More Need, Less Help

Increasingly, the people in line are, like Brian Clarke, coming for the first time. Clarke, 47, was the foreman for a framing and roofing company for six years, making $18 an hour, until the company laid him off in December.

"It blew me out of the water," he said, sitting across a desk from Cheryl Davis, who helps people find assistance. He tries now to pick up day-laborer jobs. Most days, there is no work to get. His electricity, he told Davis, was to be shut off the next day. He had just sent away his girlfriend so she would not be in the dark.