FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – A family that has spent four months trying to get to the U.S.-Mexico border and 20 days of living in the streets on a bus bench in Broward is sleeping a little bit easier on Thursday night.
It comes hours after Local 10 met with 4-year-old Stefano Villasana, who was playing on the sidewalk. He was near a bus bench, under the shadow of a shiny building, that had previously been home to his family in Fort Lauderdale.
Following the report, Villasana and his family were picked up and brought to a Miami hotel after Catholic Charities, a South Florida non-profit organization, decided to reach out to the family and provide them with temporary housing.
‘It’s something that happens quite often,” said Catholic Charities CEO Peter Routsis-Arroyo. “They’ve been on the streets. They need to have a roof over their heads and a safe place where they can be temporarily.”
Stefano and his mother, Mercedes Vilela, are from Ecuador. Her foot had to be amputated in Costa Rica. She was injured while hiking the treacherous Darién Gap.
“It was very tough,” Vilela, 33, said.
The family survived the journey from Colombia to Panama, but Vilela’s injured foot got infected. Despite the amputation, they continued the journey to the U.S.-Mexico border.
“It took us four months,” Vilela said.
Stefano’s father, Edison Villasana, who was born in Venezuela, already knew what it was like to have to move to find a better life somewhere else.
“A friend was going to welcome us,” Villasana said, adding that his friend did not come through after U.S. immigration authorities processed them, and they had nowhere to go.
The bus bench is also near the Broward Partnership’s homeless shelter. Vilela and Villasana said they were grateful for people like Angela Hill, who lives nearby.
Hill has been donating food and clothing to make sure they stay warm at night and Stefano isn’t hungry.
“That could be my grandson. That’s why I care,” Hill said through tears. “Somebody has to care; this is not fair.”
Ron Book, the chairman of the Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust, said he cares.
“Look at that innocent child,” Book said adding that the federal government needs to step up to the plate and help local agencies to deal with the crisis.
“If the federal government isn’t going to solve the border problem, they have got an obligation to send us an armored car full of money, so that we can solve it ourselves,” Book said.
The family will see a case worker who will assess their needs now that they’ve been processed at the border and are here, legally.
Edison Villasana told Local 10 News that his goal is not just to get back on his feet but to be able to provide for his family, and that includes possibly finding a job.