HOMELESSNESS CONTINUES TO BE A HUGE PROBLEM IN BROWNSVILLE'S HISTORIC DOWNTOWN

From the editor:  The Brownsville Observer's music writer, Diego Lee Rot, rode his mountain bike through downtown yesterday evening about dusk.

Diego Lee Rot

"Downtown is going downhill fast," stated Diego.  

"It's not just the unoccupied buildings, for sale or for rent, there seem to be more homeless than ever, sleeping in the alleys, loading docks of stores and under awnings.  

Since the night closing of the multimodal bus station, the homeless are staying all along the wrought iron fence from the station to E. 13th Street.  I counted at least 50 homeless downtown and stopped counting."

Diego's camera was not working that well, so we're including using the pics we took last April to illustrate our point:

Man, Wife and Dog, First Noticed at
City-Purchased Building in 2012

Juan Montoya of El Rrun Rrun blog recently published an expose' on the prevalence of "crackheads" in downtown Brownsville.  I have no personal experience with crack cocaine or its users, not even knowing exactly how it's ingested.  I've definitely witnessed, however, the homeless utilizing benches, store fronts and alleys downtown.  As for the couple I reported living under the awning at the entrance of La Casa del Nylon in 2012, after the building's purchase by the city, the man and his dog are still there with all their worldly goods, five years later.  The man's wife died a couple years ago.

Jeffrey Cutlip, Oregon Serial Killer, Sexual
Predator, Heroin, Crystal Meth Addict,
on Cover of Latin Jazz Festival Magazine

Perhaps Brownsville's most notorious homeless person was Jeffrey Cutlip, an Oregon serial killer and sexual predator who'd skipped parole, fleeing to the warm climate of Brownsville.

Cutlip, smooth-tongued, manipulative, smarter than most, dominated downtown in 2012.  Patrons shared drinks at the Crescent Moon.  Locals gave him clothing and food.  On colder days, Cutlip would scour the Valley Baptist Medical Center parking lot for a discarded, plastic wristband, then sit in a waiting room with his wrist visible to the occasional security guard.

So enamored was downtown Brownsville with Cutlip, who sported a hard rocker look, a guitar on his back, that he appeared on the cover of the Latin Jazz Festival Magazine, as pictured above.

In July 2012, after learning Cutlip had killed in Oregon, I called 911 to report a murderer at a bus stop on Central Blvd.  On my third call, the BPD dispatcher told me a detective had assured her Cutlip was "alright."  The next day, Cutlip turned himself into the BPD and was eventually extradited to Oregon

 Brownsville remains a haven for the homeless, locals and some traveling from afar.  A covered back entrance to an unoccupied building that fronts Elizabeth Street, is a shaded refuge for four residents smoking something Monday afternoon.

One of the squatters seems to have set up a more permanent sleeping situation for himself, while the others sit on chairs, smoking, existing, out of sight.

An artist, proud of her graffiti art, designated "The Eye," even posed for a picture. After I took several photos, she asked to see them, expressing some disappointment that her "belly button" was showing. 

So-called "huffers" also appear downtown.  An urban dictionary defines a "huffer" as "a person who inhales various chemical fumes for intoxicating effect."

Diego Lee Rot, photojournalist for the Brownsville Observer, noticing a huffer downtown, took the photo below.(Diego, contrary to blog policy, gave the at risk man monetary compensation for the photograph.)