Homeless Couple Still Living Under La Casa del Nylon Awning Despite Applying for Housing Months Ago

The couple pictured in a February Mean Mister Brownsville article, living under the awning of La Casa del Nylon building at 1305 E. Adams Street, were still there on Memorial Day.

Brownsville native, Jesus Marroquin, sporting a U.S.A. ball cap and his wife, Roberta Waters, originally from Washington D.C., and their dog Milo sleep nightly under the aluminum overhang of the old retail store.  

After Roberta asked "Who owns this building?"  I explained that it was purchased in 2012 by the City of Brownsville for $2,300,000, to which she responded:  "They paid too much!"  While any Brownsville resident with common sense would agree with Roberta, Mayor Tony Martinez and the City Commission have not demonstrated common sense in spending or protecting taxpayer monies.  La Casa del Nylon is just one of a dozen or so old buildings the City Commission has purchased recently with other people's money for which the city officials are now scrambling to find uses.

Roberta called my attention to how clean and neat they

were keeping the store entrance.  Pointing to the concrete, she offered:  "I clean that with Fabuloso."

Family dog Milo stays tied to an H.E.B. shopping cart, stuffed with reusable plastic bags, containing the couple's earthly goods.

"He won't let anyone get close to our stuff," explained Jesus, "but he won't bite."  When I extended my hand to Milo, he licked my fingers that likely still contained traces of the handful of dog food I'd given my dog that morning.  When I mentioned that the housing authority may not permit dogs, Jesus said:  "Well, he could stay with my cousin."

"Have you two ever applied for housing?" I asked.  "I know some people actually prefer living out-of-doors."

"No, we've applied," responded Jesus, pulling out a card with the name of a Brownsville Housing Authority contact.  "They told us there is a two year waiting list."

Jesus did take some personal responsibility for their situation, stating: "We didn't have all our paperwork together."  The couple are not exactly off the grid with Roberta getting a monthly disability check via direct deposit in her bank account and what looked to be a cell phone stuck in the door pull bar of La Casa del Nylon.

The conversation turned to other places the couple had spent the night, including uncovered bus stops, before finding this location under an awning.  The city's primary downtown restroom, La Plaza at Brownsville Multimodal Terminal, is just a half block away.  The bus terminal's restrooms, cleaned constantly, serve as body wash and changing stations for Mexican Nationals with jobs in Brownsville.  The restroom counter, with several sinks, is covered with water splashed from patrons washing more than just their hands.  A young man exits a bathroom stall after changing into a Church's Chicken work outfit including cap and name badge.

One street away from Jesus and Roberta, a homeless man sleeps in front of the former Famsa/Edelstein's Furniture Store on Washington Street.

While the blame for downtown homelessness can be spread out among several entities and individuals, including the homeless themselves, our city's officials are preoccupied with using their cleverness to convert a tract of land unneeded as an easement to owned property for a city planner or to make overpayment for downtown real estate owned by a friend of the mayor in a deal negotiated by the mayor's law partner.  

Why can't we divert some of that cleverness to solve real needs in our city or does Mayor Tony Martinez not "Believe in Brownsville?"