FORT WALTON BEACH — Every Friday morning starts the same at Sharing and Caring.
Clients begin pouring in as soon as the clock strikes 9 a.m. Most come for the sack lunch provided every week. Some come seeking advice. All come to say hello to Ms. Yvonne.
Yvonne Franklin has been calling herself a homeless advocate for 15 years, working with nonprofit organizations, churches involved with cold night shelters and hundreds of men and women living on the streets.
“It’s been a long, hard road,” Franklin said Friday between clients and her telephone ringing. “The homeless, they’re people. I know them all by name, I know their stories. I love all of them.”
View a slideshow of Franklin . >>
The 75-year-old mother of three says her weekdays are filled with work at a local dentist’s office, her Wednesdays are for house cleaning and her Fridays and weekends are devoted to the homeless population, which she estimates at about 2,000 people in Okaloosa County.
“It hurts me when I see the things people write about the homeless,” Franklin said. “Every day someone else loses their job and could lose their home. It could happen to anyone. You never know.”
As people begin to stream into the small lobby at Sharing and Caring on Beal Parkway, Franklin and the other women who volunteer there grab files for each person and bring them into their offices.
“Hey Elvis,” Franklin said as she led one man into her office. “How are you today?”
As they settle in, Elvis Davis tells her he spent the previous night in one of the area’s cold night shelters. He said it was hard to sleep with the people talking around him, but was grateful for a warm place to lie down.
Each Friday, Franklin passes out sack lunches consisting of Beanie-Weenies, crackers, a pudding and a drink.
She said she sees between 65 and 85 people every week.
On Saturdays, she helps with cold night shelters, volunteers with her church to set up showers for the homeless and prepares food to serve the following day. On Sundays, she passes out the food and takes a nap when she can.
“I’m awfully tired, but if I were to stop today I would be just devastated,” Franklin said. “I love all of them; they’re like my children.”
Franklin makes a point to introduce herself and look each homeless person in the eye. She says she never passes judgment and wants them all to know that she accepts them for who they are.
Over the years, Franklin has become more than an advocate for the men and women living on the streets and in their cars. She’s become a mother figure and a trusted confidante.
“She cares about us,” said Russell Ferguson, who has lived on the street for more than five years. “She don’t have to do what she does, but she loves us all to death and we love her to death.
“She’s good to me and she tries to help everybody.”
Once a month, Franklin meets a homeless woman to give her the Social Security check the woman arranged to be mailed to Franklin‘s home. Others give her their banking information so they have someone who can pick up money for them.
Franklin says it’s all worth it, and hopes to continue helping the homeless as long as her health allows.
“They need me and I need to help,” she said.
Contact Daily News Staff Writer Angel McCurdy at 850-315-4432 or amccurdy@nwfdailynews.com. Follow her on Twitter @AngelMnwfdn.