NORTH COUNTY - Two years ago, Marc Mercado was sleeping outside in a park or in the brush, wrapped in a blue tarp to keep the rain off, he says. Now, he and three other formerly homeless men are sleeping in a home of their own, thanks in part to an Oceanside woman who showed them how to escape the streets.

The four men - Mercado, Jimmy Walker, Robin Villamor and Steve Wynn - met at the Bread of Life Rescue Mission in Oceanside early last year. After months of scrimping, saving and working, the men are now renting a house in Vista's Townsite neighborhood.

"To have a roof over your head and a stove you can cook on, and a bed you can sleep in … it just feels good," said Mercado, 47, sitting in the living room of the tidy Craftsman-style cottage, with faded wood-shake siding and a big front porch.

Mercado and his friends said they couldn't have made the turnaround without Tanna Cruickshank, a Bread of Life shelter volunteer of whom they say helped them gain confidence and find jobs.

Their success has spurred local charitable groups to focus on the kind of one-on-one casework that Cruickshank demonstrated, and to try to replicate that system in a regional shelter network that will debut in North County this winter.

Get a job

Cruickshank's help was life-changing, said the four men, because she essentially became their coach. A volunteer from Generations Church in Oceanside, Cruickshank met with each of the friends every day for 18 months, helping them see the next step toward their goal of beating homelessness.

"Without Tanna helping me, I think I would probably (still) be on the street," Walker said.

Cruickshank said she was drawn to help the friends because of the attitude each displayed at the Bread of Life shelter, which occupies part of a strip mall on Oceanside Boulevard near Boney's Market.

"These guys just really showed service-oriented hearts," she said. "I just knew that I had to try to help them."

All of the men said that finding a job was their first priority, but they faced a few roadblocks. Potential employers often won't hire anyone who doesn't have a Social Security card, government-issued identification, transportation or a reliable means of contact.

Cruickshank said that as a first step, she drove the group to the local Social Security office and to the Department of Motor Vehicles so that each man could obtain a state-issued identification card.

Even with a valid ID, the men found that doors didn't easily open. Employers often want potential workers to provide a job history and references - something the men didn't have, Cruickshank said.

To overcome that obstacle, she said she worked with members of her church to get the men landscaping jobs. The four friends mowed lawns, pulled stumps and trimmed hedges - and carefully saved their earnings for months.

The next step

The money earned by the makeshift landscaping crew wasn't much, but it eventually covered the cost of prepaid cell phones - with phone numbers that could be listed on job applications.

The men used their landscaping customers as references and started applying for jobs - an experience that they said brought months of failure before success.

"We pounded the streets for months," Cruickshank said.

Eventually, Wynn found a job in construction, while Mercado and Walker found work at the Salvation Army and at Carbon Resources, a local company that builds water filters. Villamor also got work at Carbon Resources and started stocking shelves at night at a local Stater Bros. grocery, he said.

The men continued to put away their earnings, entrusting the money to Cruickshank, who managed the savings and kept a spreadsheet to help the group determine how much rent they could afford.

"We did all these calculations just in case," she said. "We didn't want to get them in over their heads."

After months of saving, and of sustaining a regular income, the men searched out the Vista home, where they pay $1,400 a month in rent.

Sept. 10 was move-in day. Generations Church members donated furniture and a television and Cruickshank still offers moral support, but mostly, the men are making it on their own.

"Step by step, we're doing it," Wynn said.

"We're sticking together on this," Walker added.

Duplicating the system

Working as a team can be a good approach to beating homelessness, local advocates say.

The San Diego County Regional Task Force on the Homeless estimated in 2006 that there were 2,659 homeless in San Diego County and 789 in North County cities.

That count, taken in January, does not include homeless living in shelters. When the population housed in shelters is included, the homeless count tops 7,000, according to the task force's biannual report.

For the first time this year, North County's nine cities have contributed nearly $500,000 toward a unified shelter network, rather than occasionally paying for shelters on their own.

Under the new regional shelter system, anyone staying in a shelter this year will be required to sit down with a caseworker at least once a week to try to find long-term solutions to their problems, said the Rev Steve Bassett. Bassett runs the Bread of Life shelter, which is part of the regional network.

"This year, we are going to go a little beyond the Band-Aid," Bassett said. "In our 120-day winter shelter this year, hopefully we are going to get a lot more done."

Mel Takahara, who works with the Salvation Army in Escondido and helped sell the cities on the regional shelter system, said going in together will mean each shelter resident will get his own case file.

As a result, he said, caseworkers will be able to follow up on a resident's progress from one week to the next.

Takahara said the push for a more holistic approach at the shelter comes in part from watching the four friends from Vista find a home of their own.

"Those results are part of why we are using this model," Takahara said.

Finally, a place

At home in Vista, Wynn said the challenges he faced being homeless are still fresh. He said the public doesn't understand how daunting it is for someone with no address, no phone number and no prospects to make it back on his feet.

"As soon as you step out on the street, it's like there is this great big wall," he said. "People, they just think it's easy."

Even though the four friends don't earn the same amount from the jobs they work, they said they continue to pool their resources.

A second-hand truck sits in the driveway; the four are making payments on it to the pastor at Generations Church. The next step is to get driver's licenses.

"It took a lot of patience and a lot of time, but we're keeping with it," Wynn said.

Donations to the Bread of Life shelter can be made by calling (760) 722-0800 or visiting the organization's Web site at www.bolrescue.com.

Contact staff writer Paul Sisson at (760) 901-4087 or psisson@nctimes.com.