Ángel Correa is an 85-year-old homeless man who hasn’t even been able to drink a café au lait for 10 days.
“There is no one living on the street, I haven’t slept, on the street no one sleeps for fear that someone will hit us”
Angel was kicked out of where he lived. The owner told them that he was going to transform and sell. He and his friends were paying $860 a month.
Agustín Balboa is also helpless and says: “I am 78 years old, I suffer from arrhythmia and they are giving me chemotherapy for the lungs because I have cancer”.
Agustín and his undocumented wife lived with Ángel, all three ended up on the street.
After 6 days in José Martí Park, where the boats pass by and the Brickell buildings can be seen, they met Eylín Ávila, a good Samaritan.
“Here, you see a lot of homeless people and a lot of drug addicts, but what struck me was that they were old people, people you don’t usually see on the street,” says the young woman.
Eylín paid for a hotel that night and brought the next one into the Camillus house where they are full.
“The faces of the homeless have changed, we see old people,” the president of the Homeless Trust, which funds Camillus House, told us today from Tallahassee.
Agustín Balboa says: “what we need is a house, he takes a check and I take another, there are 3 of us”
The 914 dollars from his retirement check and the 936 that Ángel receives are not enough, and what makes them cry is the dog he has for a daughter.
“This little dog has been through a lot with us, I wouldn’t want to see her locked up there on the fence like they have. What’s different about us is different, a little animal doesn’t know anything about her. If you can help us, we need a little help, if you can, give it to us”.