Local outreach Frozen Bottle of Water replenishes thirst of the homeless
It started with a frozen bottle of water.
Henderson resident Tina Aragon drove home from work one day last summer and saw homeless people walking in the scorching heat without water. Aragon packed an ice chest, and when she saw the people the next day, she handed each a frozen bottle of water. She made the giveaway part of her daily routine and soon was known among the homeless as “The Water Lady.”
With the help of three friends, Aragon extended her outreach beyond water. Once a month, her group — dubbed Frozen Bottle of Water — sets up a potluck outside a strip mall at Tropicana Avenue and Valley View Boulevard. It also offers free clothing and haircuts.
“I could have done this in my hometown, Henderson, but there’s nothing here for these people,” she said. “There’s no services, no cooling station or any type of shelter in this side of town. I am just trying to bring that to people’s attention so some of these buildings that they’ve got, they can do something with them.”
The 2016 Homeless Census and Survey estimates 30,016 people were homeless in Clark County, a 12.7 percent decrease from 2015. Seventy-one percent of the people surveyed had been living in Southern Nevada when they became homeless.
Caridad Charity founder Merideth Spriggs, who helped collect the census data, thinks the decrease might be related to the increasing number of veterans who received housing and were targeted in coordinated outreach efforts.
“As we are getting called in to new camps and new areas … someone within the camp, one or two people, has a connection or has already been connected to services,” Spriggs said. “Very few of the people we are finding are new to town.”
Aragon said Marine Corps veteran Alfred Fink Jr. and Rose Marie Ballew helped inspire her to start her outreach.
Fink said he found little support and few job opportunities after returning home from the Vietnam War. He has been homeless since 1991.
A West Virginia native, Fink arrived in Las Vegas to be a contractor, but he said a hip injury makes it hard to stand for long periods. After working a few other jobs, Fink gave up.
He said he recently was offered housing assistance but turned it down because the room was on a third floor and shared by two other veterans. Fink said he prefers living near the strip mall where Frozen Bottle of Water meets, rather than the downtown area where the shelters are, because there is less crime.
Ballew has been homeless for six years. She came to Las Vegas after serving time in prison for a felony. She stayed at friends’ homes, but because of her criminal record, she couldn’t find a job and eventually ended up on the streets.
“They don’t give you the chance,” she said. “I applied everywhere, I mean everywhere around here. With my record, I am dangerous to society; that’s what I’ve been told.”
Aragon’s outreach group is also her way of keeping a promise she made to herself five years ago. Shortly after moving from Connecticut to New York, Aragon’s ex-husband left her and took all their money, she said. Aragon lived in a women’s shelter for three weeks until a friend wired her enough money so she could drive back to Connecticut and get help from her kids.
She took three weeks to get back on her feet and moved to Las Vegas. “I told people I was on my way to Oregon and I stopped by (Las Vegas) to visit a friend, and I’m still visiting,” Aragon said. “So I know what it’s like.”
Aragon said she shares her story with her group, and for some, it gives them hope that they, too, can turn their lives around. She has already seen five people find housing.
“I think a lot of them that are not way into the drugs and alcohol are looking forward to getting off the streets,” Aragon said. “The ones that are way into the alcohol and drugs, they are not ready. Will they ever be ready? I don’t know.”
