Man finds success after homeless life in Las Vegas

Monday, Feb. 3, 2003 | 11:02 a.m.

New York-trained chef James Rhodes got a job early this month as a sous chef-in-training at the Excalibur.

Nothing unusual about that. Except that Rhodes is homeless.

He has been homeless since moments after stepping off the bus last July when someone stole Rhodes' travel bag that contained $900 cash -- the sum of his last paycheck from the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City -- while he was making a phone call about a job opportunity at a Las Vegas resort.

"At the time, I thought, 'I'm from Brooklyn! This can't be happening to me,' " Rhodes, 50, said in his soft baritone.

During his seven-month odyssey through the often cruel world of homelessness in Las Vegas -- last year called one of the worst cities in America to be homeless by the National Coalition for the Homeless advocacy group -- Rhodes found many helping hands and took advantage of every social program offered to him.

Rhodes soon will lose the distinction of being the only Strip resort gourmet room employee who returns daily to a bed at Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada's St. Vincent homeless shelter. He will move into his own apartment in a few days.

"When I came to the shelter, I thought I was a victim of circumstance," said Rhodes, a divorced father of three, grandfather of five and great-grandfather of one. "I cried like a baby for the first few nights over my situation. Then I came to accept that I really was homeless.

"It would have been so easy for me to (immediately) call my daughter (in New York). She would have been on a plane here the next day to take me back. But my children had always seen me as a strong man. What message would I have sent by giving up and asking them to come and get me? I just couldn't make that call."

Later on, when he did talk to his daughter, she was upset that he hadn't called her sooner so that she could have helped him, he said.

Susie Taylor, lead case manager for Catholic Charities Residential Work Program, in which Rhodes participated, said it is not uncommon for people to wind up on the streets after one traumatic incident and, for some, it's a long haul back to self-sufficiency.

"It takes time after a homeless person gets a job to save money for rent, deposits for utilities, food and other necessities," she said. "We allow clients to stay in our transitional housing apartments for up to two years because we want them to make it on their own after they leave us." Rhodes said he has decided to leave transitional housing before the end of the recommended minimum six months because he feels he has saved enough money "and I want to make the space available for someone else who needs it now."

Because he initially was ashamed of being homeless, Rhodes at first did not tell anyone he was a chef. He did not give Catholic Charities his resume that shows he worked the last two years at Taj Mahal and before that at the Claridge casino and Bally's Park Place, both in Atlantic City.

Taylor said that is not unusual because a lot of homeless people want to change directions and careers when they enter the work program.

"We do not get a lot of people with the skills James has," she said. "And we don't have employers calling us looking for experienced chefs."

If they had, they would have been able to tell them that Rhodes came with high recommendations.

"What impressed me about James was his willingness to always keep learning," said Edward Leonard, executive chef at the Westchester Country Club in Rye, N.Y., and president of the American Culinary Federation. Leonard first met Rhodes when Rhodes was working at the Claridge in 1998.

"When James told me last July he was having problems in Las Vegas, I heard in his voice a determination not to give up -- a lot of pride to see it through," Leonard said. "In our profession, those are real good qualities."

After securing a bed at St. Vincent's, Rhodes, a graduate of the New York Restaurant School and a member of the American Culinary Federation and International Chefs Association, took a job in the agency's security program.

By night he guarded Catholic Charities executive offices, by day he pounded the pavement, looking for work in the culinary field.

"I walked from St. Vincent's (Main Street near Owens Avenue) to the Strip to hand out my resumes," Rhodes said. "I really wanted to work."

Like many people who come to Las Vegas looking for employment, Rhodes knew little or nothing about Las Vegas laws. At the very moment he was being robbed, he was on the phone with a the human resources manager of a major hotel who was explaining to him that he couldn't even get an interview until he had asheriff's card and a health card.

Finding himself with just $7 in his pocket, Rhodes could not immediately obtain either of those cards, nor did he even know where to go to get them.

"We have found that 42 percent of homeless people who come to Las Vegas do so because they were told of job opportunities here," said Brian Brooks, chairman of the Southern Nevada Homeless Coalition.

"They heard stories like the Bellagio had 8,000 jobs before it opened. But they didn't know that 120,000 people would apply for those jobs."

Brooks said a number of people get robbed at bus stations and other entry points into town and that they have wound up homeless for long periods. He said Rhodes found his way out of homelessness "in the minimal end of time. He did real well."

Also, Brooks said, it is not uncommon for homeless people to have jobs.

He said a survey of 1,390 homeless people at the 2001 Stand Down for the Homeless event at Cashman Field -- an annual one-day multi-service program for the poor -- indicated that 18 percent of them had full or part-time employment.

Past Stand Down surveys have found that about 20 percent of Southern Nevada's 7,000 to 12,000 homeless people work. Results of last year's survey are not yet available, Brooks said.

For the purpose of uniform local and national statistics, a person is considered homeless if he lives in the streets, stays with friends or family members, resides in a pay-by-the-day motel as a primary residence, lives in his car, stays in a shelter or resides in transitional housing.

About 1.5 million to 2 million people in America are homeless based on that and other criteria, Brooks said.

It was not long before Catholic Charities workers found that Rhodes had great potential to slip the bonds of homelessness, as he quickly moved from the old shelter tent into the work program dormitory, then into transitional housing.

"James is such a friendly, personable guy," said Sharon Mann, spokeswoman for Catholic Charities, who upon arriving at work one morning saw him reading from his culinary arts book.

"I said, 'You're a chef?' I told him, 'You should be working on the Strip.' "

While Catholic Charities helped get word out to the hotels to help get Rhodes a job, Nevada Partners was offering Rhodes similar help, as well as classes about wine to help him become a certified sommelier.

Rhodes' big break came on Thanksgiving Eve at the Excalibur's annual feeding of the homeless at the St. Vincent's Dining Room. There, Rhodes was introduced to Excalibur Executive Chef Brian Diumenti.

Diumenti was impressed -- so much so he said he would give Rhodes a chance when an opening became available.

Rhodes reported for work on Jan. 6 and got a baptism by fire, literally. He was assigned to the mesquite grill in the Camelot Steak House.

"It was a big responsibility because when a customer is spending $55 on a steak he expects not to have to send it back," Rhodes said. "As an experienced chef, I know temperatures. And at any one time there are 12 to 25 steaks on the grill. It's very intense work and it's very hot."

The Excalibur declined to comment on Rhodes or his performance thus far because he hasn't yet completed his 120-day probation period.

Rhodes says over the years he has focused on becoming an all-around chef. He says he is skilled in numerous cuisines, including Italian, French, Chinese, Spanish and Caribbean.

He says his goals are to one day become an executive chef at a major Strip hotel and serve as an instructor at the Culinary Academy in downtown Las Vegas.

As he continues along the path back to a normal life, Rhodes said he never will forget this eye-widening period in his life.

"It comes from the heart when I say that the social services people I've met and the agencies I've gone to have tried real hard to help me," Rhodes said.

"I understand that not all homeless people want to take advantage of the services that are offered. But for those who find themselves homeless in Las Vegas and want to turn their lives around, the programs exist and there are people who want to help you."

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