Gainesville City Commission reallocates $700k in ARPA funds to homeless support services after outcry about homeless camp on SE 4th Place
BY JENNIFER CABRERA
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – At the February 15 Gainesville City Commission meeting, the Commission voted unanimously to reallocate $700,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funds to provide additional homeless services after a number of people complained about a homeless camp on SE 4th Place.
Early Public Comment from downtown residents
Although the homelessness update was the first item on the morning agenda, several people spoke about issues with homeless camps during Early Public Comment. John Arana said he lives near the old fire station and had seen the homeless population rise and fall over the past 25 years, “but over the past two or three months, there’s been a shooting that I witnessed, right near the new fire station… It’s just gotten out of control for us.” He said it is no longer safe for his father and elderly neighbors to take walks, and “I don’t see any patrol cars come by, even just to see what’s going on… There’s feces everywhere in our driveways… We’re open to whatever we can do to help, but right now, it’s just a safety issue… and we’d like to see something be done. Some plan, some idea, some concept.”
His father Philip Arana said he has “no confidence in my own ability to run, to get away. I was threatened here, last Wednesday night, this gentleman just writhing and screaming in the middle of the night on my street–I was afraid to get out of my car to walk into my house. That’s what’s happening, almost on a daily basis.”
A woman said she had twice seen a naked man in her yard and told the Commission that she was afraid she would be attacked. Jamie Swick said a dog from a homeless camp ran after her when she took her dog to St. Francis Pet Care; she added that she has trained her dogs to urinate in the shower because she is afraid to walk her dogs after dark.
Dillon Boatner said some people “don’t consider [the homeless] neighbors, but… I consider them neighbors. They might not live in the house right next door to me or anything that might resemble a house to most people, but they live next to me.” He said homeless people need a warm place to sleep on cold nights and a place to go to the bathroom; he thought the old fire station would be a “prime location for a shelter and resource center for this community. They’re already living there. It’s close to other resources like St. Francis. It’s close to Rosa Parks, so people can get a job anywhere in the city.” He said the decision-makers should be talking directly to the homeless, not talking about them.
A woman who volunteers at St. Francis Pet Care said there are at least 12 tents on the south sidewalk outside the facility and more on the north sidewalk, and the facility’s clients have become “increasingly agitated with the situation and many do not want to drive [or walk] down the street… It is unfortunate that these campers cannot afford local rentals, but that tent city in the middle of downtown Gainesville is not the solution to the housing issue.”
A homeless woman said the issues that residents are complaining about are not connected to homelessness because “they’re in their tents, minding their business.”
Ward: City is “fully aware… We need every neighbor to be a part of the solution”
Mayor Harvey Ward said the City is “fully aware” of the situation and how that affects people who have lived in the area for a long time, but “we’re also very aware that nobody wants to live in a tent on 4th Place; we get that. And we recognize that more services are part of the solution. We also recognize that if somebody’s standing in the middle of 4th Place, breaking the law–violently breaking the law, in some cases–we have to respond to that… As a city government, we’re responsible for public health and public safety… We’re going to have to respond in multiple departments across the City, and we need every neighbor to be a part of the solution… I expect results and solutions to come from this morning.”
Point in Time counts
Gainesville Fire Rescue Assistant Chief Roberto Sutton gave a presentation on local homeless services and said the homeless population has increased by about 100 a year in recent years, with a similar increase expected when the 2024 count is finalized.
Ward: “If we do this wrong, the courts are very serious about penalties.”
Ward said, “I think the community doesn’t necessarily understand some of what’s at stake, beyond what’s obvious. If we do this wrong, the courts are very serious about penalties.” He mentioned several cities that owe multi-hundred-thousand-dollar judgments for violating the rights of homeless people. “With that said, the law already provides guidelines for how people need to act toward each other.”
Ward emphasized, “At no point has this Commission, or several past Commissions that I’ve been watching, said ‘Don’t do anything about illegal activity.’ That just hasn’t happened… So we need to start making sure that we do whatever we can within our capacity in a legal and humane fashion to enforce the law so that we can have a community that people want to live in. We also need to be kind and humane and make sure that we are approaching this in that fashion for everybody.”
City Attorney Dan Nee: “Boil that down to–without a bed, it’s hard to penalize somebody for sleeping in public.”
Ward also pointed out, “If we tell people ‘You can’t be here,’ there has to be someplace where they can be.” City Attorney Dan Nee agreed that governments can’t prohibit someone from doing “activities of daily living,” including sleeping and eating, “unless there’s a place in which that behavior can be conducted. Boil that down to–without a bed, it’s hard to penalize somebody for sleeping in public.”
Some ARPA funds are available for reallocation
City of Gainesville Executive Chief of Staff Cintya Ramos said some projects that had American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds allocated to them are not moving forward, including the Creekside Commons affordable housing project, which was allocated $660,000. She said the City is now purchasing that parcel of land for conservation, using mitigation funds. Also, City staff has been reviewing the City’s administrative expenses for ARPA funds, and they previously allocated about $200,000 more than they need to those expenses. Ramos said ARPA funds can be used for homelessness and gun violence because they are considered to be related to COVID. City Manager Cynthia Curry added that a maximum of $10 million in ARPA funds can also be transferred to the general fund as “revenue replacement” and used for projects that are not directly authorized for ARPA funds.
Motion to reallocate $700k to homeless support services and $150k to gun violence prevention
Commissioner Casey Willits made a motion to reduce the Creekside Commons allocation by $660,000 and reduce ARPA funds allocated to administration by $40,000 and repurpose those funds to homeless support services; the second part of his motion was to reduce ARPA funds allocated for administration by $150,000 and repurpose those funds to the Gun Violence Prevention Initiative.
Ward said the reason for allocating more funds to homelessness is to provide a place for the homeless and avoid penalties from the courts. Willits said his intent was to restore cuts that were previously made to funds for GRACE Marketplace, although Alachua County already provided $500k to GRACE at the request of the City to close a gap of $450k due to budget cuts for Fiscal Year 2024.
Ward said, “What we do is what we can do unless we find more money to do it with. That’s the general thing to understand here.”
Is the homeless population “homegrown”?
Commissioner Reina Saco asked GRACE Executive Director Jon DeCarmine for information about where homeless people come from; DeCarmine said the Point in Time survey shows that 50%-60% of homeless people lived and grew up in the area. He said that most people say they don’t come here for shelters and services but that they came to Alachua County for a job, relationship, or residence that didn’t work out for various reasons. He added, “So what we know is that this is a homegrown population, but it is not necessarily a city of Gainesville population; it is an Alachua County population.” He said about 75%-80% of people who come to GRACE say they lived and worked in Alachua County prior to becoming homeless, and another 10%-15% say they lived and worked somewhere in Florida–most often Levy, Bradford, or Putnam counties. DeCarmine said the County is working on “a fantastic permanent supportive housing program, which is universally acknowledged as the best intervention for the most vulnerable people on the street, people like we see camping on SE 4th Place right now.”
Deputy County Manager Smart: “We know that the problem has been trending upward lately.”
Alachua County Deputy County Manager Carl Smart said the County is “committed to working collaboratively with the City of Gainesville and our outlying municipalities, also, on this issue of homelessness… We know that the problem has been trending upward lately.” He suggested putting the agenda item on the next Joint City/County Commission meeting. Smart also told the City Commission that the County has purchased two motels, but the renovation on the first one was delayed by the slow payment of a grant from the State. Smart said he hoped at least one of the motels would be ready to use by the end of this year, with more available by the spring of 2025.
Saco said she hoped the County Commission would consider “how they can help supplement services for this downtown core. I know that they’ve already done some, but clearly the problem is beyond what is being offered at the moment.” Ward said he would make sure that was on the agenda for the next Joint City/County Commission meeting.
Book: “There are clearly safety concerns in that area.”
Commissioner Ed Book said the problem downtown is “getting larger, kind of on a daily basis, because more folks are coming to that particular area… We need to be respectful and compassionate in the manner in which we do it, but we also need to be respectful and compassionate for basically everyone who lives and works and plays in that area… There are clearly safety concerns in that area.”
DeCarmine said he has five people doing outreach, six days a week, and that GRACE has been able to house three or four people out of the 20-30 people they’ve counted in the downtown area. He said he had recognized people in the area who have been trespassed from GRACE for violence. He said GRACE primarily connects people with the housing list, but there is an “extensive” waiting list.
DeCarmine: GRACE is at 100% capacity
In response to a question about the number of available shelter beds, DeCarmine said the primary shelter for the people living in tents downtown would be GRACE, which has 100 beds, a 26-bed veterans’ shelter, and four beds for people recently released from the hospital. He said GRACE is at “100% capacity.”
“We’re not acting against homeless people when we are removing violent people from these camps; we are acting for their benefit.” – GRACE Executive Director Jon DeCarmine
DeCarmine said people in homeless camps are “fed up” with theft and violence and drug use, but sometimes “predatory” people move into the camp and prey on vulnerable people. He continued, “When we’re talking about these issues, I think it’s very important not to conflate violations of the law with homeless issues… We’re not acting against homeless people when we are removing violent people from these camps; we are acting for their benefit.”
Money will pay for more beds
Book asked how the money would be used if the motion passed. Curry replied, “Clearly we need to engage on our outreach, and we need, just as the VA and Shands purchase beds, we need to have beds available once we start… trying to move folks to a shelter. We need to have some dedicated space.” She estimated that the daily cost for a bed and support services is around $90, so “this is a situation that, if we’re going to deal with it consistently, we have to put some more resources on the table.”
Cooking fires near the Walmart on Waldo Road
Commissioner Cynthia Chestnut said she’s also getting calls about a camp near the Walmart on Waldo Road and people cooking food there, “because that is… a safety issue for people who live very near there, if a fire becomes rampant.” Chief Sutton said the Gainesville Police Department is “taking action [in that area]… not this week, next week, but relatively soon.”
What about the old fire station?
Chestnut also asked whether the City has considered renovating the old fire station as a shelter, and Curry replied, “We have not–we actually have an item coming forward to the Commission, based on our current revenue situation, to sell it and utilize it as revenue for the general fund.” Ward added that it would take “literally millions of dollars” to bring the building up to code.
Eastman: “We kind of know the answer for how you deal with homelessness”
Commissioner Bryan Eastman said it’s “a bear of an issue… but… we kind of know the answer for how you deal with homelessness. You make sure that there is enough homes for everybody, you make sure that there is supportive housing, that there is services that are given to them, you make sure that the issues that brought them into homelessness are dealt with,” including trying to mitigate or provide support services for substance abuse and mental illness.
Eastman said that someone who may be “bothering [people] as they’re going through downtown” because that person has “severe mental health issues” may not be homeless. He asked, “How do we deal with the kind of high-visibility homelessness issue in a part of town that’s also the economic driver of our community within our downtown? And then also, how do we make sure that we have enough funding to make sure that there are shelter beds for folks?… As we are looking down at a future where we have to do even more severe budget cuts… I worry about increasing within this fiscal year by $700,000… just for this, instead of ‘How do we smooth this out over time?'”
Addressing the issue will require “a consistent effort”
Curry said this is a “heavy-loaded financial commitment” that is “not just right now–it is consistent.” She said the issue will require “a constant person addressing this, a consistent effort.”
Ward said the work of moving people is “hard… and I want all of you who are involved in that process, and who we’re about to ask more of… We hear that… this is not an easy thing for you to do and to live through and to work through. And we appreciate the extra work because darn few people are gonna say ‘Thank you’ for it.” He asked Curry to “make sure that we’re considering the mental health impacts on our City workers.”
Ward: “We don’t need you to send your thoughts and prayers; we need you to send checks.”
Ward continued, “Commissioner Eastman, you’re absolutely right. There are downstream impacts from making financial commitments,… but it’s also true that if we don’t handle a problem that we see getting out of control already… it gets worse. It doesn’t get better on its own… I want to speak briefly to other community leaders who may be watching: We need you in this process. We don’t need you to send your thoughts and prayers; we need you to send checks. We need you to step up, because if you’re an elected official in Alachua County, you are partially responsible for this. This ain’t just a City of Gainesville issue… Anybody watching knows our financial situation and the pressures that are with us, that are about to be with us… We’re gonna come talk to you.”
Ward said the City has “increased funding [for GRACE Marketplace] consistently up until the last year–it ain’t enough. I mean, we know that price tag, as of about a year and a half ago, to get to about functional zero chronic homelessness in the community, was about 5 or 6 million extra dollars.”
Three groups of homeless people
Willits asked who qualifies for permanent supportive housing, and DeCarmine said it’s the most vulnerable–the people who are most likely to die on the street. DeCarmine said homeless people are generally classified in three groups: 1) People who can “handle this on their own if we give them beds and phones and computers in a safe place to be, and a plate of food”; 2) the “medium-vulnerability folks” who qualify for Rapid Rehousing; and 3) the severely vulnerable, who are usually the people living on the street.
Sheltering the most vulnerable would require an additional 150 permanent supportive housing beds
DeCarmine said people in the third category typically have substance abuse issues, mental health issues, chronic health problems, or they’ve grown up in poverty or in foster case. DeCarmine said, “No matter how much we yell at them to go get a job, it’s not going to work, so they need some additional support.” He said permanent supportive housing is appropriate for about 30% of the entire homeless population, but that group makes up about 50% of the unsheltered population. He said this would require about 250 beds of local permanent supportive housing, while the County currently has around 60 or 70 beds, and GRACE has 35 beds. He said each permanent supportive housing bed at GRACE costs “about $20,000 per year per person and, in turn, saves another $20,000 per year per person, when we take into account how many times ambulances are not picking them up to bring them to hospital, police are not showing up to arrest them for sleeping on the sidewalk, they’re not going to [the Meridian Crisis Stabilization Unit] for basic mental healthcare or to the emergency room for medical care.”
Following public comment, Book said he believed there is no “lack of monetary resources being put in there right now” and wanted to know what “concrete actions” would be taken with the reallocated funds.
“Space but no beds” at GRACE
Curry responded that there is “space but no beds” at GRACE Marketplace, so the City would need to “outfit that space with the necessary support services so that we have someplace to move people into–that is an immediate need.” She said the funds would also be used for “additional outreach so that we have eyes on the street.”
Ward asked the City Clerk to add an agenda item for an update on the issue to the Feb. 22 General Policy Committee meeting.
Motion split
At Eastman’s suggestion, Willits split his motion to table the $150,000 for gun violence prevention programming until the next agenda item was heard, and the motion to reduce the Creekside Commons allocation by $660,000 and reduce ARPA funds allocated to administration by $40,000 and repurpose those funds to homeless support services passed unanimously.
During the evening session on the same day, the Commission passed the budget amendment that formalized the reallocation of funds.
Just another waste of money to keep the low life’s in the city who attack, rob, steal from the hard working taxpayers. These idiots who elect these idiots into office wants the same woke ideology before long their will open area drug using prostitution just like in CA, WA and other woke states
I’ve noticed a trend. The “👎🏼s” seem to crop up if anyone mentions the liberals and their stupid voting habits. Unable to acknowledge their idiocy or do you think they hate people pointing it out to them?
You mean the fascist republican conservatives and their stupid voting habits and dumb policies. They’re the ones who caused the homeless problem with unaffordable rents. The rich get richer and the poor don’t get a damn thing.
Ha ha hahaha! You’re one of those, Harvey’s calling you and you’d best answer.
Stop waiting for handouts and go earn something.
Paulie,
This waste of $700k is as dumb as you going to the bank to take out a loan that you are responsible for and giving the money to a homeless person. Oh yeah and don’t forget to make your payments…. And speaking of unaffordable rents take a look at your property taxes, we are the highest in the state…..Paulie want a cracker?
Pauline, there are plenty of jobs in Gainesville WaWa has signs paying $15.00 an hour. These homeless people have chosen this lifestyle. Just enjoying drugs and alcohol until they completely control them. Where are their families? They have burned those bridges. Gainesville may be known for IT jobs or medical field employment. Don’t think this crowd coming to Gainesville qualifies for these types of jobs.
Think, it’s a home grown problem as the overwhelming majority are from Gainesville or Alachua County with much of the remainder from Putnam, Bradford, etc. Read the article.
This is a national problem affecting red counties like Marion as well as blue ones.
Yet they keep putting up barriers to home affordability; high utilities, high taxes and high levels of fiscal incompetence.
You’re in construction, why not lower the costs of construction? Wait a second, then you would need to lower wages of your employees. Materials as well, we can’t afford those materials at the current prices. Permits too, those add to construction costs. Greenspace costs get passed on to potential residents. Then the recurring costs, insurance, taxes & utilities, (already mentioned). We may as well all live on the streets.
I guess capitalism is just a bad thing, except to those who’ve already made their fortunes.
Sure, I’ll get right on it.
And therein lies part of the problem. “You’ll get right on it.” Instead of crying about it now if you would have been forward thinking you would have corrected it in the past instead of blaming others’ past for the present.
Just another progressive hypocrite.
Dude, I don’t know how to break this to you, but the overwhelming number of home builders are not progressives.
Think about it.
🤔 That didn’t take long. You are, and many like you have chosen to blame those in today’s society for their ancestors’ possible transgressions or at least for accumulating wealth.
That being said, most builders, both commercial and residential, are capitalists.
Then again, that’s not news to you.
The ‘unaffordable rents’ were created by 2 events: the printing of currency by Obiden and the enormous influx of people fleeing the regions of our country that have been decimated by the left’s policy.
Dude, wake up. INflation is worldwide since Covid, our economy and inflation rate is the best among developed nations, and Trump signed inflationary Covid measures while in office and lobbied for bigger payouts than Biden approved even when out of office.
Those are all facts.
Just keep a police unit there at all times. Write citations and arrest people. At that point, most of them will probably decide to relocate within a few days. Mayor Tard should be able to figure that out for himself. The same for Curry.
They won’t relocate if a judge orders them to stay here for more hearings and addiction counseling. It’s designed to fester and worsen, a doom loop.
Maybe you didn’t read the part about fines cities pay for not following court directives for dealing with homelessness. The problem became a thing with court rulings in the 1980s regarding forceful commitments of mental patients and the finding that loitering laws were civil rights violations. It’s a national problem dude, not unique to Gainesville or any other place.
John Arana, a taxpaying resident, said, “I don’t see any patrol cars come by, even just to see what’s going on… There’s feces everywhere in our driveways… We’re open to whatever we can do to help, but right now, it’s just a safety issue… and we’d like to see something be done. Some plan, some idea, some concept.” Unfortunately we’re getting to what most Gainesville voters wanted, San Francisco, East.
Speaking of East, the idiot Eastman stated, “You make sure that the issues that brought them into homelessness are dealt with.” If we could get rid of him and those with his same mindset, it would do a lot to get rid of the issues.
Doesn’t DeCarmine have some spare properties he’s “acquired” on the cheap?
Ward, here’s my thought for and to you. You’ve caused the problem, you are the problem – deal with it without raising our utility rates and taxes. One other thing, kiss my arse.
Ironic the people who claim to support them don’t want them in their yards. Ever notice how many are camped out at City Hall as opposed to across the streets at the County Admin Building or the old Wilson Building? City leaders ain’t having it on their front porches, public or private – despite what they say in public. Liberals, always the hypocrites.
Personally I wish Eastman would walk or drive East until he runs into the ocean.
Sorry but I don’t trust anything the city or DeCarmine says about the homeless situation.
Joe, I agree 100% especially that these folks are local. Having a homeless relative, who left Gville in 2022, because in his words “it’s dangerous here”, the people he met on the street were not local. I also learned from him, there is a network for the homeless….they know how to work the system. His phone contact list is full of fellow “travelers”. They know what cities cater to them.
Something doesn’t add up here. The City is giving them an additional $700,000 this year and DeCarmine claims that it costs $20000 per year per client. Yet this multi-acre facility can only house 35 people at this point? Funny how that just happens to add up to $700,000. What are they doing with all the other money they bring in from the County and Grants? I bet an audit of this organization would be rather interesting.
35 permanent supportive housing beds. 100 low-barrier shelter beds and 26 veterans’ beds.
Well, It’s the city commission who started all this free giving, we feel sorry for these folks, let’s help them etc to start with.
I remember the whole deal at the Hampton Inn & Suites downtown.
One of the “Big Wigs” that owned and operated the Hampton came out his suit pocket with a pretty hefty check written to Grace, in an attempt to rid the homeless population from the front doors of the Hampton. They had an issue with the front entrance of that location because it faced the old RTS bus plaza at the civil court house, and mind you even then, homeless folks were bothering the guests at the new hotel. The facia and entrance was designed and built to face the civil court house, and not Harry’s. Therefore, executives of Hampton Inn & Suites tried to purge the “bothersome” aspect of all the crackheads and drug addicts milling around their property.
I have one personal category for homeless folks in our community, and that title is “Hood Rats”. These Hood Rats have been putting up Hood Rat nests from I75 & Archer, all the way to E. University Ave, & Waldo Rd.
The COG Commission has created this nuisance, not us hard working responsible residents.
In conclusion,
I guess if the city commission has decided to allocate more funds for more sustainable housing for these folks, they’d better go on and do it now, before the audit thing with GRU wells up to a point where you got no funding to spend at all. Which come to think of it, would be a perfect avenue to rid the city of the Hood Rats.
Just like all business transactions, the hood rats will simply follow the money. Until the money runs out. They will suck the life out of grace, and the temporary housing joint the county is restoring across 441 by Meridian.
They are Not going to find jobs, they are Not going to better themselves.
They are more or less “Marsupials” scavenging for an “easier softer way”, and the COG Commission is doing nothing more than “enabling” more homelessness.
Im a pretty basic and logical guy, and I read all this to simply boil down to a simple idea.
The COG Commission members have now in accociatiion with Alachua Chronicle, and in collaboration with Alachua County, done nothing more in this article than publicize their financial ability to “enable” more Homelessness.
Our city is the living definition of a doom loop. And it’s intentional.
something that could be done maybe is to put habitual career criminals behind bars so they don’t prey on those folks living in the streets who don’t have 10, 20, 30+ convictions.
It might give these folks a bit more hope for their future perhaps.
The city has had over 10 years to “figure out” homelessness by way of GRACE. They failed and wasted a lot of money. Now the GCC says they’ll use even more money for some nebulous ideas and they will fail again. You wonder how stupid they can be and they show you yes, it’s possible to be even more stupid.
Also, why is the Mayor sort of blaming the county for some of this? Can someone educate me on this one I must be missing something. I thought the county already took some of our taxes to fund a portion of grace for this year.
Ward’s always blaming someone else. It’s a Democrat thing.
He probably wants the county to be the one to raise county taxes and / or fees to fund this long term and not the city was my thought today. Just seemed like an odd rant when the county (well, us, really) just covered the shortfall this year.
The police are too busy giving out traffic tickets. That’s why residents downtown say they’re never around. I saw two of them while driving this morning, one in a marked radio car, the other a motorcycle cop. Reassign them to SE 4th Place and leave the traffic violations to the cameras that read license plates.
Paulie want a cracker, you sound like a parrot. How are two officers gonna solve the homeless problem that Gainesville has created for last decade. You definitely earned the award today.
Burn it down ,and send them to our commissioner house’s see how fast it is delt with.
Isn’t Gainesville a sanctuary city or something? Aren’t they “happy you’re here no matter where you’re from“?
Gainesville should be overflowing with people willing to take in homeless people and help get them back on their feet.
Carl the problem is they get on here and criticize people who want them gone. Yet not a dam one of them will take a homeless person into their home give them food a place to stay
$700,000????!!! Just give each bum (up to 1,000 of them) $500 cash and a one-way plane ticket to California. We will have money left over!
Working citizens must learn to budget for the support of Harvey’s Wallbangers since it is a virtue our leftwing pols can signal. I feel morally superior just for typing this.
Every year they use federal grants to reward their most devoted campaign volunteers, masquerading as NGOs and humanitarians. 🤡👹💩🍦🍦🍦D
Exactly…how convenient, huh!?
They’ll push down their agenda one way or another until people wake up. Since early 2020 the COVID operation has been the most obvious buy off
For me the concern, regardless of which side of the uniparty coin is flipped upwards, is this repeated process of printing paper (ARPA) which is 1 time temp funds that then turn into longer term “solutions” at the local levels that when the ARPA paper is exhausted, turn into fund transfers via taxes to continue to fund annually
reducing what I have for family, friends, and charities I care about.
In this example, if grace is getting additional beds, does anyone think those beds will be dismantled when ARPA is spent? There are annual personnel and O&M costs that don’t end. This is just the latest example with ARPA.
I would like to see one if our commisioners at the city and county level ask what the plan is long term on these initiatives before voting for them.
@Johnny Cash — Thank you for pointing out that this issue extends far beyond the very small downtown area. It extends to residential neighborhoods where taxpayers have to train their dogs to toilet in the shower and senior citizens are afraid to walk from their cars to their houses at night! Bonfires near the Walmart on Waldo Road. Ridiculous! The eastside of Gainesville is a food desert. If a fire destroyed that Walmart it would be devastating for that neighborhood. Many who live in that area do not have personal transportation and take the bus or walk to Walmart to shop for food. Are the constituents who represent this area listening? Are you listening???
I’ve said it before this problem should be handled by the churches in Gainesville. What else do they need money for? To build another Mega church. No I am not anti-religion. But if you organized them all together to solve this problem. And Mr. Carmine should donate half his salary along with commissioners, should donate all their salary if the really care. These folks treat our money like monopoly money.
The more you spend and give to the bums, then word gets out and you’ll have a bigger homeless population.
I think that’s the whole point…
this is a controlled demolition of society
When is the joint GRU Authority Board and Gainesville City Commission meeting?
Pretty much the usual ignorant “get off my grass” crowd here who think Gainesville is unique for having a homeless problem. Helllloooo! Marion county’s got it too, so do all the counties and all the states in the US. Courts have ruled that unlike pre-1980s, you cannot easily commit people to mental institutions against their will, and that loitering laws are violations of civil rights. Perhaps you all missed Ward’s discussion of fines levied by courts for cities deemed to have not followed the law.
Right now there is a case at the SC backed by liberal governors – and GOP leaders – from the west, including Newsome of California challenging court rulings which have made it illegal for cities to remove people from the streets.
“The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Friday to decide whether homeless people have a right to camp on public property, weighing in on an appeal backed by Gov. Gavin Newsom and other Democrats who have struggled to manage a record number of people living on the streets.
Democrats in the West have urged the majority conservative high court to overturn a lower court ruling that struck down the anti-camping ordinance of Grants Pass, Oregon, and give them more leeway to address a homeless population that has swelled in recent years….”
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/01/12/supreme-court-to-consider-grants-pass-homelessness-rule-00135373
This is not a problem created here, and while mismanagement by local officials is always a possibility, they certainly did not cause this particular problem, and while the recent invasion of S main Street is alarming, earlier intervention turned the downtown Plaza and surrounding areas from camp grounds to spaces enjoyed by the public, which is why they were built.
So cut the partisan stupid crap for a change. Is that possible?
Nah, what was I thinking!
Jazzman- there’s a reason CA is overwhelmed with the homeless….they welcomed them! And the native CA homeless are on the streets because they can’t afford to rent or buy because CA taxes everyone to death and some lost their businesses due to overregulation (a big $$$$ maker), all in order to fund their and their “buddies” pet projects that they have no business getting involved in….sound familiar???
Gov’t officials have overstepped the boundaries of why they were created in the first place. If they would get out of the activism business and stick to the basics, things would work themselves out.
That’s false Keso. Yes, housing is high – ever hear of the market? – and so are taxes, but so are wages. The reason – in California and across the nation – is held in the court rulings which the SC is revisiting as I laid out on this thread.
Don’t throw another dime to these creeps….make it difficult for them 24/7 and run them out of town. We have become San Francisco. This place is a dump.
Yeah right, a world destination set on a beautiful peninsula surrounded by mountains and ocean beaches of indescribable beauty, and a high tech work force and businesses busy creating the future. Did I mention cultural assets including some of the best restaurants, music venues, city parks, 2 of America’s top 5 universities, wine country and spectacular national prks about 2 hours away.
Yeah, that place sucks. Give me Birmingham Alabama, Atlanta, or Charlotte!
I visit a relative in SF 2-3 times a year, walking all around the city, and visiting outlying areas. It is all I described above and while like all cities and locations there are problems, the supposed degradation Fox News and our small timer Governor spend so much time claiming are no more prominent than any other city I’ve been in. I have walked downtown, the Tenderloin, North Beach, parts of Castro, etc. I highly recommend it.
Spend the $700k bussing them back to where they came from & close Grace. Zero tolerance on vagrancy, trespassing, & panhandling!
I think we passed the point of no return with these liberal idiots on the GNV CC & the county…
They came from here Mr Pink. Read the article.
Back in the day we had a pea farm, work camp for vagrants and such, thirty days with a hoe and some hard work , homeless population was almost non existent because our town was avoided , this was up to the mid eighties when lib mentality took over and now we are over run , that town was St Auggie
Spending EVEN MORE money to attract EVEN MORE homeless scum to our city is not a solution.
Get rid of the handouts, put them on a bus, and get rid of them. Stop feeding these worthless parasites (the homeless, the city commissioners, and above all the scum that work for GRACE marketplace).
Is Fatboy Ward and the other commissioners emptying their bank accounts to provide money instead of buffooning about everyone else needing to be responsible. I dont think so. Why are they not pitching tents in their backyards to accommodate the homeless. I always find it interesting when push comes to shove these liberal idoits squeal “Give them money, but not my money.” “Give them shelter but not in my shelter.” Hypocrites everyone of the them.
I will be SO glad when the ARPA slush funds are gone. This excess “free” cash has ruined local governments, allowing them to fund every woke social program they always dreamed of, but were afraid to spend local property tax dollars on, knowing it would cost them their reelection.
This is really a waste of money. You have children that have to sleep on the street with their parents. These people choose to live this way, and you guys are falling for it. They have lived their lives and majority of them chose to live this way. You can place them in an Apartment, I bet the drug dealer will be trapping out of it. Then you put them out, they are back at square one. Stop wasting money on people that doesn’t want to better their life. The SCHOOL system can’t even help a child that’s struggling. System to messed up, give them affordable housing and have another MAJESTIC OAKS, TOWER OAKS, etc.
How do we follow this money? Seems to me that since the Comms can’t suck the teet of GRU any longer, they have found another avenue to suck this city dry. Prolly give themselves bonuses with this 700k. I’m sure Eastman will create some kind of windfall for himself.
“Didn’t need no welfare state.
Everybody pulled his weight.
Gee the old LaSalle ran great.
Those were the days.”
— Archie Bunker, All in the Family
On the other hand, these are the days when we all get to see America turn into an open sewer supporting human sewer rats and parasites, leeches and miscellaneous circus freaks — all of whom are “entitled.”
I’ve been saying that very thing for a long time. “Entitled Lives Matter”