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fact it is our third biggest day of the year. So we were quite busy counting their money and paying them for their days work. The phone rang and it was a Battalion Fire Chief from the city of Fort Lauderdale, he explained that there was a homeless man in an electric wheelchair that was broken. We said to ourselves no big deal we have seen that before, but then the story got thicker. The mans wheelchair stopped working on top of the bridge by the Broward County court house right next door to a few local nightspots. He got stuck on the top of the bridge and the fire department was dispatched. The Battalion Chief told me several times that they tried to fix the chair but had no luck and that this gentleman needed some good old fashion help. He used the word gentleman and in today's times we do not see that all civil servants respect homeless people like they should but this Battalion Chief gave this man 100 percent respect and so did the fire crew on the bridge. We knew that this man was pretty disabled and we were in the middle of trying to figure out how to transport this man and at the same time we were short staffed because of me and my recovery and not really working because of my post bacterial meningitis. Staff was very busy counting the money and we knew after a long days work that we could not leave the vendors standing in the hallway for an additional two hours after working in the sun all day selling the papers. After we figured out a way to do the teams without stopping in the middle of the procedure we were on our way. We decided to take our basic life support ambulance that we use in our disaster division. So on the way we went. When we got to the bridge it was dark I guess because of some of the street lights still not being at 100 percent after hurricane Wilma we needed to throw on the red and white lights so no one would hit the ambulance. The tricky part was not getting this man in the back of the ambulance but lifting the very heavy electric wheelchair which took three fireman and RJ Service from our Homeless Emergency Management Team. After the wheelchair got in to the ambulance RJ did a quick evaluation of the homeless man to make sure he was stable and that we could bring him in to a shelter system. Sometimes the ones we pick from the streets are very bad medically and are off all their medication and it does require a short trip to the local emergency room. We can do this type of medical screening because you the readers have paid for our staff to become first responders. Not only have you paid for our medical training and medical supplies, (Continued from page 1) “I want you to picture yourself being disabled from, a stroke and living in the streets in a battery operated wheelchair and then on top of that, being stuck on a bridge with hardly any street lights and fast cars are passing you every few seconds.”

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Mr. Reynolds, hanging outside of the shelter.

you also paid for the ambulance that was used to transport this man. I know that this must really feel good during the holidays to know that by reading our paper it paid for this entire service that we gave Mr. Vincent L. Reynolds aka the formally Homeless man. At the time of the medical screening we checked him for infections, TB, and checked his blood pressure as well as his other vitals. He was a pretty stable individual. Now all this does not sound too difficult, however I want you to picture yourself being disabled from, a stroke and living in the streets in a battery operated wheelchair and then on top of that, being stuck on a bridge with hardly any street lights and fast cars are passing you every few seconds. Now can you see that this was a real big problem for Vincent?

Our journey home to our place called the Homeless Voice Homeless Shelter

It was a simple and a very special trip home. In the back of the ambulance was RJ Service from our homeless emergency management team, his job was to get to know Mr. Vincent L. Reynolds and to find out as much as he could about this man and about how he got stuck in a wheelchair on the top of a bridge. I was driving the rig and radioing the shelter advising them that we needed some extra man power to lift this wheelchair because of the weight. I must admit the wheelchair was one thing but Mr. Reynolds had his life possessions attached to his chair. Believe it or not he even had a battery powered TV on the rear of the wheelchair to watch his favorite program as well as the news. After RJ Service investigated the past of Vincent it was discovered that he could not make the rent of any place because of his disability funds being very small. As some of you may or may not know many people become homeless because they are disabled or retired and their monthly checks are not enough for any type of a roof over their heads. Yes, public housing can be used however it is a very complicated process and some of our homeless people have a hard time filling out the forms and completing the process. Not only is the process hard but your waiting time can be somewhat long. Then of course having no address or telephone can make your waiting even longer or you may miss your deadlines and then have to reapply again and again. This is where shelters come in to place. As well as us giving out free beds to people who can’t work, or don't have any income. We also offer low cost housing based on a sliding scale for people who are retired or disabled. Instead of them going to an assisted living facility where they take 95 percent of their social security we are able to offer the same level of service or even a better level of service a lot less expensively. In December Mr. Rey- (Continued on page 11)