West Jackson resident believes homeless are causing fires in the area

JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) - Fires are happening around West Jackson. Today I spoke to a resident who told me he thinks he knows why they are happening.

He wants the city of Jackson to step in and do something about it.

“We ask for service. We ask for asphalt. We ask for security, and what do we get? We get another burned house,” said James Brooks, a West Jackson resident.

Around 4 a.m. on March 17, the Jackson Fire Department responded to a fire on Capitol Street and the corner of Grand Avenue.

Assistant Deputy Chief Patrick Armon says they are still investigating the cause of the fire.

“So what’s happening is the people who visit the Stew Pot, or the homeless, or whoever they are that walk around here with backpacks on their backs, find an empty house, get in it and try to stay warm, and then burn the places down,” Brooks said.

James Brooks says that he and other residents who live near him know who is starting these fires.

“I have to go across the street from me, said Brooks. “There’s an empty house whenever the politicians put paraphernalia out [and] I have to go over there and take it off the porch so the homeless that walked out to the neighborhood won’t think it’s a house where nobody’s living, and they can go and camp in it and set it on fire.”

“I’d like for the politicians to come over here and walk our streets and help us maintain our property value. My property value has plummeted. I’m a gray-haired man. My equity, my wealth should be in my house,” said Brooks.

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