Casa Marianella opened its doors on January 6, 1986. Ed Wendler, a local Austin civic leader who had just returned from El Salvador, bought the house so that people fleeing the wars in Central America would have a safe place to stay in Austin. Wendler donated the house at 821 Gunter to the Catholic Diocese of Austin and asked a local public interest group called the Austin Interfaith Task Force for Central America to run it.
In the late 1980s, as the wars in Central America resolved, Casa Marianella began to serve more economic refugees from Mexico and Honduras. Casa currently serves residents from all of Latin America as well as Africa and Nepal. Priority has always been given to those fleeing war and persecution. Casa also serves immigrants who became homeless due to illness and injury.
