(Photo: Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group)
RICHMOND — Seven years ago, Joe Quario came to the Bay Area Rescue Mission — homeless, with only the two suitcases that had everything he owned.
“I worked for the post office for nearly 20 years,” he said. “Over 20 years, I was addicted to meth. I was born and raised in San Francisco, and it all came crashing down in 2012: I got evicted, I became jobless, homeless and penniless. I was sleeping in BART stations, sleeping in the streets.”
Quario, 52, is now working full time for the mission training other homeless people the cooking skills that transformed his life. He wiped out his debts and, in August, was finally able to get his own one-bedroom apartment.