A Touch of Life
GoodShop to Help the Homeless
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onths back we promised you all a new look for the Cosac Quarters Shelter. Well after months of saving funds and buying and storing paint to get the best deals we are now finished. As you can see by the pictures on page 6, that was then and this is now. We picked a downtown Hollywood scene of colors to fit in the downtown area. Hollywood has taken pride in this downtown area and we wanted to fit in. It will be our next attempt to fix up the front with a little office out front where we will make our lobby a little bigger and better. At the same time we are going to finish the remodeling of
Cathy’s Prayer List •
The Darlington Family Brian • 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 • Pete & Sharron Mosses • Rev. Patrick O’Shea • To add a name to the list call 954 954--410 410--6275 No monetary donations needed
How’s My Vending? Call (954)
925-6466 X101
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s you all know we are trying to pay off our current mortgage,
raise money for our monthly expenses, as well as expanding. With these plans it always becomes more difficult each and every year mostly because of the economy. So each and every day we plan and plan to figure out ways of first getting donations and secondly how can we produce income without costing the
the rooms and make them user friendly as well as maintenance free with tile on all the walls. With tile on the walls it prevents germs and allows us not to have to continue to paint and paint and paint once again. No matter how many times
we paint some new person decides to carve in their name on the new walls. So tile it is. The most exciting thing and I hope the city will go for it and that is to add a few rooms downstairs in
supporters one cent. First it was the Internet Search via Good Search where we make one penny everytime someone searches on the Internet. We did not do as well as
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Foreclosed Homes Occupied By the Homeless Leaders Angered by
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he nation's foreclosure crisis has led to a painful irony for homeless people: On any given night they are outnumbered in some cities by vacant houses, and some street people are taking advantage of the opportunity by becoming squatters. Foreclosed homes often have an advantage over boarded-up and dilapidated houses abandoned because of rundown conditions: Sometimes the heat, lights and water are still working. "That's what you call convenient," said James Bertan, 41, an ex-convict and self-described "bando," or someone who lives in abandoned houses. While no one keeps numbers of below-the-radar homeless finding shelter in properties left vacant by foreclosure, homeless advocates agree the locations even with utilities cut off would be inviting to some. There are risks for squatters, including fires from using candles and confrontations with drug dealers, prostitutes, copper thieves or police. "Many homeless people see the foreclosure crisis as an opportunity to find low-cost housing (FREE!) with some privacy," Brian Davis, director of the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless, said in the summary of the latest census of homeless sleeping outside in downtown Cleveland. The census had dropped from 40 to 17 people. Davis, a board member of the National Coalition for the Homeless, cited factors including the availability of shelter in foreclosed homes, aggres-
Homeless in Ft. Lauderdale
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s homeless people were waking up on the stairwells and parks
of Fort Lauderdale on Thursday, some of downtown's most powerful business Top 5 foreclosure cities by inventory: CHICAGO, IL • MIAMI, FL • LAS VEGAS, NV • JACKSONVILLE, FL • ORLANDO, FL •
sive sidewalk and street cleaning and the relocation of a homeless feeding site. He said there are an average 4,000 homeless in Cleveland on any given night. There are an estimated 15,000 single-family homes vacant due to foreclosure in Cleveland and suburban Cuyahoga County. In Texas, Larry James, president and chief executive officer of Central Dallas Ministries, said he wasn't surprised that homeless might be taking advantage of vacant homes in residential neighborhoods beyond the reach of his downtown agency. "There are some campgrounds and creek beds and such where people would be tempted to walk across the street or climb out of the creek bed and sneak into a vacant house," he said. Bertan, who doesn't like shelters because of the rules, said he has been homeless or in prison for drugs and other charges for the past nine years. He has noticed the increased availability of boarded-up homes amid the foreclosure crisis. (Continued on page 9)
and community leaders were in a meeting fretting about how to get rid of them. Downtown has blossomed in the past five years into a city center with more than a dozen new luxury condo towers, a robust retail and restaurant economy on Las Olas Boulevard, and a jampacked bar district on Southwest Second Street, but the urban core also attracts more homeless people than any other city in Broward County. According to CEOs and others at Thursday's power broker meeting, the homeless are overrunning downtown like never before. (Continued on page 11)