Homeless Voice; CNN Heroes

My Friend Named John

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very two years we rerun the “My Friend Named John” story because it is such a meaningful story. It is for sure a story to give thanks and praise for allowing us the chance to be a friend of John. We work all kinds of crazy hours here and no matter what time of the day it is, you will see Johnny hanging out outside my office. Johnny has so much peace in his eyes and love in his heart that no matter how

big of a guy you are, or no matter how tough you are, Johnny is Johnny and you will fall in love with him as a warm heartfelt individual that will always brings peace into any situation. To be truthful there have been many times over the years that I just wanted to walk out the door and never look back but then John walks by or he knocks on my office door always saying (Continued on page 6)

CNN Hero Award As many of you are aware of, Aaron Jackson from our sister agency, Planting Peace is a “CNN Hero” for the work we do in Haiti and he won the classification of MEDICAL MARVEL. CNN went to Haiti with him to see our projects in action. We just do not want to put a band-aid over the problem we want long term success. In this video below you will actually see the kids we de-worm in Haiti which helps stop or curve world huger.

You can

also see the HIV kids that are in our orphanages in Haiti. Aaron is up to be

Sean always takes care of John by giving him his inhaler for COPD

the major “CNN Hero of the world”. Now that he won the Medical Marvel Classification he goes to the final part of the contest, once there the

Cathy’s Prayer List •

The Darlington Family Sharon • Jenna • Brian • Tommy • Hollywood • Joseph • Julie • • Roger’s Family Killingsworth Family • Owens Family • New Destiny International • Christian Center of Tamarac Kerri Fitzpatrick • Maria Rosales • Joe Middleton • Cathy • Frannie • • Carlos Alberto Dominique Francis Family • Sara • Sara--Lee Raul • Rudy • Lisa • John McLean • Darren •

Who should these families thank?

whole world will be able to vote to see if he is that Hero to the kids of Haiti.

O

ver the years we have taken family after family and the last few years have slowed up a little but recently we have seen a very large increase in the numbers. Family after family has been brought here by the local police department because they can’t seem to get into the county program because of lack of beds.

This is Thanksgiving time and of course here comes Decembers when we celebrate Christmas as Christians. We all can thank God for all that has happened to us over the year and maybe we give thanks to someone who has helped you get through a very difficult time in our life. But for

You can do so much over there for pennies and save human life.

super heroes because each day they can donate a few cents to a few dollars when they receive their pay for the day. Imagine that, the rest of the world looks at the Homeless as lazy no good bums but in reality they are saving the lives of poor children. During this Thanksgiving it is time we all give thanks to them as well. Here is the link to see the video. Some of you may cry when you see the love he gives to these

Thank you to all of our supporters. It is you that makes this possible for us to take care of families.

Call (954)

925-6466 X101

starving people. http://www.homelessvoice.tv/ C2007Heroes1020.html You will need to go to the CNN web

some they are helped and they maybe will never know who has helped them. Sometimes these families that come to us gives us a big “Thank

You” when we put them up for a few nights until we can find better arrangements for them. Some even ask us (Continued on page 7)

site to place your vote. Again, it is Aaron Jackson of Planting Peace. Below are the rules for the contest. For more information you can call Sean at 954-924-3571 ext CNN Rules on the CNN Web Site On November 12, 2007 through 11:59 am ET on November 26, 2007, viewers can cast a vote for one of the

To add a name to the list call 954 954--410 410--6275 No monetary donations needed

How’s My Vending?

And

these Homeless Voice Vendors are also

Finalists ("Winner Voting") to be the Program winner (the "Winner"). There

The Ellen Show and the Homeless Voice Please go to www.HomelessVoice.tv/EllenShow to cast your vote.

D

uring the month of November you can cast your votes/cheers for the Homeless Voice. There is a chance for Ellen of the Ellen DeGeneres Show to come and spend the night at the shelter and show the rest of America that the Homeless have their own community and are just like everyone else.

Most of all tell your friends. Go to the section "Cheers" and if you like us, give us a vote by giving us a "cheer".

Who knows maybe she will come to our shelter... We are unsure of all the rules now, however, many say the number of “Cheers/Votes” that the Homeless Voice receives may make an impact on the city that wins the contest. Please make sure that you only vote once and also send emails to all your friends of the actual link so they too can vote.

will be one Winner based on the results of the Winner Voting. False or deceptive votes or acts may render a nominee ineligible.

Their web site to vote is http://www.cnn.com/ SPECIALS/2007/cnn.heroes/

The Voice of the Homeless

Page 2

FRIENDS OF THE HOMELESS VOICE Mail check to: COSAC Foundation P.O. Box 292-577

For just $15.00 a month you can keep a homeless family off the streets for a day.

Davie, FL 33329 Please include on memo what name should appear in paper.

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

The Cononie Family The Targett Family Patrick Helings John Bendor In Loving Memory of Uncle Joe & Nana Shannon Brooks Lisa Cebrat Pakita Price The Watsons Sean Cononie Sally Lister Judith Kelly Martha Roman The Baptista Family John Criasia Daniel Harrison The Martinez Family Amanda Reynolds Dolores R. Cerra Bob Hall Tressie W. Osborne Clark Rogers The Savir Family Corinne James Chris Sanchez Hugo DeCarpintini Mario Yuio Richard Friedman Diane Friedman Uylna Quadrino Arnold Reemer In Loving Memory of Peter Sullivan Maryann Springer Elaine Snaith Marshal Bugin Keith Yude Bruce Wethersoon Isabelle J. Henry Raul Cardenas M.D. Wendy Bryan Jacqueline McCarty Albert J Taragowski Darla King Paula King Richard Gomez Anthony Ralph Jennifer Hicky Timothy Lukehard Thomas Rua Justin Rowan Mary Green Morris Grazi Marvin Shatze Ronald Shafer Vance Gunn Adam Staler Allen Yancy Jimmy Daniels Mel Blount Carol Lockette Anna Marye Levier Magan Narduzzi Andre Johnson Antione Collins Eric Harrison Jessica Padilla Sheldon Jones Carlo Harrison Jason Emrik Dan Gilcert Amber Rowan

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Jackie Johnson Ricky Cambell Dorr’e Terry Samual Manery Marilyn Vokish Jenny Curic Amy Curic Lisa Jackson Jim Johnson Bobby Neal Erica Fulton Darren Nolf Erica Sanclair Steve Dillan Dallan Michele King Bobby Ore Casandra Thomas Tara Hunter Mark Faber Nichole Faber Kevin Britt The Cable Family The Maione Family Barbara Strong Grace Marth Regla J Ferrer The Baldwin Family Russell J. Ferguson Marjorie G. Rhines Jamie F. Flores In Loving Memory Of Thomas Gasbarro Cathy and Kids The Davis Family Graham R. Mitchell Essential Oil Healthline Amparo L. Korey John’s Plumbing Service Thank You Winn Dixie Ms. Marilyn Smith Albert J. Taragowski Ruth C Grey Mike Cross Tamara Southard Raul Cardenas MD PA Al and Annie Hurricane Prevention Inc Danny and George OTD Messenger, Inc M. Smith Yorick and Bonita Parrica Lee Russ & Delores B Mordon Robert Jesus Llanes Comet Couriev Proietto Family In Memory of Billy Corwin Josh Searles Patricia Lee Russ Delores B Mordon Mrs. Jenkins Everglades Moon, Covenant of Goddess, Elibet Hanson Judy B. Pascarella John Gaeta Michael R. Prokop, Jr. Jackie M. McCarty In Memory of Charles Horton In Memory of William F. Judge

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Todd Palgon The Morabito Family Todd Palgon Holly J. Andrus Lois Cross In Loving Memory of Florence & Nat Popkin Tailored Advertising, Inc Claudia K. Tapolow Margie Jones In memory of Wesley H. Woodall Maria M. Riveiro Gottlieb & Blair Family Pioneer Middle School Youth Crime Watch Rhenals-Mei Family The Strikowski family Margie Jones & Friends Ronald Prescia In Memory of Brian Groleau Laura Flash Jacqueline M. McCarty The Herrmann Family The Monserrate Family Madeline Butera Jennifer S. Nickel Marilyn R. Smith David Thawley On Behalf of Matthew Lambert Mustafa Mehmet Gokoglu In Memory of Scott Paul Cooper Robert and Ruth Baal In Memory of Melba DeSanto In Memory of My Mother Pearl McCann, Love Teresa Barbara Desanto Leah and Ray Michael & Michale Rhett Marie Sutera Floyd and Luana Coats Doug Boucher Family Kevin Jones Dorothy Griffith Family In Loving Memory of Kris Soltan Kevin “KJ” Jones Douglas Boucher The Swartout's Ivonne Fernandez The Verny & Stewart Families In Loving Memory of Frances Klein The Herrmann Family John C. Burt Albert Taragowski Renato & Malika Vasconez In Memory of C.T.R. Adriana Fernandez Andrea Brown The Kunicki Family Thank you so much, Sean & Lois, for all your help.

–Joan Futscher & Kids McAvoy Family

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

The Geise Family Richard & Margaret Martin Kenny Angela Adriana N. Quila Elizabeth P. Sublett Barbara N Robinson Mark E. Johnson Adrienne and Mike Julio A. Izquierdo Ann M. Hamilton Nicole Lee Nelson Anthony Rhodes Susan P Brady Christine M Wilson K.J. Williams Renato and Malika Vasconez Christine McAuliffe In Memory of Chief George J. Hodges Real Breakthrough Solutions Hartford Property Connection, Inc. In Loving Memory of Donald Fraser In Loving Memory of Rex Lichtenberger In Loving Memory of Jose A. Estruch, Jr. Ronald & Cathy Walker Ms. Evelyn Salerno Nicole Lee Nelson Al & Barbara Liebmann In Loving Memory of Isabel Grimany Dr Mary Michaela Farren In Memory of My Good Friend Pat Gibson Fred T Verny JR Nicole Lee Nelson C.R. Gallagher Jonathan Burger In Memory of Dan Holland Sheila Holder Merav & Ezra Alexander In Memory of Maxima Oakland Park Elks Lodge # 2407 J. Coffee In Memory of Stanley Smolen In Memory of Martin Grey God Bless Florence Menard Sebastian Parks Kellie Jones Jesus Diaz Virginia H. Bailey Naomi Ross Deborah H Green In Loving Memory of Giankarlo Squicemari In Loving Memory of My Daughter Melissa Lurz In Loving Memory of Charles G. Youngman In Loving Memory of Martin E. Grey Sabrina Thorton, Former Ms. Ft. Lauderdale Beth Farans, Saks Jewelry Designer YOUR NAME HERE

In Loving Memory of Shirley Coulson

Page 3

Volume IX, Issue 10

HATE CRIMES ISSUE The below represents an estimate of an un-audited glance until final figures are calculated. Program Services, includes donations w e give to our international programs such as the orphanages in Haiti as w ell as 14 different homeless social service agencies such as our shelter system. How do w e do it? Most of the top staff are full time volunteers and w e only have a very s mall paid staff. The paid staff gets below the normal salaries in the w orld of not for profits. We had a mission to do and w e did it and w ill continue to do it living by the rules of the founding fathers.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I know that I am a thankful person for all of the blessings I have been given this year.

Sometimes we tend to look at what we do not have and fail to focus on what we do have. Such thinking can lead us into trouble.

I also want to thank all of our readers for there support over the past 11 years. Without you there would be many with no place to go. There would be many families on the streets.

We are also looking to host some type of fundraising event to finish up the mortgage. Our thermometer is on page 7 for those who wish to see where we are at. I remember creating that thermometer years and years ago. To see where we are now is amazing.

If you have any ideas on a fundraising event or wish to participate call me at 954-410-6275.

-Mark Targett

LE T T E R S T O T H E E D IT O R S EN D T O:

P.O. BOX 2 9 2-57 7 DAVIE , F LO RIDA 3 3 32 9 FAX TO : 9 5 4-9 2 6 -2 0 2 2 E M A IL : in fo @h om e le ssv o ic e .o rg

H OM E LESS

V O IC E

M a il to : H om e les s V oi c e PO B ox 2 92 5 7 7 D a v ie , F l 33 32 9

C u t t he c e rt i fic a te a n d se n d it w ith a c h ec k o r m o n e y o rd e r f or $50 $24 N AME

A DD R E S S

AL L D ON A TIO N R E QU ES TS IN TH E H OM EL ESS VOI CE F OR AN Y CH AR IT Y AR E AD V ER TIS ED IN CON J UN C TION W I TH TH IS W OR D IN G A CO P Y OF TH E O F FI CI A L R EG IS TR A TION AN D FIN AN CI A L IN F O R M ATION M A Y B E OB T AIN ED FR O M TH E D IV ISI ON O F C ON S UM ER SER VI CES B Y CA L LIN G TO LL - FR EE IN TH E S TA T E 1 -8 00 -43 5-7 35 2 R E GIS TR AT ION D OES N O T IM P L Y EN D OR S EM EN T, A P PR OV A L, OR R ECOM M EN D ATION B Y TH E S T A TE TH AN K YO U F OR HE L PIN G TH E H OM EL ESS C o st of pape r $.25

To re ach us c all

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HOM EL ES S H OT LIN E F OR P LA C EM EN T

9 54 -4 91 -BED S

Business Directory

G o To

O n o u r h o m e p a g e , c l ic k o n sp o n s o rs , t h e n g o to a ff ili a te s .

Call for AD Space 954-920-1277

Need flyers passed out or other temp labor?

Call 954-920-1277 Call our contractor referral line.

Call us and we will get you the person to do the job much less!

WHY CALL A DAY-LABOR COMPANY AND SPEND LARGE AMOUNTS OF MONEY?

The Voice of the Homeless

Page 4

HOMELESS VOICE

ADVANTAGE COMMUNICATIONS, INC. • • •

ACI supports the Homeless Voice and the Cosac Foundation in raising awareness and providing solutions to homelessness in our neighborhoods.

ACI knows that lending aid to human beings in need is good for our souls, our communities and is simply the right thing to do.

ACI would like to thank all people who are actively engaged in helping humanity here on the blue planet.

God bless the Cosac Foundation Commercial, Industrial, & Government 2-way Radio www.advantage-com.com

Mark Lavallee, President 954-961-2642

Shopping Smart with Donna WAYS WE CAN HELP YOU

I

have been a single Mom for a long time and have to make the dollar stretch far beyond it’s ability. Being responsible for feeding my three boys and myself is a task that I still endure and used to be such a burden that I decided to take control over it and not let it control me. I have learned to be creative, fun and let the children know that just because it is tough it can still taste good, be healthy and fun. Always try to eat your meals together without the TV and I hope these recipes bless you and watch for more tips and recipes and remember when going shopping it is their job to tempt you into buying more than you intended, so take a deep breath, say a little prayer, use a list and be of good courage!

-Donna Jean

Old Fashion Bread Pudding •

1 Loaf of bread (White or Wheat) • 6 eggs • 1 cup of milk • 1cup brown sugar or Sugar • 2 teaspoons of cinnamon • Maple syrup • Optional: Pecan or walnut pieces are great in this dish.

Grease a casserole pan with cooking spray or dip a paper towel in oil and spread: (you will not need much.) Mix together eggs, milk, cinnamon and brown sugar in a large bowl. Put each piece of bread in egg mixture and coat well.

Then place in rows in casserole dish. Stack each row 2 or 3 high, depending on the depth of the pan.

Pour remaining egg mixture over the top. Squeeze maple syrup generously over the top and bake on 350 for 35 minutes or until heated through.

Excellence in Radio

The causes that lead to a world of homelessness and use of shelters

H

acquire without certain omelessness and documents. Therefore, former inmates have better efforts are needed some factors in common. on the part of the personBoth populations find nel at prisons. Most refuge at shelters, and likely, better organization may have trouble locating will equate in less issues their personal paperwork for former inmates mainneeded to secure a job or taining their paperwork to home. Studies have found avoid the path that 15 to to homeless27 perness. In the cent of These families meantime, inmates end up inmates should expect to homeless have some go to backup or homeless because of job know where to shelters loss, but they obtain new u p o n tend to have all documents release. pertinent upon their reIn addidocuments lease. A crimition, the nal record former needed to holds many prison return to former inmates inmates regular stable back from ophave a home life. portunities, high risk and the shelof dying ters become after bethe fall back. It offers a ing released from prison. temporary solution, alThe risk of death is greatthough this is not a good est in the first 14 days permanent one. After all, after release suggesting it may lead to violence or that the re-entry process is other infractions against especially difficult for society because former many ex-inmates. These inmates that become shocking statistics infer homeless upon release are that sometimes poverty going from extreme to can be caused by misextreme. Another issue is placed identification, a substance abuse that can criminal record, and/or a lead to irrational behavior. substance abuse issue.

Unfortunately, many forThe Washington Post adds mer inmates fall into the that some rather stay in category of substance prison to have shelter in a abuse. Therefore, losing 2002 article about New hope because of homeless York homeless. situation may infuse the Misplaced identidesire to be reckless. fication occurs when the However, under different inmate enters the prison. circumstances these forThis means that work can mer inmates may not take be almost impossible to

refuge in a shelter because of the desire to succeed.

The first days upon release are the most important to enable the inmates to find permanent residence and work. Possibly, programs like work release will eventually enable more former inmates to avoid shelters completely. Hopefully, employers that hire work release workers will make efforts to keep the inmates after their release. It is not a positive for inmates to depend on shelters as their next stop upon release, particularly if it is simply a paperwork issue. The lifestyle could lead to dependency on the public welfare system and shelters that can cause burden to society.

In summation, there are millions that pass through shelters every year because of a lack of money. Former inmates tend go to shelters for lack of money, and the means to get employment or a place to stay. It is important that this difference is investi-

BETHEL WORSHIP CENTER Bethel Worship Center is hosting a Pre-Thanksgiving Dinner for those who are hungry, Come and be filled with food and fellowship.

On November 11th 2007 at 2:00pm. At 60650 Kimberly Blvd. North Lauderdale,FL33068 R.S.V.P (954)972-3321

gated because it could mean a constant influx of homeless for reasons beyond their own control.

Therefore, it is impossible with the amount of people incarcerated, and released that become homeless due to clerical issues to put a dent in the homeless statistics. On the other hand, the children with families that are homeless are becoming the fastest growing. These families end up homeless because of job loss, but they tend to have all pertinent documents needed to return to regular stable home life. The family homeless populations can be helped with a new job in most cases, but the former inmates may need a little more assistance for longer. However, the entire experience could be avoided with better planning for the release of the inmates, and more knowledge in how to get new documents like social security cards. Organizations like the Homeless Voice are unique because they support the homeless with a way to earn money.

So, support the people with Homeless Voice tshirts because they’re working to improve their situation.

By: Jamie M. Kisner

Advantage Communications, Inc. is a proud supporter of The Cosac Foundation "Excellence in Radio"

Page 5

Volume IX, Issue 10

HOMELESS VOICE Baby Boomers Hit the Streets

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paid to those who are 50 to 60 years sk a teenager to define “elderly” old. Those who are chronically homeand s/he’ll probably say, less, who have lived on the streets, in “Anyone over 40.” Before someone shelters, in jails or hospitals for much coined the euphemistic “senior citiof their adult lives, are physically 10 zen”, one became elderly at 65. to 20 years older than their chronoNowadays, a healthy octogenarian in logical age as a result of harsh living comfortable circumstances might conditions, increased exposure to disspurn the adjective, owning only the eases, and poor diet. People who behonorific “elder”. come homeless in Nonethetheir 50’s are someless, social scientists times those who are and governments In understanding su mmar ily disagree that the 60’s the problems and charged from hospi(or 65) mark a new tals or other instituphase in the human population of older tions, without planlifecycle.

Social homeless people, ning or provision; Security legislation particular attention often, they are those and Supplemental who have lost a Security Income should be paid to caregiver--a spouse (SSI) address this those who are 50 to or grown child, an change, as do the 60 years old. older relative or plethora of social friend--someone and medical prowho was the primary grams, organizatenant and provided basic life managetions, and businesses customized for ment skills for a loved one who is Senior Citizens. Unfortunately, they mentally or physically incapacitated, all tacitly assume that the senior has who cannot manage on their own. additional income, savings, and other There are still others in their 50’s resources. The Center on Budget and among the elder homeless who may Policy Priorities (2005) reported that have spent their entire lives in the in 2002, “…2.1 million people had ranks of the working poor, only to be their disposable incomes lifted above forced onto the streets when younger the poverty line” by SSI payments of workers replace them. $579 (monthly maximums).

In contrast to the legislative Research interest in the eldand media attention given to seniors, erly poor and homeless seems to have there is very little aid or social support peaked in the early 1990’s, so most of available for the 50-59 year olds who the information about this group is share the vulnerability and frailty of outdated--by as much as 15 years. their elders. This report would not be One of those studies concluded that complete without mentioning a subthe proportion of elderly among the group of the 50 plus population that homeless population was dwindling. faces additional hardship and discrimiBut this didn’t mean that there were nation: Shannon Minter, in her article fewer elderly homeless; it meant that “Legal and Public Policy Issues for the number of (younger) homeless had Transgender Elders”, points out there grown! And despite percentages, the is no legal protection for transgennumber of elderly homeless has dered (in body and/or clothing choice) grown. The one recent (2004) study individuals, except in Rhode Island frequently quoted is a “3-nation surand Minnesota. Minter cites examples vey” by Crane et al. in which the city which “show transgender elders face of Boston represents the United States. unique and often extreme forms of As limited as this sample is, it does discrimination. They are denied medireport that the number of Boston’s cal care, [employment,] excluded from homeless has grown 39% since 1993. housing and social services, and deOlder homeless people have spised simply for being who they two of the same, basic problems as are.” (The Free Library, 2003. those much younger: the lack of adewww.thefreelibrary.com 7 July 07) quate income (due to mental, physical, Much has been said about or social impediments), and the scarthe impact of the Baby Boomer gencity of affordable housing. Additioneration. It is to be hoped that they will ally, because of age discrimination not just swell the ranks of the elder and the increasing frailty of age, they homeless, but that the more fortunate are more likely to be victimized in among them will apply their noted shelters or on the street; more prone to talent, skill, and social conscience to the mental and physical health probameliorate, if not solve, the plight of lems that come with age (even more their brothers and sisters. For if they so if they are long term homeless); are not part of the solution---they’re and more frequently excluded and part of the problem. distrustful (resulting in isolation) be-Margo Poulson cause of failing senses (sight and hearing especially) and ageism.

In understanding the problems and population of older homeless people, particular attention should be

Homeless Shelter Wish List • Clothing • Coffee Cups • Canned Foods • Medical Supplies • Diapers & Wipes • Personal Hygiene Items Call for directions 954-410-6275

A Broken Tile

A

s I sat in your Church office waiting room waiting for help to feed my children this week, I started to admire the exquisite crown molding that

adorned the entire room and the beautiful eloquent paintings hanging on the walls.

I had noticed the room was done so tastefully with its colors of burgundy and royal blue, definitely a room fit for a king along with the chair I was sitting in. As I enjoyed being there my eyes were drawn to the tiles on the floor that complemented the designer’s intentions. Then I saw it, a cracked tile on the floor that was still beautiful but never the less cracked and broken. It wasn’t in the middle of the room but just slightly off to the side but not at all hidden. As I looked at it I could see all the whole beautiful tiles surrounding this broken one and as I thought about it I realized that it absolutely served a purpose in the grand scheme of the design.

If the broken tile was not in place there would be a gaping hole in it’s place and it also helped keep the other whole tiles surrounding it from slipping out of place and becoming crooked and easily broken themselves. It amazed me that as I viewed the room my eyes were immediately drawn to the broken tile, and my heart felt for all the broken people that help keep us whole.

I had wondered why the church hadn’t replaced that broken tile because it showed signs of being there for some time and actually wished they wouldn’t. My thought was it reminded me that all broken people in this world serve a purpose in God’s grand plans by allowing the giver to be blessed with a reason to give.

-DJC

MRSA In the last year to year in a half you all have seen our little advertisement in the Homeless Voice asking people to become a member of our MRSA Task Force of South Florida. After a few months we took the advertisement out because we got no response. It was June 28th 2006 when we decided to start yet another advocacy group and incorporated this group as the 'MRSA Task Force of South Florida" We have always been one step ahead on certain issues and this MRSA Task Force was another way to start by educating the public.

As we have seen in the last few weeks MRSA has become a panic to some parents as well as the school system. Schools have been shut down to try to eliminate the bacterial. What is MRSA? MRSA is the old staph infection that has turned in to a SUPER BUG. What is a Super Bug? A super bug is a bacterial that gets into the body and that is resistant to many antibiotics. This means the current strong antibiotics that we have used in the past wont work. There are some very old antibiotics that were not used much in the last few years and then we have several new types of Antibiotics that work on this MRSA. With MRSA there are some things we can do so we don't have to panic. One thing is the oldest remedy in town, WASH , WASH, WASH your hands and do it all day long. And teach your children to do the same thing. We all are guilty of touching our face, nose, eyes and moth, we got to keep our hands away from those areas which helps put the bacterial in our system. This also works for the flu season as well. Also you must look at little wounds on your body and keep them clean and covered at all times so the MRSA does not get into the wound. If you see an infection starting from a wound or something that looks like an abscess go to the Emergency Room and have them do a wound culture and if they say no demand one because the CDC has set up protocol for all wounds to be cultured so they know what long term antibiotics to put you on. If the ER Doc puts you on meds for MRSA and you don't have MRSA then we are helping promoting the spread of MRSA. If they put you on the wrong meds and you have MRSA then it is allowing the MRSA to spread. MRSA can kill but there are many things that can be done to help slow the spread and to avoid getting it and early treatment is the key to winning the battle.

Start today and make sure everyone washes their hands and remember you can touch something and get MRSA for it is spread by contact. So washing all day is the best defense. If you have no access to water get a waterless hand cleaner. You can go to the CDC web site for more information.

The Voice of the Homeless

Page 6

HOMELESS VOICE

My Friend Named John (Continued from page 1)

something funny and from this and from his pure need you just can't leave and you start to wonder where would he be or where would the others be if you exited and never returned..

Some of my friends have asked me over the years, “Sean, don't you feel taken for granted by these people?" I have said sure and when it comes to Johnny there is only the pure need of him using us and that is what makes it so beautiful, he needs everything. He needs to be told when to go shower and it is us who gives him his bath. I had to become his guardian because of his special needs. From the article you will see getting him to take a shower can be a long journey but with the extra help I hired it only takes a few days to get him to do that and now the aide we hired can give him his bath making it a little easier for me at times. Most of the time I have to even treat him as if he were my child but that feeling of him needing me also means using him for my own sense wanting to be needed as well. Even when I get my well deserved break trying to get an hour of sleep in the day time and I hear his knock on my door with his soft voice calling out to me "Sean I need a soda cause I left mine on the plane" gives you that daytime smile. He always says something that means nothing. Just last week he said he swallowed soap while he and I were scuba diving in the Nile River in Egypt....

I almost died from laughing to death.

He seems as peaceful as Jesus. You could be in the middle of a stressful day and want to just walk out the door and then you run

into John and the whole world stops and the stress is erased by John’s presence. This and many Thanksgiving Days almost now eleven years later since I found Johnny just sitting there, there is not a day that I don't thank Jesus for meeting Johnny.

We urge you to read this story and then give this story to your friends. It was written by Robert George of the Sun-Sentinel in 1999. Happy Thanksgiving!

Love Sean....

S

ean Cononie, almost a millionaire and just 35, works 20 hours a day finding homes for the homeless, hope for the hopeless. And when he loses faith, he turns to the neediest one of all to restore it.

Johnny's feet are black again; his stomach, bare beneath his unbuttoned shirt, is shiny with sweat;

and he's swearing, which he never does, and threatening to leave if Sean doesn't back off about him needing a shower.

"I don't wanna be tossed around by anyone," Johnny says, and then he leans back on the couch in Room 8 of Sean Cononie's homeless shelter in Hollywood and folds his arms across his chest.

Sean swivels around to look into Johnny's

face. Leave? Is he serious? Sean knows that Johnny McCormick, who, at 47, had long ago fried his brain on drugs, would be lost without the shelter. And Sean would be a little lost too, since he has decided he wants to take care of Johnny forever.

There is no smile on Johnny's face, and he turns away when Sean keeps looking at him, and so Sean softens his tone, uses baby talk.

"Why don't you

get wet in the shower?" Sean asks, very gently this time.

"We'll go out to din-din."

"Well," Johnny says, uncrossing his arms, "if I take a shower I need pants."

"I just gave you pants yesterday. I took off my own pair and gave them to you."

"I might shower in the future if I get a sharper razor."

Sean smiles. His cell phone rings. He clicks it open and listens while roll(Continued on page 9)

Page 7

Volume IX, Issue 10

HOMELESS VOICE Who should these families thank?

Who should us homeless how they can repay us and we reply shelters thank?

We thank God for this place to just “pay it forward” and return because without this place the favor to there would be so many little someone in ones in the streets. We also need.

Who “We thank give thanks to the supporters should these God for this of the Homeless Voice befamilies thank? cause without the love in Who should us place because your hearts we could not do homeless shelwithout this what we do. We also thank ters thank? And the other family shelters and who should the place there churches who came to take donators to our would be so this family to the next step. cause thank for many little allowing a family with small Who should the donators ones in the kids to come in to our cause thank for allowstreets.” for the night? ing a family with small kids First of to come in for the night?

All of you who contribute all, I don't know to us should give thanks to God as about you but picture you being well as the people who brought you homeless with an infant. Where up to have it in your hearts to care would you sleep? Would it be safe? for others in need. You should just Who do I stay away from on the thank God every night that you have streets? How do I protect myself the funds to make all this possible and my kids? Where will the next and of course when you have time meal come from? Can I trust this pick up the phone and tell your parman who said he will provide for me ents thanks for bringing you up and my kids or will he abuse me and rape me? Then of course even after the correct way. You can also thank your place of employment for giving they figure out the answers to these you the extra funds you deserve so questions then comes the tears beyou can donate. And a lot of us forcause no matter what... it has got to get that we need to THANK GOD be the most horrible thing in life not to have a place for your children. As that it is not you and your family that is living on that bus bench. we all know the children are the As this is the holiday seamost precious thing in the world to son we have a lot of money to raise all of us and to think of a little one cause a lot of our money that is living on the street with no walls of raised during this time is used for the protection from the elements and of next years budget when we are short course from the ones who prey on from rain or it allows us to expand in the homeless simply because they some way. are easy targets.

Also during this time we raise the most we can for our mortWho should these families gage so we can pay it off. Our camgive thanks to? paign still exists and with your help Well of course they should and the help from God we will be give thanks to God above for all that just fine. So please remember to falls into place for them to receive send in your holiday gift to our shelter. It is just not as easy as one Post Office Box. would think to just call a shelter and say I am homeless with kids what What does Sean Cononie time do I show up. In most cases the give thanks to? shelters are not even open in the I think all of you know middle of the night. And besides all without God this place would have that trying to get shelter for a family fallen down a long time ago, there is becomes the most difficult thing to no way humanly possible I kept this get when you need services in almost any county. This family, and we will once again call them the Robinson Family to protect their name was homeless at the bus station. It was late and raining and none of the county shelters had any room. The Fort Lauderdale Police Department called the Homeless Voice and of course we said yes bring them to us. This family was very thankful for us giving her safe refuge, her little one was just three years old. The mom who was young kept on thanking us. A lot of people just don't understand how much God works to make sure families are safe.

(Continued from page 1)

place going all these years because I am smart. I have met some fine people over the years who I really love and I also give thanks to God because of Johnny. He makes my day all the time and when things get crazy I can look at him and say thank you Lord for this place.

The campaign is up and running, let the race begin.

Happy Holidays.....

-The Homeless Voice HELP PAY OFF OUR MORTGAGE We need just 22,300 people to send in a check for $20.00, Or 8,920 people to send in a check for $50.00, Or 4,460 people to send in a check for $100.00, Or 446 people to send in a check for $1,000, Or Just one wonderful person or business to send a check for the entire $446,000; We will name the shelter after you or whomever you choose Remember the donation is tax deductible!!

Please send your checks to:

The COSAC Building Fund P.O. Box 292-577 Davie, Florida 33329 We do thank you

Did you know?

•

You can set up payroll deduction through your employer to support the COSAC Foundation’s Homeless Voice • Your company might even match your donation • See your human resource or department manager

The Voice of the Homeless

Page 8

HOMELESS VOICE

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Page 9

Volume IX, Issue 10

HOMELESS VOICE

My Friend Named John (Continued from page 6)

ing his head around in a circle to loosen the knot in his neck.

The hospital is calling again. Is there room for one more? That makes 10 and it's still lights out.

"It's gonna be a helluva night, " he says, and then he hangs up. Patting Johnny on the back, he lifts himself up from the couch and heads down the wellworn path through the patch of trees and the gap in the chain-link fence and to the stairs that lead to Penthouse 4.

Sean anchors himself in the chair behind an old desk cluttered with phones, an ashtray spilling ashes and three packs of Prozac someone found in the trash. Cases of cranberry juice line one wall from floor to ceiling. Paper cups and cookie jars separate the soda money from the cigarette money from the rent money from the street collection money.

From the clutter, he picks up the list of today's new arrivals.

Lois, the mugging victim, with open wounds on her skinny knees from the dragging she took though an alleyway.

Tom, who likes to tell people he is bisexual.

Joe, with a perforated ulcer.

All people who are too old, or too sick, or too troublesome for other homeless shelters to bother with, and too poor for the hospitals to take care of.

It's sort of a rogue shelter, this place Sean Cononie has set aside for them. It is made up of pink bungalows that were once an Army barracks and are now a rundown apartment complex in a tidy downtown neighborhood. To pay the rent, it sends its people out to beg for money. It turns no one away. And it seems to grow attached to the most needy, the ones who will almost certainly end up back on the streets without its help. Even if one of them breaks the rules, even if one of them refuses to take a shower for 10 days straight, The Corporation of Sean Anthonie Cononie (COSAC) doesn't let him go without a fight.

At 35, Sean is wealthy, a millionaire almost. And he doesn't know why, when he could do whatever he wanted with his life, he spends his time here, 20 hours a day, seven days a week, here among the rejects. It makes no sense, other than it's important to help people, especially people who really need help, and most especially, Johnny.

When someone at the shelter gets drunk or high again, or when someone dies or goes back to the street, Sean knows that Johnny will still be there, probably refusing to wear a belt and pulling his pants up with his left hand, or maybe holding the newspaper upside down and pretending to read it, or saying one of those funny things, like he did the other night at the ice cream shop.

On most nights, he takes in more people than any other shelter in the county. He wants to take in even more, shopping around to buy a building of his own, applying for grants, while at the same time trying to figure out ways to run the shelter without government money and all the rules that would come with that.

Sean wants his shelter to always be the sort of place that doesn't pretend every single person has the ability to make it on his own, the sort of shelter where people like Johnny never have to leave at all.

And so he has fewer rules and more of the classes where homeless people go to learn how to balance a checkbook and make a grocery list. Instead, those without disability checks to contribute to the rent can either join the day labor pool digging ditches or they can take one of Sean's plastic cookie jars and one of his red, white and blue "Helping People in America" T-shirts.

Hollywood Boulevard, or Andrews Avenue, or Arvida Parkway. At rush hours across the county, Sean's people wait for the lights to turn red and then, ID badges dangling, they walk among the rows of cars, their jars stretched out for change.

Jose, the first of the collection crew chiefs to finish this day, comes into Penthouse 4 a few minutes after Sean.

He plops down on the couch, plunks a plastic cookie jar on the carpet and picks out the dollar bills.

Della is drinking other people's soda again, he says, without looking up from the cookie jar.

Sean rolls his head. He looks down at the bed list, assigns Lois to No. 11, Tom to No. 17, Joe to No. 10, and the rooms at 2707 Lincoln St. quickly fill up.

Sean had prayed once to have a child of his own. Now he has dozens of them without even having to get married, which is good because dating and courtship take up a lot of time. And even before the shelter he was too busy for romance.

Quick to help He grew up in Hollywood, the youngest son of an airline mechanic who coached all of his Little League teams and a mother who stayed at home to raise the kids.

Helping people came natural to him. In his teens, he stopped at every accident he ever saw, pulling one baby from a burning car and bringing another back to life with CPR. He was even a bit stubborn about helping people and doing the right thing, like it was the only thing, the only choice. He actually sought out old ladies to help cross the street, found homes for stray dogs and, when that didn't seem enough, he made sandwiches to hand out to homeless people he might come across.

In his 20s, he got a halfmillion dollar worker's comp settlement after he slipped and fell at his job as a store security guard, rupturing disks in the neck and back. He invested the money in stocks just as the market took off and then watched his portfolio grow so fast that he could buy a Lexus, a Rolex watch, and his own house in his own hometown with a swimming pool and Jacuzzi in the back yard.

He even had enough money to write a $60,000 check just so he could fly out to California for Liz Taylor's birthday party. It was a fund-raiser for her AIDS foundation and he found himself climbing out of a limousine in a tuxedo, chatting up with one beauty, sipping champagne with another.

But the best part of the night came when Liz Taylor said "each and every one of you" were doing a tremendous amount of good. That had to mean

This is part three of the Longo Story.

Part One was the passer by talking to Mr. Longo as Mr. Longo was selling the Homeless Voice on the side of the street. At the time of the conversation they talked about a career in the military. Part Two was the story that was written about Mr. Longo picking the Navy and the day he left to go to Basic Training. And here you have Part Three. Stay Tune for part Four and part Five. These are the days of the graduation of the newest member of the United States Navy.

him, too. And he felt just so elated and so proud and he realized the best part of his good life came when he was being stubborn again about doing the right thing.

He flew home and filed the papers to start his nonprofit charity, naming it after himself. Not one to think much about the why and the what next of things, he simply started stuffing the trunk of his Lexus full of sandwiches, driving down to the slums of Overtown and handing them out to homeless people.

That seemed like a good idea.

After all, God must have put the homeless here on Earth to give people like him, people with everything, an opportunity to do something sacred. What was it that Jesus said in the Bible? Sean could never get the words exactly right, just the meaning. What was it? If you feed the hungry, if you feed the best of mankind, you're feeding me, too?

The Answer Man Meals are served out of Room 16, he tells the newcomers. No gourmet meals, but donated doughnuts for breakfast, bologna sandwiches for lunch and macaroni and cheese with hot dogs and beans for supper.

Sean rents five bungalows worth of beds, small buildings in two parallel rows separated by a littered courtyard. And behind one row, separated by the chain link fence with the gap

in it, in the two-story white complex where Penthouse 4 is, Sean has even more beds.

Beds for 79. In a pinch, beds for 85. In a real pinch, 89. And when the 90th comes, he somehow digs up a 90th bed.

The place gets so crowded sometimes, with people sitting on the cement stoops, bumming cigarettes at the gazebo, watching cartoons in their living rooms, making piles of aluminum cans to sell to the recycling company.

And stopping Sean. They're always stopping Sean as he tramps from bungalow to bungalow, from problem to problem, this curly red-haired man with a doughboy face, muscular shoulders and thick hands that pat them on the back, tussle their hair and massage their shoulders.

He has the answer to whatever the question might be.

No, it doesn't matter that you went on vacation, he told a man one day earlier this fall, you were still supposed to pay the rent. And to another: Just because you weren't driving the car doesn't mean you didn't have to make the payments. Wear nice clothes to court, he says to a third, but not so nice that it looks like you're sucking up. The normal practice in America is for people to work an eight-hour day, he told a labor crew that called in at noon to complain, "we're (Continued on page 10)

The Voice of the Homeless

Page 10

HOMELESS VOICE

My Friend Named John A gentle push getting tired."

All the beds are filled and the He keeps track of their doctors sun has long set upon the pink bungaappointments, hands out their medicalows and Sean is alone in Penthouse 4 tions, tells them what to say to their with Jenny Scott, who was Principal of shrinks and social workers, to their the Year once up north, and then she had judges and probation officers, their some family problems and then she was mothers and fathers. a homeless woman in South Florida and Sure they are using him, but now she is Sean's assistant. they are needing him too, and none so "Am I pushing Johnny too much as Johnny. hard?" he asks her.

The very least of the least of "I could smell him all the way mankind. Johnny, who smokes five across the courtyard," she says. packs of cigarettes a "I really don't want him to day, whose disability leave again." check costs taxpayers The last time Johnny left, $500 a month, who Sean had half the shelter volunteers for nothing, out looking for him for two who produces nothing, straight days. He was covJohnny gives accomplishes nothing, ered with sand fleas when away his aspires to nothing. they found him by the clothes. He Junkie, hubeach and Sean had to put man trash, that's how on rubber gloves and scrub laughs at Sean figures Johnny his body from head to toe. almost "It's up to you, Sean," must appear to other anything, a soft Jenny says, going through people. To him though, the door to the back room Johnny is the cutest laugh that where her bed is. "It's up to one of all, "the cutest barely makes it you." little thing, "in fact. past his beard.

Well, it's important for And Johnny is a saint, Johnny to keep clean, Sean very very close to God. tells himself after she shuts Why? Because Johnny the door, and not just for never lies, never talks everyone out there having to impress people, and to smell him, but for himself, too. couldn't if he tried. He can't pretend anySean tallies the last of the thing. cookie jars. About $500. Some days the He is a broken-down walking cookie jars fill up with as much as bag of needs, a sack of sacred opportuni$1,000 and some months the pennies and ties. dollar bills add up to $20,000, almost Sometimes, when Johnny and enough to pay the rent, and buy the gas Sean sit next to each other on the couch and the medications for people without in Room 8, Sean asks Johnny where he insurance, and the hundreds of packs of came from. bologna in Sean's refrigerator back at his He was born in Massachusetts, house, where he rarely gets to use the Johnny tells him. But though he has tried Jacuzzi anymore. to recall that particular day of being Midnight comes and goes with born, well, it happened a long time ago Sean still awake and scanning through and he just can't. He was the son of a the proof sheets of the first edition of the druggist. He went to a reform school new shelter newspaper. He plans on where a big hand made the boys line up selling The Homeless Herald at churches in a row and then swooped down, slapand on street corners. ping all of them all at once. He did "I'm Homeless, But Not Lazy," drugs, too many drugs, and then, about is one headline. The paper has some 20 years ago, he began to travel. poems, a few ads (not nearly enough) Not too long ago, he hitchand, on Page 6, Sean's own article, "My hiked all the way from Florida to Paris.

Friend Named John."

Had a nervous breakdown or something Who still needs to take a like that. Not sure how he got back, shower. Sean resolves as he drives home, floated down, yeah, on Eastern Airlines, wondering if he'll be able to sleep this that's it, and Sean found him when he got night. here.

Johnny gives away his clothes.

Sleep comes hard But this night is like the rest, He laughs at almost anything, a soft he gets two hours. laugh that barely makes it past his beard.

First it is the sleep disorder Says please and thank you and you're that came with the pain that came with welcome at all the right times. the injuries to his neck and back. His He calls nothing of this world stomach is a mess again, too, so when he his own, except for a single possession, a does nod off he gags and jolts awake in a small blue blanket that he holds onto panic. His two precious hours start just each night when he goes to sleep. He has before dawn in the semi-darkness and had it for years and has never washed it semi-quiet of a bedroom with the televiand yet it doesn't smell. Even now in the sion on. midst of Johnny's longest showerless He worries more than he streak ever, the blue blanket has no dreams, worries about all of the things smell. Johnny does though, and people on all of the lists that come with this are starting to complain.

(Continued from page 9)

shelter of his. And is he doing the right thing?

It's not as though he ever planned on starting a shelter. In fact, it happened by accident almost, a thing of impulse born into a night three years ago when it was worry what to do with his new foundation that was keeping Sean Cononie up late, driving him from his bed and into his Lexus and down darkened streets in search of a purpose.

Around midnight he spotted a homeless couple huddled beneath a highway bridge.

"Need a place to stay?" he had asked.

It happened just like that. An impulse, a question, a shelter.

He put the couple up in an apartment at 2707 Lincoln St. And then, on another sleepless night, he found another homeless person. And then two apartments, then an entire bungalow.

And then, when there were just a dozen or so people, Johnny came. Then another and another.

And then the other shelters heard about this Sean guy who had his own shelter, and they began calling him, asking him to take in the drug addicts and the mentally ill, the old senile drunks and the young troublemaking ones, while at the same time demanding to know when he was going to get a board of directors made up of people other than the people staying in the shelter. Maybe then he would get some proper funding.

And when was he going to quit sending them out to beg? That gave everybody a bad name.

And the police began calling, too, asking him to pick up drunks passed out on the streets where they would ban Sean's collection crews on the very next day. And the hospitals called with their poor patients and a warning they wouldn't keep them, and so Sean had to take them too, didn't he?

Is he doing the right thing, taking in people no other shelter would touch, sending them into that rush-hour traffic, publishing a newspaper written

by them? Is he doing the right thing?

Sean's two hours of rest and worry end just after dawn when his legs start to jerk up and down. That happens a lot, too. Up and down, up and down, so hard it's impossible to keep his eyes closed a minute longer.

A clean start?

On this morning, Sean stays at his house pouring jars of coins into sorting machines while, back at the shelter, Johnny gets caught faking a shower.

His roommates, Eddie and Pete, bug him so much that he finally goes inside the bathroom and shuts the door. Eddie, whom Sean had found passed out by a fire hydrant, and Pete, whom Sean had found in a dumpster, hear the water running.

When Johnny comes out a few minutes later, the blackness of his feet, once uniform from toes to ankles, is streaked as if splashed, however briefly, by a stream of water. Johnny is wearing the same soiled jeans, the same unbuttoned shirt. Eddie and Pete poke their heads inside the bathroom and notice there is no bar of soap.

"What do I gotta do, throw you in the shower?" Pete says to him.

Sean hears about the phantom shower when he gets to the shelter later that day and calls Johnny up to Penthouse 4. Johnny shuffles into the front room and searches out the one vacant chair, a lighted cigarette in his hand, another unlighted one in his mouth, a third sticking out of his hair, next to, but not actually behind, his ear. The phones are ringing, the smoke is thickening, the line outside is getting longer, and Della is standing off to the side by the crates of cranberry juice.

"We're going to have to hose you down," Sean says to Johnny, who is using the last ember of one cigarette to light up another.

Johnny furrows his brow, and then he smiles a bit.

"If you scrub me," he says, "put on the rubber gloves."

(Continued on page 11)

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Page 11

Volume IX, Issue 10

HOMELESS VOICE

My Friend Named John (Continued from page 10)

Della giggles. With her hands clasped in front of her, that sheepish smile on her face, she looks almost girlish, despite being middle-aged and world -weary.

"Della, the Miracle," Sean calls her, sober and off crack for three months now, and able for the first time in the year he's known her to follow a conversation.

She had come home drunk last night and now she was swearing to God, for the fourth time, that she never had a single drug, even though, reeking of booze, she had banged on the door of Penthouse 4 and woke up Jenny at 3 a.m.

"Can you just not discharge me, please?" she begs Sean.

Sean just stares at her. Della shifts her foot, opens her mouth, as if to repeat her oath, closes it back up. She fixes a smile on her face, and then tries out a frown, and when that doesn't work either, she looks at the floor. Sean stares.

She looks at the ceiling. Then she looks away altogether.

"OK, Sean", she finally says, "I was drinkin' last night."

It was a bottle of schnapps.

Her disability check came in and she cashed it and her boyfriend came around and they decided to get drunk. It just happened.

"You remember that I told you not to sneak out?" he says.

"Yes, Sir." "You wanna end up brain dead?"

"That's why I'm bipolar," she says. "Because of all those drugs I've done and all the booze I've had."

"You're gonna come back with a wet brain. You're not even gonna know when you pee."

"I've already got cirrhosis, " she says, as if to compliment Sean for being so perceptive.

Susan knocks on the door and lumbers in. Sean yells at her for smoking when she's so out of breath. Jeff, a day laborer who attributes his perpetually bowed head to his chronically low selfesteem, comes in to pay his $16 in daily rent. Sean tells Annie, who is about to spend her first night ever at a shelter, to wipe the toilet seat before using it and to sleep with her money on her, even if she has to put it in her bra, and to not be afraid, that everything is going to be OK. The line keeps coming and the phone keeps ringing and Johnny shuffles away, still smoking, still dirty.

As darkness falls, Sean hands a slip of paper to Della for her to sign.

Thirty days of no visitors and 10 days of AA meetings, that was her punishment. When she signs, Sean notices a black mark on her fingernail, the sort of burn caused when the lighter held over a crack pipe flickers up between each inhale.

It's an old stain, Della says.

She swears to God it is. But it doesn't

look old to Sean.

A new man Four more two-hour nights and Sean is exhausted. Four more showerless days and Johnny is rank.

Then comes Day 15 of Johnny's showerless streak, the day when Johnny goes inside the bathroom of Room 8 and the water goes on and stays on this time.

"Hey," Pete says, smiling through the door after a half-hour has passed. "you're going to have to pay the water bill!"

When Johnny finally comes out, he is wearing a new T-shirt and he is holding up a new pair of pants, Sean's black jeans, size 42, at least two sizes too big for Johnny.

Eddie and Pete talk about boiling his old clothes while Johnny brags about his new ones, offering in his quiet mumbly voice to buy a soda for anyone who wants one. No one says a word about the T-shirt being on backwards.

Sean is sorting change again and misses the whole thing. And then the next day, before he can even sit down at the desk in Penthouse 4, he is distracted by news that Carol got a $20 bill from somewhere, and that it is gone now, and that ever since it disappeared her jaw has been wobbling.

That can mean only one thing.

Crack in the shelter. And he sends for Carol, whose middle-aged worldweariness shows a lot more than Della's does.

Carol comes up the stairs and through the door. She gave the $20 to Caroline, she says. Caroline is Carol's friend. No one has ever seen Caroline.

No one even knows who Caroline is.

"I gotta problem." Sean says.

"I know you're lyin'."

He empties Carol's purse, opens her lipstick, looks inside her halfcrushed pack of cigarettes. It will take Sean seven hours before Carol finally admits to smoking crack. It is past midnight when Carol, jaw wobbling like mad, finally says where she got it.

Della has it, she says. It's Della.

Sean smashes Carol's crack in front of her, tells her if she wants to stay she'll be confined to her room for 30 days.

"I wanna stay, Sean, I wanna stay," she says.

But Della won't give up her crack. She won't agree to room confinement. She lets Sean give her a hug, but she won't give him any excuse to keep her and she walks away -- Della the Miracle, a bundle of clothes, unbrushed hair, smiles, frowns, swearing to God with her hidden cash into the night.

Jenny goes into the back room to fall asleep and Sean is left alone, knowing his own bed will offer no comfort. He goes into that hot night, down the stairs and through the gap in the chain-link fence where Johnny's old

jeans, freshly cleaned, if not boiled too, have been set out to dry.

He opens the door to Room 8.

Sean knows Johnny would be asleep.

Johnny can sleep anywhere, either where he is now -- on the couch, holding his blanket -- or beneath the gazebo, or in the lawn chair outside, anywhere, anytime, bucketfuls of slumber on demand.

Sean snaps on the light and Johnny opens his eyes.

Here at the end of a tired day, it turns out that Johnny McCormick, the neediest, is the one Sean Cononie, the givingest, is needing again.

"Wanna cigarette?" Sean asks, and of course Johnny does, and he takes a light, too.

Sean pulls a copy of The Homeless Herald out of his back pocket.

"Look Johnny, you're famous," Sean says, opening to Page 6. He holds it out for Johnny.

Johnny rustles it, turns it this way and that.

Sean's story, "My Friend Named John," tells of how they had met on the curb by a bus station, and how Sean had tried to get the psych ward at the hospital to take Johnny in, but the hospital had refused and how, over the months, people had come and gone, hundreds of them so far -- Annies and Carols and Toms and lots and lots of Dellas -- and Johnny was always there holding his pants up with his left hand and making Sean smile.

Johnny's eyes, flickering beneath the tangle of his hair, scan back and forth across the upside-down newspaper. To Sean, he looks like Jesus Christ. It doesn't matter that Johnny's feet are already turning black again.

Hadn't Christ's feet gotten dirty in the Bible and didn't someone have to wash them off, or something like that?

And there it is in black and white and in Sean's own words. "He is the best present God has ever given me in my entire life."

"Johnny, I love you," Sean says.

"And I hate you, too," Johnny says.

But he can't help smiling when he says it and then he gives himself away with that soft laugh of his.

Copyright 1999, SunSentinel Written by Robert George

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