Shelter Wish List • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Coffee Coffee Cups Canned Foods Toothbrush Diapers & Wipes Medical Supplies Toothpaste Paper Towels Toilet Paper Combs Towels Wash Clothes Men's Clothes 1203 N. Federal Highway Hollywood, FL 33020
Cathy’s Prayer List Brian • Tahizmalu & Jimmy Taylor Fabiola • Ed & Ruth • Rudy • Lisa • John McLean • Darren • • Jan Cerrito Rev. Patrick O’Shea • Angela Forrest & Family • Angelo (Passed 10 • 21--08, 10--21 the family thanks everyone for their prayers) Maria Dragon • Blanch Lake • Dave Nerau • • Megan Theresa • Allan Rosenthal • His Prison Ministry Gloria Parker • Donald Collins • Eva Sofo • Michael Manning • Barbara • Sonia Mendoza •
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“Meeting Joseph, 3 strikes, I’m out”
JOE RYAN Knocking On Heavens Door
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ot only did he look different, he felt different, he ate different and he communicated differently. Joe felt more secure but not only more secure but happier as each day passed by. He had become altogether an entirely different person. Who was this guy and why all the sudden changes? It was about four years ago when a supervisor from another shelter brought Mr. Joe Ryan into my office. Joe was shuffled back and forth from shelter to shelter and because of various reasons he just wasn’t able to call any of them home. Our shelter, The Homeless Voice took him in. The system in almost every community has cracks and some of the clients fall through the cracks. Joe was an extremely depressed person who ate very little. For the first seven to nine months of his stay here at the shelter the director Sean Cononie placed him in what the shelter calls a Mother Teresa bed. A Mother Teresa bed is a free bed which entitles the person not to have to work, not having to sell our newspaper and not having to pay fees through an assistance check. This is
Joe’s son pays his respect at the shelters’ memorial service. a bed for those who are very special people whom the system had misplaced and caused them to fall through the cracks. Joe was basically a guest at the shelter and at the shelters expense. According to Cononie they had to bring him his food because Joe would never leave his bed. It wasn’t long that things had changed in his favor and began regaining his life and becoming the man he always was. The story continues from this point on. I also knew Joe when he first arrived. A frail man shaking as if he was going to fall into pieces. He
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ew years ago my opinion about homelessness was very, let’s say “traditional”, they only helped me to get rid of the change in my pockets; Always applying my perspectives of life to them, in a way that they always got a bad grade in my evaluation. But one day while at a traffic light I saw this person selling a paper and using a t-shirt of the Homeless Voice, there I went, ranting on how this person is wasting his time and the slim probabilities of moving his life ahead just selling a paper, “C’mon go to college, get a career.” Then my wife looked at me and told me these simple words, “Do you think they don’t know that? They’re probably measuring their lives by the hour, every hour at work is a victory, and they are doing what they can.” Those words unveiled an area of the problem that I never thought before. From there I started educating myself (Continued on page 4)
(Continued on page 5)
With Growing Number Of Foreclosures,
Obama moved by homeless woman's story at town hall
Homeless Turning to Squatting
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ith the number of foreclosures continuing to rise in South Florida, squatting has become a growing trend among the area's homeless. "I had to squat because nobody gave a squat," said 'Mary.' We're calling her 'Mary' and concealing her identity because she's a squatter. She lost her job and took up residence in this vacant foreclosed house. "This will afford me a few minutes to be able to breath and be able to regroup and get back out there into the workforce to be the productive part of society," said 'Mary.' She keeps the place and her belongings in order. We can't reveal the location because she's there without the owner's permission. Community activist Max Rameau placed Mary in the home through his organization, Take Back the Land. "Our role is to identify these places and make them available for
"I had to squat because nobody gave a squat..." people who need places to stay, and that's what we do," said Rameau. He's placed seven such families in foreclosed homes. In Miami-Dade an estimated 4,800 people are homeless. There are plenty of homes to pick from. In December alone banks filed 6,000 foreclosures. "If you would take all the homeless people and move them into vacant, foreclosed houses, we could end the homeless problem today in Miami Dade," said Rameau. Some of these properties don't even have locks on the doors. So it’s easy to get in. Once they're inside, anyone can pay to the utility companies to keep water and lights running. But is it legal? "This issue of trespassers and squatters as you call them is against the law. If you go into an (Continued on page 6)
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woman's hard-luck tale at a town hall meeting in Florida moved President Barack Obama to leave the stage. When Henrietta Hughes complained she'd been down on her luck and was living in her car with her son, Obama walked to her and gave her a kiss on the cheek. Hughes said she was out of work and homeless, with "a very small vehicle for my family and I to live in." A White House press secretary said administration officials asked the local housing authority to contact her after the exchange in Fort Myers. Meanwhile, the wife of Florida state Rep. Nick Thompson offered to let the woman stay in a house she owns that's vacant about 30 miles away. Chene Thompson isn't sure if Hughes will take her up on the offer. -AP