As the sun began to rise, a worker went down a row of people who were sleeping on the sidewalk, lowering his walkie talkie to their ears, where it emitted a loud beep. One woman began to cry. Others began tying on their shoes and zipping their things into bags. A few began yelling. “He’s not the guy I married!” shouted a woman into the cold.
Kiki Aguero got out from under her blankets and began interrogating the worker. “Where are we supposed to go?” she asked pointedly.
“The Beacon’s open,” he offered, referring to a resource center for the homeless that is open mornings. “Tranquility Park’s feeding people.”
Kiki Aguero, center, speaks with a member of the Downtown District – who declined to give his name – after he woke the group of homeless people on the corner of Prairie and Fannin streets on Feb. 3, 2022, in Houston.
Godofredo A. Vásquez, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographerThe worker, who declined to give his name because he said he was not supposed to talk with the media, explained he empathized with the people he was waking up that morning. “Before I did this, I used to be out here,” he said. “But rather than lie out here” — prohibited downtown by city ordinance between the hours of 7 a.m. and 11 p.m. — “I’d ride up and down the train.”
But Aguero was less focused on where he was coming from — she wanted to make a point about what was…
