix Rescue Mission, Brinkman qualified for an Emergency Housing Voucher made available through the American Rescue Plan, a federal COVID-19 relief bill.

It felt great to finally have his own place, Brinkman said as he sat at the table in his Glendale apartment Friday, but he was already looking toward the future.

“I want to get a job and get back on my feet,” he said.

Brinkman was just one of around 7,400 people in Maricopa County who experienced homelessness on a daily basis, according to the Rescue Mission, a Christian nonprofit aimed at helping those facing homelessness, hunger, addiction and trauma.

“It felt amazing,” said Brian Farretta, the mission’s housing case manager, of seeing Brinkman in his new home. “He’s the prime example of a good tenant. He just deserves it.”

While many of the mission’s clients qualify for the housing vouchers, they face additional barriers to finding housing. Some complexes won’t take residents who have a felony on their record within the past 10 years, which is a problem for some of the mission’s clients.

Brinkman is a hardworking animal lover who is always willing to help others in need, according to the people who know him. He also struggled at times with substance abuse and spent years in prison in the late 1980s and early 1990s on felony drug and burglary convictions, he said.

After working in event parking for the Pride Group at the State Farm Stadium for around five years, Brinkman lost his job when the pandemic struck and events were canceled. He and his co-workers figured they would only be out of work for a few weeks, so he initially made the mistake of not bothering to apply for unemployment. He later struggled to get the unemployment pay he was due.

Since then, Brinkman has searched for steady work while doing odd jobs around Glendale. He’s got experience in sanitation and maintenance but said that the felonies on his record, even though they’re 30 years old, still prevent him from being hired.

Brinkman’s niece, Cynthia Byrd, of Tucson, said she's seen the job search start to wear on her uncle as she helps him put in applications and listens in to his interviews only to find out later that another opportunity didn’t pan out.

Byrd cried when she found out about Brinkman’s new apartment.

“I definitely shed some tears, because he has somewhere safe now,” Byrd said. “He hasn’t had that for the longest time.”

She remembered him as the fun uncle who would take the kids to the park and to get ice cream, but also always made sure they ate some fruit for their health. Byrd described Brinkman as the type of person who would give the shirt off his back to someone in need, even if he needed that shirt himself.

As a child, she watched her uncle hand out change to people who didn’t have money to use the pay phone, give sandwiches and drinks to the thirsty and the hungry and offer to help push stalled cars on the side of the road. A few years ago, Byrd’s husband was deployed to South Korea when her son was 7 days old. Even though she was too stubborn to ask for help, Brinkman stepped in to watch him while she went to doctor’s appointments and ran errands.

“He has never hesitated to assist others when they need it,” she said.

Even as he works to find employment and stay sober, Brinkman still feeds stray cats and dogs in his Glendale neighborhood and hands out sandwiches to those in need.

“I’m not a bad person,” Brinkman said. “I try to help if I can.”

Brinkman began working with the Rescue Mission last November as part of its Glendale Works crew. Glendale Works crews are made up of people experiencing homelessness who earn wages for picking up trash or removing brush in parks or around police and fire stations in Glendale. Brinkman credits Farretta and the others at the mission and Glendale Work for helping him turn things around.

Following the loss of his job and the deaths of his brother-in-law and his dog in short succession last year, Brinkman started drinking again. But he’s been sober for about 75 days and is determined to keep it that way.

“I don’t want to blow this,” Brinkman said.

Brinkman is far from the only person the mission helped this year. As of the end of July, the mission’s Street Outreach Team had helped get 120 men, women and children off the streets since launching a summer heat relief campaign in May.

The Rescue Mission works with several local municipalities, including Glendale and Scottsdale, to identify those in need and find them the proper support, whether that’s addiction treatment, mental health help, vocational development or food and housing assistance.

Byrd is hopeful for her uncle’s future.

“I’m hoping that this opportunity shows him that despite any mistakes he’s made in the past that he’s deserving of help and that his self-worth increases,” Byrd said.

She also hopes that hearing his story will give readers pause before judging people experiencing homelessness and help them to feel some compassion for people like her uncle.

“It doesn't take a lot to have empathy for your neighbor in whatever capacity that looks like,” Byrd said.

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