It was a dark windy night on Chicago’s north side. The homeless were lined up outside the church patiently waiting for the door to open, an escape from the bitter cold in the January winter of 1984. That night I was on duty in the shelter: food, a cot, a shower. A mother, a child, a father. Homeless.

Florida’s churches do not have basements for shelter use. Our homeless sleep in cars and tents in the woods, or they couch surf.

Every Florida county faces the homeless issue.

Rozanne Brown, Founder of Carebag Inc, an outreach to the homeless on Florida’s Treasure Coast, states that Indian River State College currently has 120 homeless students, many who sleep on a friend’s sofa. She and her support team just met with students on the college campus in March, handing out bags of necessities.

Hurricane Irma created an increase in homelessness on the Treasure Coast. Rozanne Brown states that in 2018, more than 1500 children in the St. Lucie County School district were registered as homeless.

Homeless children are living in precarious situations, affecting them both physically and mentally. Their parents have divorced, been battered, are trying to live on low incomes, are without employment or have substance abuse problems. These kids have been traumatized. Because of living in homeless situations, they are “sick at twice the rate of other children”—ear infections, diarrhea, asthma. They are hungry. More than half “develop emotional problems serious enough to require professional care, but less than one-third receive any treatment.” These emotional problems include anxiety, depression, withdrawal, behavioral problems and learning disabilities. “By the time homeless children are eight years old, one in three has a major mental disorder.” (National Child Traumatic Stress Network)

In 2015, Florida school districts counted 71,446 children and teens who were either homeless or couch surfers. (DCF)

Rozanne Brown knows of a mother living homeless with her two-month-old baby and 15-year-old son in a car. She cannot come into a women’s shelter because her son will be separated from her.

There are many rules regarding shelters and the age of children allowed to remain with a parent.

“Chronic homelessness, in particular, results in especially high community costs.” People who are homeless need emergency care at hospitals they cannot pay for. They need financial help for food, medicine, everyday supplies that community organizations, such as Carebag, support. Amazingly, these people are not loafers, they do work, but their incomes are low.

A University of Florida study shows that there is a critical shortage of affordable low-income housing. Most people in Florida who are homeless because of extremely low incomes.

The solution is “a combination of limited rental assistance funding with limited services provision after moving in.” This plan is known as rapid-rehousing. (DCF)

For children, rapid-rehousing plan is a necessity. It’s also a less expensive way to help people who are homeless.

It is estimated that communities spend about $300 million each year to help the homeless. (DCF) http://www.dcf.state.fl.us/programs/homelessness/docs/2011CouncilReport.pdfh

Until more communities step up and help provide rapid-rehousing, organizations like Carebag fill the gaps.

Rozanne Brown has never been homeless; a former medical researcher, she has faced her own life-adversities. Her young daughter, her only child, died of spinal meningitis at age seven. She has also seen her parents into heaven.

Rozanne is known as “Roxy” in the woods. She is the face of Carebag. To those who are homeless, Rozanne Brown is the face of compassion, the person trusted by the homeless. She has a special Google phone number they can dial when help is needed.

Rozanne began Carebag out of her car with 120 hamburgers every other day from McDonald’s. Patron after patron either matched or helped her. Three and a half years later, Carebag Inc. has a board of directors and is a registered charity. Working beside Rozanne are 200 local volunteers.

In 2017 Carebag served 1700 hours handing out 98,700 personal items and clothing, and 67,000 bags of food.

Currently, Rozanne Brown is looking for a donation of a storage unit or building to hold the many donated items she has. She also is raising funds for a mobile shower unit, which together with a truck, trailer and everything associated with it will cost $110,000, for one year’s budget.

Not many people would do what Rozanne has done--left her career, gone into the woods, made a difference. But she has taken the words of her father, “You can do nothing but give and help, knowing you’ll expect nothing back,” and put actions to them.

The world is watching. Words matter. But actions are seen.

This is the question: “Will you too help children who are homeless?”

Contact Carebag and Rozanne “Roxy” Brown with questions or help at: roxy@carebagfl.org, visit her online at www.carebag.org or call 772.222.7399.

Contact Kelly Jadon at: kfjadon@gmail.com

What will the United States be like 10 years from now?

In the last 50 years our country has welcomed technological change: color television, cable TV, car phones, beepers, cell phones, and the internet—connecting us with each other. Though these new things have improved our lives technologically, they have also isolated more and more of us: neighbors from each other. This way of living has become to be seen as “normal,” the “new normal.”

Do we know our neighbors? What they do? Where they come from? Who are they really?

In the past, neighbors knew the children up and down the street, hosting them for storybook hour, babysitting, and generally kept an eye out for them.

Neighbors welcomed each other—for late night Christmas Eve cheer, just before Santa arrived; they hosted barbecues and birthday parties.

Neighbors cared about each other. When a family member died, neighbors knew. They brought dishes of food for the family.

As a child in the 1960s, I remember an elderly neighbor who couldn’t drive. My grandmother took her to the store once a week. And when my grandmother fell ill, to cancer—her neighbors prayed for her.

Neighbors are a resource, for more than a stick of butter, a cup of flour, or a borrowed shop-vac; they are help in a time of need.

Steve Carswell is a light of hope to many Treasure Coast neighborhoods. He has lived in Jensen Beach, Florida for more than 20 years. His wife Kyla is a native-born Floridian. She grew up on the Treasure Coast.

Steve can be found walking the neighborhood streets of South Florida, greeting people, and meeting their needs through prayer. He belongs to a national Christian organization known as E3. Their goal is to make positive change in every community they walk through by positively affecting individuals who themselves can change their own communities.

Steve has seen cancer patients healed, gang members turn to Christ, alcoholics quit drinking, homosexuals freed from bondage and their families also come to believe in the power of God.

Carswell’s E3 team consists of 5 families, working full-time as missionaries in Florida. The men often walk neighborhoods with their families, teaching their own children how to help others by sharing the Gospel and the love of Jesus. E3 teams are disciples of Jesus, making disciples. Authentic believers, they follow where God leads.

One afternoon, Steve and another E3 team leader walked a local Stuart neighborhood. An older man was sitting out on his porch. He called out and asked what they were doing, walking the street though it was drizzling. This neighbor was recently diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. Steve offered to pray for the man.

Two weeks later, Steve received a phone call. The older man had returned to the doctor, to find that his cancer was gone. Steve is a humble man; he takes no credit, but gives the glory to God.

Steve Carswell can relate many such positive light-filled stories.

The E3 team believes that what happens in Florida affects the nation. The large state is culturally diverse and there is much movement in and out of state lines. Ideas and concepts that are successful in Florida can be taken to other states—helping to change the nation positively.

The east coast of Florida, from Fort Pierce to Miami is approximately 90% unchurched. (Barna Research) Neighborhoods need to be reached with the knowledge of Jesus on foot—in their own communities, just as believers shared the Gospel in the book of Acts.

With a God-sized vision, the E3 team will be reaching every major city in Florida during 2017. They regularly receive requests for national and international training by Christian churches and organizations who wish to change their communities for the better too. This alone speaks much of Steve Carswell’s E3 team.

Steve Carswell states, “Our mission is to faithfully obey Jesus by making disciples who make disciples, starting churches that start churches to the 4th generation and beyond until there is no place left that hasn't heard the Gospel of Jesus.

Our broken heart is for those far from God, and in Florida we know the population is about 20 million. According to Barna Research, 18 Million are not open to the traditional church; the North American Mission Board states that this is approximately 53% of Florida residents.”

By 2020, just a few years out, E3’s God-sized vision is to be used by God to establish a healthy reproducing church in every Florida zip code (1,473).

Carswell asserts, “Our strategy is: zero budget disciple-making, church planting and missionary mobilization.”

As E3 members impact neighborhood individuals, they teach new believers how to simply share the Gospel. These key people begin home Bible studies, which grow into churches.

Carswell’s team includes a Spanish speaking believer to reach Hispanic neighborhoods. The E3 team also reaches out to the Muslim community with the truth of Jesus.

The United States will not be changed by government, nor by social policies. The only way communities can be made better is through Lord Jesus. The only way to save our country is through Lord Jesus.

What will the United States be like 10 years from now?

It’s up to all believers to do the will of God—living life as the light of the world.

I personally have known Steve Carswell for many years. When my son was a middle-grader, Steve Carswell pastored a local youth group. He helped guide my son out of the negative, dangerous influences coming through the cell phone. Steve Carswell is an authentic Christian. I have chosen to partner with Steve Carswell’s E3 team, because I believe and I know that they are changing my community and my country for the better.

If you would like to partner with or contact Steve Carswell about E3, please email him at: steve.carswell@e3partners.org

Hometown Heroes