SALVATION ARMY GETS COATS, DONATIONS, AND MONEY HERE BUT GIVES NO COATS OR SHELTER TO BROWNSVILLE RESIDENTS

By Juan Montoya

This last frigid days had had a few of us going to the local stores in search of a warm winter jacket to fend off the unusually cold spell that has spread across the United States and into Mexico.

Can you imagine we've even had a snowfall?
It may delight some people, especially kids, but the rest of us (not to mention the homeless or kids without warm coats) have felt the sting of the frigid gusts that have emptied the streets.

That set us wondering how some of the charity organizations were responding to the dangerously cold weather. The United Way, Ozanam Center, the Good Neighbor Settlement House, the Salvation Army and even Catholic Charities all operate here.

As far as charitable organizations go, The Salvation Army is probably the most prestigious and well known. So we wondered, just how did this organization serve the needy in Brownsville during this unusually cold snap?

You've seen their collection boxes all over town in Brownsville.
And every Christmas season, its bell-wielding Santas stand in front of local businesses collecting donations to help the poor.

They even team up with Channel 5 Chief Meteorologist Tim Smith for his 30-year-old Tim's Coats collections of coats for needy.

The way this works, they hook up with members of the Southwest Dry Cleaners Association and use their businesses as collection points. Of the 24 pick-up points 20 are cleaners. The other four are offices of Catholic Charities or the Salvation Army. Of the 10 cleaners in the southern RGV (Brownsville, Harlingen and San Benito) seven are in Brownsville.

In the Upper Valley, another 10 cleaners act as collection points. McAllen has four, Weslaco one, Mission has three, etc...In short, Brownsville has the most cleaners participating as collection points for coats for the needy.

Since it was cold that triggered this thought, we called them at the Salvation Army's main office in McAllen and asked where people could inquire about getting a coat to fend off the cold. The woman at the other end responded that there was no Salvation Army office in Brownsville, but that we could go to Harlingen and pick one up there.

We also asked that since Brownsville was the largest city in the Valley and the need was greater there, why it was that they did not operate d homeless shelter there or why there was no place to pick up a warm coat here. Her answer was non-committal and downright brusque and she told us to talk to the main office upstate if we wanted.

Now, if the residents of Brownsville are some of the largest donors to the Salvation Army, and as far as Valley cities go, there were more pick-up points for coats there, why is there no office here or why they don't operate a shelter for the needy to go for a warm place to stave off the killing cold.

We noticed that the Methodist Church-funded Good Neighbor Settlement House provides clothing for the needy using their scarce resources and donations throughout the year but offer no shelter.

The Ozanam Center is even more active. Every day, they use vans to take their clients to look for work in the city, take them to eat at the Good Neighbor, and last night, as the homeless were bearing the unmerciless cold, its director sent the vans to the downtown areas to invite the homeless to the shelter of his center.

The woman did say that Catholic Charities in Brownsville could help out the needy with a coat, but when we called them, despite the answering machine saying that they were open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, no one answered.

This raises the question: If Brownsville is a central hub for donations in clothing, money, and Tim's Coats for the Salvation Army, why is there no office here, they don't operate a shelter for the needy, and send people to Harlingen to get a warm coat?

Isn't it time we get some answers?