HOMELESS COALITION OF PALM BEACH COUNTY

Homelessness: ‘You could be next in line’

By STACI STURROCK
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Consider for a moment the small blessings you may have already taken for granted on this postcard-pretty fall day in Florida.
Did you wake up on a firm mattress? Linger in a hot shower? Pour yourself a glass of cold, sweet orange juice from a well-stocked fridge in your very own kitchen?
Now consider how all that, and so much more, would be out of reach if you lost the roof over your head, due to layoffs at work or a pile of medical bills or any of the unexpected ways that plain old bad luck knocks on your front door and invites itself in.
Unemployment, foreclosures, the kind of paycheck-to-paycheck living that is increasingly common in this nightmarish economy…. Homelessness, more than ever, does not discriminate.
“The faces of homelessness are changing,” says Rita Clark, executive director of the Homeless Coalition of Palm Beach County. “We want people to realize that your neighbor — maybe even you — could be next in line.”
And because the need for help is so great this year, the coalition took the unusual step of not nominating a single individual or family to Season to Share. Says Clark: “To pick one person would really be almost unethical.”
Instead, they are asking for general help for the entire coalition, a sort of umbrella agency that acts as a voice for the homeless.
To help spread the word about issues that the homeless face, the coalition recently established a speakers bureau of formerly homeless men and women, people like…
• 55-year-old Guy Nelson, who is now pursuing a degree in respiratory therapy but was homeless for six months.
• 23-year-old Antoinette Washington, who began living on the streets at the age of 16, when the grandmother with whom she lived moved into a home for the elderly.
• 46-year-old Frederick Sherman, a veteran who first experienced homelessness in middle school, but is now working during the day and attending school at night.
The homeless in Palm Beach County are largely invisible — they live in roughly 100 encampments, tucked in the less traveled areas of public parks, in abandoned buildings, behind shopping centers, from Jupiter to Boca, from the Glades to the Intracoastal.
They seek shelter in tents and lean-tos, sleep on flattened cardboard boxes and, Clark says, are thankful for the simplest gifts: a bottle of water, a clean pair of socks, news that the coalition has organized an event providing free medical checkups, haircuts and clothes.
“Every day there’s a different kind of need,” Clark says.

THE HOMELESS COALITION OF PALM BEACH COUNTY’S WISH

Cash donations to help provide items such as food, water, soap, shampoo, sunblock, bug spray, blankets and sleeping bags to those surviving on the streets, as well as clothing, gas cards and hotel vouchers.

Nominated by: The Homeless Coalition of Palm Beach County Inc., 2100 Palm Beach Lakes Blvd., West Palm Beach, FL 33409 (561) 478-5351

UPDATE

One woman donated a tent. Local TJ MAXX stores gave gift cards for food. Other people hand-delivered socks, sweaters, bottles of shampoo and individually wrapped cheese-and-crackers snacks - little things that mean a lot to those living on the streets.

Monetary contributions to the Homeless Coalition of Palm Beach County are roughly $10,000, including a $220 gift from some Lake Worth High School students who organized a silent auction of photos to raise money.

But more awareness about homelessness may be the most lasting gift that grew out of the Season to Share article about the coalition (the entire agency, rather than an individual or family, was profiled).

“Those people coming in or calling have been very touched about how desperate a place it is to be homeless,” said executive director Rita Clark.

Guy Nelson, a formerly homeless man now studying respiratory therapy at Palm Beach Community College, belongs to the Homeless Coalition’s speakers bureau.

“My goal is to change people’s perception of the homeless,” he said. “That’s a difficult thing to work on. It’s incremental, I think. It happens in little nudges.”

In little nudges, at a silent auction. In the simple gifts of socks and snacks.

In extending a helping hand to neighbors in need, no matter where or how they live.