49ers DT Javon Kinlaw, once ‘pretty much’ homeless, buys first home

San Francisco 49ers defensive tackle Javon Kinlaw has purchased his first home, which is significant considering his history. The second-year player once told the story that his family spent time "pretty much" homeless while he grew up around Washington, D.C.

Our friends over at @OurSf49ers_ shared the following via Twitter.


An amazing success story, indeed.

San Francisco made Kinlaw the No. 14 overall pick out of South Carolina last year. He finished his rookie campaign with 33 tackles, three tackles for a loss, four quarterback hits, 1.5 sacks, an interception, a touchdown, and four passes defensed through 14 games.

Kinlaw shared his story last year leading up to the Reese's Senior Bowl.


"Well, my mother is from Trinidad and Tobago, with my two older brothers, just growing up in northeast Washington, D.C., (we were) pretty much homeless, living in basements," Kinlaw told reporters before the collegiate all-star game. "We went without electricity, no water, things like that. We had to use the neighbor's hose to fill up totes of water. We would take them back in the house.

"We had gas, a gas stove. We would light the stove with a little match or something, get a tall pot, boil the water, mix it with some cold water, put it in a bucket, take it upstairs, take a shower like that. But at a young age, we just thought that was normal. That's how we was living.

"We didn't know how everybody else was living, but we knew that's how we was living, and we was cool with that, especially me. But now that I look back at it, it was tough. It made me a man at a young age."