Through the Marin Housing Authority, Fatooh discovered three affordable housing complexes accepting applications -- then discovered a waiting list of three years. She phoned agency after agency, with no luck. Finally someone told her she'd have a better chance getting placed if she and the family spent three months living at a campsite.

Meanwhile her repossessed house in Cazadero sits empty, she says.

…The TV news reminds us every night: We're in a recession. But often the camera zooms in too tight: the single family facing eviction, the single worker laid off at the plant, the single patient unable to pay for cancer treatments.

The panorama of such cases remains hazy: What does joblessness, foreclosure or lack of healthcare mean for entire communities? What happens to town after town of people like Kassy Fatooh? How does a multiplicity of stories like hers tear at the patchwork of agencies and services meant to hold our communities intact?