As an outreach specialist, she meets homeless people ‘where they are’

A middle-aged man in a T-shirt and rumpled khakis sits on a bench in the vestibule of the First Congregational United Church of Christ at 9th and G streets NW. Looking dejected and worried, he says that he recently blacked out at a men’s shelter. When he woke up, his backpack and cellphone were gone.

The blackout was probably caused by high blood pressure, he says. As Mercedes Dones-Patricelli, a homeless outreach specialist for Pathways to Housing DC, crouches next to him so they’re eye to eye, she says she’ll check with his phone service and schedule a doctor’s appointment for him. 

“I’ve got your back,” she tells him. “You always have support here.”

Dones-Patricelli, 27, is one of three members of the downtown outreach team for Pathways DC, a nonprofit organization that provides permanent housing as well as comprehensive mental health, addiction and medical services for more than 3,500 people a year who are experiencing homelessness or are at risk for homelessness. 

Dones-Patricelli works with clients in a large, busy area of Northwest DC that extends from 16th Street by the White House to North Capitol Street, and from Constitution Avenue to the Walter E. Washington Convention Center. Some of her clients are transients who come to the area from other parts of the District, including Union Station and the Golden Triangle neighborhood. Others are regulars in the area she covers.

According to her supervisor, Leta Davis, Dones-Patricelli’s job requires patience, a lot of walking, and an outgoing and caring disposition. Usually Dones-Patricelli meets her clients on the streets where they live or in the parks where they sometimes hang out. But, on this morning, the man whose cell phone is missing has come to her office, which is located at the church. 

Reassured by their meeting at the church, the man says goodbye and heads outside. So does Dones-Patricelli, after stopping briefly to talk to another client who’s sitting in the vestibule. Then she leaves to start her rounds with her “outreach eye,” as she calls it, on the lookout for those in need of a cup of cold water or a friendly chat.

It’s a little after 9 a.m. and the August morning temperature is already in the 80s with a bright sunny sky overhead. Tourists, shoppers and people who work in the area bustle past Dones-Patricelli. She approaches another client sitting at a street corner, says hello and asks if he’s had any water that day. He says he has. 

She continues walking and as she nears the next intersection, she runs into a man who’s dressed in jeans and a short-sleeved, button-down shirt; his hair is neatly combed. He asks Dones-Patricelli for money. She says she can’t give him cash, but she encourages him to visit the nearby Downtown Day Services Center on New York Avenue NW near 14th Street where he can get a meal. “No, man, I’m a raging alcoholic,” he says. “All I need is booze and cigarettes.” He walks away.

The center, which is run by the DowntownDC Business Improvement District, supports people who are homeless by providing showers, laundry facilities and legal and health care services. It operates with support from the DC Department of Human Services and services from Pathways DC and HIPS, which provides harm-eduction services, advocacy and community engagement for sex workers and drug users.

Moving on, Dones-Patricelli heads toward Franklin Park, which runs from 13th to 14th streets between I and K streets NW. She notices a figure lying under a dirty white blanket. Two bare feet stick out from the end of it. Dones-Patricelli exchanges a few words with the person, who declines help. In the park she also spots the client who lost his phone. He’s sitting on a bench in a shady spot, elbows resting on his knees. He nods to Mercedes; she smiles and says hello. 

As she makes her rounds, Dones-Patricelli takes notes on her work cellphone about the clients she runs into and the folks she encounters for the first time. There are days when she might be looking for a particular client who’s trying to track down his birth certificate, Social Security card and photo ID, which are required as part of the application for permanent housing. She might send a group text to the other outreach-team members, asking if anyone else has seen her client.

“Some of our clients move around a lot,” says Dones-Patricelli. “If we know a client is up at 8:30 and moving pretty quick, we can meet them in the community at 8 and catch them before they’re gone.” If she knows that a client stops panhandling at 2 p.m. and then goes to the place where they sleep at night, she’ll meet them there.

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‘They can see her authenticity’

Dones-Patricelli says one of her goals is meeting her clients “where they are,” both physically and emotionally. For her, that means not pressuring a client who isn’t ready to apply for housing. She mentions a man who has been a client for about two years. “We’re still very much at the ‘Hey, how are you?’ stage. We make a few baby steps and then he pulls back a little. But I’m still there for him.” 

Pathways DC employs the Housing First model, which enables a client to move into an apartment without any preconditions, such as undergoing substance-abuse treatment. Housing is provided in apartments spread throughout the city, with each client signing their own lease. Once the client has a place to live, the agency provides treatment services that cover mental and physical health, substance abuse, education and employment.

For Dones-Patricelli, who was hired in August 2017, the organization’s philosophy was a welcome change from her previous workplace — a nonprofit social services agency in Massachusetts where a focus on billable hours made it difficult for her to give clients the time she felt they needed. 

Dones-Patricelli — who was born in Middleborough, Massachusetts, and spent her teenage years in nearby Brockton, Massachusetts — graduated in 2013 from the University of New Hampshire with a bachelor’s degree in social work. In January 2017, she decided to quit her job and move to the DC area. 

She arrived in March of that year without a job. The first six months of her new life were rough. But at the end of July, she landed an interview with Pathways DC. She had never done outreach work before, but she says the “organic and natural” feel of the position was appealing. During her initial rounds, she says she spent “a lot of time getting lost.” She refused to use the GPS system on her phone so she could learn the downtown area on her own.

Now, Dones-Patricelli “brings the same warmth to all of the work she does with her clients,” says Davis, her supervisor. “They can see her authenticity. She’s always present for her clients who [otherwise] wouldn’t be getting any kind of service or support.” 

As an outreach specialist, Dones-Patricelli is on “the front lines” of the Pathways DC program, meeting people who may have been homeless for decades and trying to connect them with support services, notes Davis. “The team sees a lot of people suffering, people they care about. You want to do so much for your clients. … It’s a tough field.” 

On difficult days Dones-Patricelli relies on her fellow team members as well as Davis for emotional support. She might text the team and ask if someone is available to grab a cup of coffee. When she takes a break, she’ll sometimes unwind for a few minutes in the interior courtyard at the National Portrait Gallery at 8th and F streets NW. On days when she’s not working, she enjoys a good meal, which she describes as her “go-to way to relax.” 

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Pathways DC: ‘Making a big difference’

On this particular August morning, after finishing her rounds, Dones-Patricelli stops by the Downtown Day Services Center. She runs into Pathways DC client Mark Lesueur, 59, who has submitted an application for housing. Dones-Patricelli says when the team hears a client has applied for an apartment or received an update about their lease, “we all get a little giddy and excited.” 

Lesueur, who spends most weekdays at the center, says he first learned of Pathways DC about five years ago through an encounter with an outreach specialist at Franklin Park. When the outreach specialist, a woman, first approached him, he didn’t want to talk to her. “I was so messed up, I didn’t know if I needed help or not,” Lesueur says. 

But, he says he was also struck by the woman’s courage — that she had ventured by herself into the park, which he didn’t think was a safe place. “I thought if she risks her life to come to this park to talk to me and she don’t know me, yeah, I need help. I want you to help me.”

The two of them talked and she accompanied him to the church that houses the outreach team. Over time Pathways DC helped him gather the documents he needed for his housing application. Now, he’s waiting for a call that he’s been approved for a housing voucher, which will pay for part of his rent.

Lesueur, a thin man wearing a blue and tan cap and a pullover fleece jacket, is excited as he talks about looking for an apartment — his first in 10 years. He had moved to DC when he was 35 from his hometown, St. Louis, Missouri, to be closer to his mother and siblings who were living in the nation’s capital. Referring to Pathways DC, Lesueur says, “They are the best, helping a whole lot of people, making lives matter, making a big difference in DC.”

Center director Tokyo Direkston, who sometimes sees Dones-Patricelli when she’s making her rounds, says it’s outreach specialists like her who make a difference in the lives of people who are experiencing homelessness and aren’t sure where to turn for help. 

“Mercedes is instrumental because she can talk to people on the street where they are,” says Direkston. “She can gauge how that person is doing. She provides consistency, makes herself available, and goes wherever she’s needed.”

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On July 1, Pathways to Housing DC moved its primary service center and administrative offices from Q Street NE to 828 Evarts St. NE. The new location includes a home goods store, therapy suite, primary care clinic and offices for the organization’s housing team. Contributions of clothing, kitchen appliances and utensils, nonperishable food and other items that help make an apartment feel like home can be dropped off at the Evarts Street location. To make a donation to Pathways DC, visit pathwaystohousingdc.org/donate.