Jim Palmer, who oversaw the expansion of the Orange County Rescue Mission, resigns

After 30 years of running the Orange County Rescue Mission, one of the largest nonprofit homeless service providers in the county, Jim Palmer has stepped down as president and chief executive officer.

The longtime advocate for homeless people, 58, told The Times that his resignation was due to health reasons. In a statement, the Rescue Mission said its chief operating officer would serve as interim president.

“Bryan Crain has led Orange County Rescue Mission’s operations for nearly 10 years, and we are confident that the organization will continue to flourish under his leadership.”

News of Palmer’s resignation made its way across the county this week.

“I’ve had the privilege over my career of working with all the executive directors of the Orange County Rescue Mission, all fine individuals, but Jim is the cream of the crop,” said John Moorlach, former state senator and onetime Orange County supervisor. “Jim has done an amazing job running a nonprofit homeless shelter and related ancillary divisions primarily without any government help. He’s sort of been the model.”

When Palmer arrived at the Orange County Rescue Mission more than 30 years ago, he did so first as a volunteer. It wasn’t until 1992 that he took over the reins as president and chief executive officer. At the time, the mission only had one facility, which provided shelter and services to nine men and other transients. There were nine people on staff and the faith-based nonprofit was $90,000 in debt, Palmer said in a phone interview Wednesday.

Since then, he has helped stabilize the nonprofit’s finances and establish the transitional housing facility House of Hope, which provides parenting training and sobriety support for women. The facility includes a healthcare clinic and vocational center, and served as an early model for future housing projects.

“When you’re dealing with homeless people, they’re very pounded down, they have no self-worth. You can take a long time to build that up,” Palmer said. “But at the House of Hope, it almost happened instantaneously. We could see the success rate much quicker than I was seeing in other programs, and I realized we needed to do this for men.”

Palmer said the Rescue Mission now operates about a dozen facilities, known as campuses, each one equipped with supportive programs and services such as counseling, job training, and medical and dental care to support the individual needs of veterans, families, youth, and victims of sex trafficking. The people enrolled in the Rescue Missions programs are referred to as students.

“They’re all learning to get back on their feet,” Palmer said, adding that the goal is to help people become self-sufficient when they graduate from their programs.

Palmer is one of a few people who has served at three levels of government simultaneously: as a City Council member, a county commissioner and a presidential appointee.

From 2006 to 2010, he was a member of the Tustin City Council, where he pushed for more transparency at City Hall by making public records more accessible. In 2007, President George W. Bush nominated Palmer to serve as the director of the Board for the Corporation for National and Community Service, where he oversaw a team of 125,000 staffers and AmeriCorps VISTA workers and an annual budget of $1.2 billion. His term ended in 2012.

Additionally, he served as a county commissioner from 1998 to 2013, providing guidance on the county’s homeless count and assisting in applying for grants. He also served as chairman four times.

On the phone Wednesday, Palmer said the rescue mission had been preparing for an emergency plan should someone else be needed to step in as president. He said Crain has stepped into the role before when Palmer has been on sabbatical.

“It could never have been a better time to step aside because the Rescue Mission is in its best financial position,” Palmer said. “It has the best leadership that I’ve ever seen. I will drive by the campuses, and I’m certain my heart will drop a little bit.”

Times staff writer Hannah Fry contributed to this report.