IRVINE – The North American moving van backs up near storage unit K1446 and the shrill beeps pierce the morning quiet.

It’s moving day, 8:20 a.m. last Saturday, as Jim Kennedy unlocks the padlock and rolls up the storage shed’s metal door. He grabs his golf clubs. They will be packed into his BMW, along with his golf shoes, some artwork and several bottles from his large wine collection.

This has been Kennedy’s only address for the last five months, the only place he needed a key, where he stashed the contents of his three-bedroom Newport Beach condo when he was kicked out on Jan. 17. Kennedy, 46, lost his six-figure corporate development job two years ago, then his home fell to foreclosure. He’s been living out of his leased Beemer for the last five months.

You met Kennedy in March, when I first profiled him as a homeless guy using his frequent flier points and loyalty rewards to live in hotels. He’d pop around Southern California, staying a few nights at a Holiday Inn Express in San Clemente, another night at the Four Points in San Rafael, as he looked for a job.

After the story hit, Kennedy was deluged with attention – mostly from the national media and, as he likes to joke, “tons of offers to sell Amway.” One of the few valid messages came from a CEO of a start-up company who contacted me and I passed the tip along to Kennedy.

AUDIO: Listen to the reporter Peggy Lowe’s audio report on Jim Kennedy

After some negotiating, Kennedy was offered a six-month job by Don Wilson, the CEO of Netword, which sells online advertising geo-targeted to a business’s zip code. Kennedy’s goals are to raise more capital for the company and to assist on marketing and improving the website.

“He was looking for someone to lead his company, to take it forward and was going to do it in a unique way,” Kennedy said. “And he thought my approach to my situation was fairly unique.”

Kennedy’s situation is commonplace in California, where 1.9 million people are collecting jobless benefits and forecasters predict that double-digit unemployment is sticking around for another year.

Not so common was Kennedy’s telling of his own story via Twitter, where he wrote under the pseudonym, @HomelessThomOC. Where most people put their profile picture, Kennedy created his own logo, which said, “Help, I need a job!” He wrote about bouncing around to the different hotels, how he stayed to his self-imposed $5-a-day food budget with the help of free condiments and on at least one day, how he was thankful it had rained because he couldn’t afford a car wash.

That changed May 10 when he posted this: “I have found a job.”

With that turnkey post, Kennedy changed from a nameless, faceless, homeless guy on Twitter to James T., with a photo and his new employer’s web address. His messages became more hopeful as he reported the life of a working man.

“Good morning. I brought bagels in for the office,” read a Tweet on May 28 at 9:15 a.m.

“Busy today solving internet and phone issues and working on marketing programs, TV, direct mail etc. Might have a place to live FINALLY,” read a June 7 post.

And by June 10, more good news: “Good morning. I have finally found a place YEAH. Private party someone who knows someone and was willing to overlook my foreclosure.”

Those small things the gainfully employed take for granted are the things that are painfully missed by the jobless. Kennedy took his first paycheck and “went right down and threw it in the bank.” Since then, he’s filled up his car with a full tank of gas, replaced his contact lenses and bought a bottle of wine.

“Good morning TGIF, which finally means something to me other than the day before Saturday,” he wrote on Friday, May 21.

So on this recent Saturday, Kennedy is claiming his stuff from the storage locker to move to his new apartment in Port Hueneme. The six movers hustle his furniture and boxes out of the storage unit and into the moving van as Kennedy takes a few precious items and packs them into his car.

He’s been working hard at his new job, a little frustrated that things aren’t moving faster, but excited about a gig that he thinks is an interesting concept. He’s worried about his two dozen friends who are still out of work and tries to help them by Tweeting their 140-character resumes to the 2,100 followers he’s attracted with all the media attention.

He signed a one-year lease, despite having a six-month job, and that is a concern. After five months of homelessness, he knows his life is still up in the air.

“It’s going to be a long time before I feel settled. Because…I got a job, yeah, I got a place to move to, but if they run out of money then I’m back in the same straits,” he said. “I’m making half of what I used to, so I’m basically not going to be able to put away a lot to savings. So yeah, it’s definitely unsettled.”

Kennedy cleans the last few pieces of cardboard from K1446, shuts the door, and replaces the padlock. He gives his new address to the movers and offers directions for the 100-mile drive north to Ventura County. He’s looking forward tonight to watching TV in his own apartment, to sleeping in his own bed, and maybe he’ll open a bottle of champagne he took from his wine cabinet.

But the thing he is most happy about, he says, is one of the most simple. He will be sleeping in a place tonight that doesn’t require a hotel’s plastic key card. He’ll get to use his own metal key to unlock his own front door and reenter his life as he once knew it.

At least, for now.

Contact the writer: plowe@ocregister.com or 714-796-7969