Add being a homeless-friendly city to the long list of accolades garnered by this "on the border by the sea" city.
Brownsville won the prize hands down in a recent contest held nationwide by HOBO (Homeless Order of Betterment Organization) during voting held under a highway overpass in Kansas City, Mo. abutting the famed stockyards.
The judges said the city's policies of not establishing a homeless shelter near the city's downtown core where all the essentials like stores, hospitals, transportation and municipal services are located, had made the local parks, alleyways and shuttered businesses a magnet for people living on the streets.
"We learned that at one time decades ago a bond issue was passed to establish a homeless shelter providing beds and showers to our colleagues, but that bond money was shifted elsewhere," the citation reads. "This wold have resulted in segregation of the transient population that would have discriminated against their right to free movement and association. We applaud the city's liberal progressive leadership to prevent such crass discrimination against our fellow travelers."
The panel of judges consisted of homeless individuals who said that city's temperate climate, lush vegetation (including citrus, guayabas, papayas, and other edible fruit), and generous community had attracted the attention of hobos as far as Portland, Ore., and Seattle, Wash., traditional magnets for transient, homeless populations. As a result, word has been spreading nationwide of making Brownsville a pit stop during the chilly Fall and Winter seasons approaching.
"The homeless are treated to free breakfast, lunch, and dinner at a local service center known as the Good Neighbor Settlement House where outstanding Mexican cuisine is served by merely filling in an income eligibility form," the citation reads. "Some of our fellows who have reported from there say that clothing is also dispensed, but that by merely taking the alleys behind the numerous second-hand stores, there is plenty of brand-name clothing available in all sizes."
The citation also noted that locally, some bars sell beer (Natural Light) for as low as $1 a can.
"The fellows can sit in a air-conditioned place in new threads and – since they are clients of the establishment – use the bathrooms for their bodily needs."
The august panel also declared Brownsville the winner in the "Income Generating Category" by pointing out that the local economy offered numerous opportunities for hobos to generate hard-to-come-by cash.
"If for some reason you get a wild hair of ambition up your butt, there are plenty of available intersections where one can panhandle," the panel stated. "If you consider begging to be below you, merely pick up an empty five-gallon plastic paint can and join the legion of car washers who congregate at the numerous parking lots or right in the street downtown. If you are healthy and don't feel like working, line up at the readily available plasma donation centers downtown and you can earn up to $200 a week." panel wrote
"It all starts with leadership at the top," the panel wrote, noting that one city commissioner had , raised the bar on car washing. "Commissioner Jessica Tetreau leads by example on what a little industry can achieve by operating a successful car-washing enterprise, but don't go there expecting to make money because she's been known to welsh on her workers. We're just using her as an example of what a little industry and penny pinching can get you."
HOBO said Brownsville's leadership in the treatment of the homeless would serve as a model for other cities trying to cope with the upsurge in the homeless, including veterans, individuals substance-abuse dependence, and mental illness cases.
"The city even provides for landscaped exercise trails for the homeless population and even makes bicycles available for a small fee," the citation reads. "Brownsville's success should result in larger number of our homeless colleagues trekking down there to partake of the city's generous assets."
6 comments:
The people of Brownsville have little ambition, ingenuity or desire to create a life. They are worker ants.
WASHINGTON (AP) – A Hispanic congressman from Texas, angered by Donald Trump's attacks on an American-born judge of Mexican descent, penned an open letter to the presumptive GOP presidential nominee telling him to "take your border wall and shove it up your ass."
The three-page letter, sent by U.S. Rep. Filemon Vela, a Democrat from the border city of Brownsville, follows days of controversy over Trump's assertion that U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel, a California judge presiding over fraud lawsuits against Trump University, should recuse himself because of his "Mexican heritage."
Vela, the son of one of the first federal judges of Mexican descent, wrote that while he might agree with Trump on some points about the border and U.S. relations with Mexico, "your ignorant anti-immigration opinions, your border wall rhetoric, and your recent bigoted attack on an American jurist are just plain despicable."
The letter, written in both English and Spanish, ended on an undiplomatic note that Vela suggested could not be helped. Though saying he does not speak for all Americans of Mexican descent, Vela concluded: "I am sure that many of these individuals would agree with me when I say: 'Mr. Trump, you're a racist and you can take your border wall and shove it up your ass.'"
A spokeswoman for Trump did not immediately respond to a request or comment.
I read the article and trusted that it is pro-homeless, Juan. For you to diss this issue would be wildly hypocritical; you knowing something about being homeless. I applaud the city for welcoming one and all. You untrustworthy bloggers act as if it is a freakin' novela!
No seas mamon!!
Jmon
Tu no eres homeless?? Bien le criticas pero eres puro cabrón !!!
ANON SAYS: When I find an article discussing something I disagree with, I rebut it by attacking the character of the writer, because I am immature and unintelligent.
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