The prior owner must have hit something with the passenger side mirror because it was not connected at the front most point.

Between the car door and the housing is a metal plate that the housing screws into. The housing has three hollow posts that the metal plate screws into. When the prior owner damaged it the frontmost post had broken off within the housing at the end of the screw.

Upon inspection I noticed that there is another 3/4" of hollow post remaining so I decided to use the small piece of post that had broken off as a washer. I through-drilled the smaller piece. I bought a #12 X 1.5" replacement screw, threaded it through the "washer" and then screwed it down into the remaining part of the post that was still a part of the housing.

When I put it back together it was all as good as new.

With the cost of a new housing being around $50.00 and then paint I'm guessing that this quick repair saved me over $150.00.