In Loving Memory of Joyce Montanelli
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his was a woman who thought of everyone else but herself. This was a woman who treated all people the same no matter what. This was a woman who helped every hospital in the tri-county area, placed people who became homeless while being very sick in the hospital because they would lose their job and their apartment. This was a woman who for years worked side by side of me and when I was in a coma with Bacteria Meningitis, this woman helped keep the busiest homeless shelter for abused women, very frail elderly home-
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To add a name to the list call 954 954--410 410--6275 No monetary donations needed Names will be listed in paper for 6 months
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Homeless man rescues 2 after homemade plane crashes in Delray Beach
less seniors and regular homeless people all together until I came back to work. This was an extremely beautiful person who kept an eye on me when she thought I was falling apart from the side effects of meningitis until she died. This was a woman who will now be remembered as Princess Joyce Montanelli because she did as much for mankind as Princess Diana. Princess Joyce Montanelli was one of the greatest Homeless Advocates South Florida has ever seen. Princess Joyce has (Continued on page 10)
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Joyce Montanelli May 24, 1952 — May 7, 2007
“Teen Homelessness” Problems and Possibilities
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sk anyone in South Florida to use the words “teen” and “homeless” in a sentence, and---even if s/he didn’t read April’s Homeless Voice---the response will be about physical attacks perpetrated on homeless people by teenagers. These attacks have received media attention, which has generated some public indignation. There is another possible sentence, however, which is seldom heard: Researchers estimate “about 1 million to 1.6 million [teens] per year experience homelessness.”(National Alliance to End Homelessness) shelter without a parent. Many start Homeless teens are with the “couch bounce”, or couch “unaccompanied” youth between the “surfing”: They move among relatives ages of 12 and 21, although those 18 and friends, sleeping and over are frequently on a sofa as a tempoexcluded from programs. If there are amazing rary solution. Over Homelessness among graces on this earth, I 113,000 called the teens has at its source believe that they are National Runaway broken or dysfunctional families, marked by con- these good children sent Switchboard last year flict, violence, economic to us by God and not yet (1-800-RUNAWAY); crisis, crime, substance soiled by the knowledge over 53,000 phoned abuse, or the several that their nation does not the Nineline, the nalove them. tional Covenant forms of child abuse. -Jonathan Kozol House helpline: 1-800 The majority of kids are -999-9999. In Brorunaways or ward County, there “throwaways”. Florida are two places where teens in crisis has the second highest number of runcan find shelter: The Lippman Youth aways in the country. (California is Shelter in Oakland Park has 20 beds first.) Throwaways include kids who for only very temporary shelter of might come home from school (or truancy, or jail) to find the locks have youths under 18. One of 65 different state and federally funded programs been changed or the family has moved administered by Lutheran Services without them. They are kids who have Florida, the shelter’s purpose is to probeen put out of the house, sometimes vide counseling and support to reunite disowned, because they told their parthe family. Project Safe Place is part ents they were gay--or pregnant. of this program. Where do these kids go? The second, more compreThey’re too young for the adult shel(Continued on page 9) ters and they can’t stay in a family
s he peddled back to his camp in the bushes, Milton Pendelton heard groans and saw an elbow sticking out from a twisted airplane in a construction field just west of Interstate 95 on Sunday. The homeless man jumped off his bicycle and ran to free the two men trapped in the wreckage of their singleengine plane. "I used my knife to cut them from the seatbelts. They were hurting. They had blood in their faces," Pendelton, 57, recalled after rescuers took the injured to Delray Medical Center. The amateur-built, experimental plane crashed into the dirt off Depot Avenue, a road parallel to the highway near Lake Ida Road. The passenger, 50, complained of back pain, and the pilot, 61, suffered other injuries, police spokesman Jeff Messer said. Drivers on I-95 and nearby Congress Avenue told police dispatchers that the two-seat plane spiraled to the ground from roughly 1,000 feet after its engine stalled, started up and failed again around 2:50 p.m., Messer said. The cause of the crash was not immediately known. The plane was registered to Dr. Charles Scherer, a resident of Antiquers Aerodrome west of Delray Beach, a 35home community clustered around a roughly mile-long, grass airstrip. Pilots park their private airplanes in garage-style hangars attached to their homes. Scherer was listed in critical condition on Sunday night, a hospital nurse supervisor said. A worker at Scherer's property said Scherer was the pilot of the plane that went down, and his brother-in-law, whose name he did not know, may have been the passenger. He said Scherer went "sightseeing" and was only gone for a little while before his plane crashed. He said Scherer has other planes in his garage. Police could not confirm both men's identities Sunday night. They also did not know where the plane was headed. Scherer, a Delray Beach-based general practitioner, has flown planes for more than 20 years, said William Lumley, Antiquers Aerodrome's airport manager. He has flown his other planes to places such as Canada and Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, he said. "He's a good pilot. He's got lots of hours," Lumley said. "Something must have happened beyond his control." Police will send their findings to the National Transportation Safety Board, which will issue a report on the crash. Safety board investigators did not come to the crash scene. The crash almost folded the plane in two. Both men were pinned until Pendelton freed them. They were conscious and talking when he found them, Pendelton said. By Leon Fooksman South Florida Sun-Sentinel